Tukutuku panels to grace UN base

Ripeka Evans, Arapeta Hakiwai, Michelle Hippolite, Jim Schuster, Te Ururoa Flavell and Cathy Schuster at Te Papa.

Weavers from Rotorua and Eastern Bay of Plenty contributed to more than 40 tukutuku panels that will be shipped to New York this month to be permanently installed in the United Nations headquarters.

The project was led by Rotoiti's Christina Wirihana (Ngati Maniapoto-Raukawa, Tainui Ngati Pikaio, Te Arawa) and involved 60 weavers from around the country who are part of Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa - the National Collective of Maori Weavers in New Zealand.

Mrs Wirihana previously told the Rotorua Daily Post she started work on the project at the end of 2010 and to see it completed was amazing. Part of the project involved harvesting kiekie and pingao - materials used for the weaving - in the Waitakere Ranges.

"It's really an amazing outcome of [many] hours and days of research of patterns, creating new patterns. To see it realised in a panel is quite amazing."

The woven panels were commissioned by the former Minister of Maori Affairs, Pita Sharples, following his visit to the United Nations in 2010.

The panels will join a rimu wall New Zealand gifted to the organisation when it became a member in 1952.

"Pita conceived the idea for New Zealand to create tukutuku panels for the UN headquarters after leading the New Zealand delegation that signed the UN Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous People four years ago," the current Minister of Maori Development, Te Ururoa Flavell, said.

"He can be immensely proud that his vision has come to fruition."

The woven panels show a mix of traditional and contemporary designs that include: Poutama (Stairway to the Heavens); Patikitiki (The Founder); Mumu (Checkerboard); Roimata Toroa (Albatross Tears); Pohutukawa; Matariki (Pleiades Star Cluster); Nga Rau Ponga (Silver Fern); Kohia (NZ Passionfruit); Mahutonga (Southern Cross); and Te Ra o Nga Hoia (Anzac Poppy).

The tukutuku had been on display at Te Papa in Wellington since July with thousands of local and international visitors viewing them.

Mr Flavell said it was fitting the taonga were going to an organisation responsible for maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights including indigenous rights and fostering social and economic development.

"While we are accustomed to tukutuku in our whare tupuna (meeting houses) back home, these gifts will soon adorn a global meeting house.

"Their visibility in an international forum, and our recent successful selection to the Security Council, puts us at the heart of the UN."

Mr Flavell paid tribute to Dr Sharples for his initiative and thanked the weavers, Te Puni Kokiri, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Te Papa Tongarewa for their efforts in creating, assembling and exhibiting the panels.

A small group of the weavers will travel to New York early next year to oversee installation of the panels, which will be unveiled to dignitaries including New Zealand's permanent representative to the United Nations, Jim McLay, and former Prime Minister Helen Clark, now administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).