Virtual weaving exhibition for Whanganui wānanga

Madeleine Moore weaves with harakeke fibre. Photo / Supplied

A Whanganui student is rapt with her experience after two years of learning weaving in Whānganui with Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

"If [people] had told me 'in two years' time this is what you will be making' I wouldn't have believed them," Madeleine Moore said.

Her work will be in an online exhibition Te Awa Whiri Toi Raranga this week. The work of all Whanganui's Ngā Mahi ā Te Whare Pora graduates will be shown on Te Wānanga o Aotearoa's Facebook page, in a year when Covid-19 makes actual exhibitions risky.

Moore was learning te reo Māori at the wānanga's Whanganui base in Victoria Ave when she noticed a wall hanging on display.

"I thought it was absolutely beautiful and I wanted to make one," she said.

She enrolled in the full-time raranga (weaving) course in 2020. It involved classes on Wednesday evenings and 10 noho (stays) at marae throughout the year.

There was one at Pākaraka Marae, but most had to be held in town because of the pandemic - and some learning was done online.

Moore spent lots of time harvesting and preparing harakeke and making sure it would suit her purposes. In the first year, she made kete whakairo (patterned bags), baskets and a wall hanging.

In the second year she made tātua (belts) keta muka using harakeke fibre, and a pākē (cloak). She has first and second year work in the exhibition, and graduates with a Diploma in Māori and Indigenous Art.

In weaving you never stop learning, Moore said. She wants to try piupiu next.

"It's a little bit who you know and who you meet. You are building these amazing relationships with beautiful people."

Along the way, she has used her knowledge of te reo and learned more about tikanga and about herself.

"Learning the tikanga on the marae was really cool. With your noho you learn so much more than weaving," she said.

Her kaiako (teacher) Trina Taurua was "amazing" and the class was "really inclusive".

"Everyone embraced everyone for our similarities and differences."

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa's Whanganui campus offers courses at NZQA levels 2 to 6. There are four in te reo Māori, the Manaaki Tāngata certificate in bicultural social services, business and money management courses and two in weaving.