Toku Kainga

VERANOA HETET
Harakeke
250mm (H) x 400mm (W) x 100mm (D)
Not For Sale

After filling the corner of my spare room with practise pieces, I finally settled on the materials I wanted to use. I set about preparing those materials and all the while I was thinking about this home that my husband had built for me and for our family. I thought about the ‘four’ walls of my home. 

I was ready.

My Papa taught me tukutuku when I was a teenager. Together we have worked on many tukutuku panels. It is a shared love. So my Papa was very interested in what I was doing, in how I was using the technique to create a kete.  He saw me struggling one day with the weaving.  Tukutuku is a two person task and here I was - weaving solo. He watched me struggle. I saw the cogs in his head turn and within a minute he'd come up with a solution for 'sole weaving'. So I credit my Papa for ensuring the weaving of this kete took only a month and not longer.

He continues to teach me.

The kete -
On one side is the pattern Purapurawhetū to represent those who have gone before us. They remain a constant in our home with us speaking their names often.  I included the Matariki constellation to celebrate 2022 and the year Matariki was made a public holiday. 

On the other side I wove Kaokao in five panels to represent my five children.  

Kaokao is a pattern that represents protection. The shape of the ribs protecting the inner organs. The shape of an arm around a child in embrace.  It is often placed in the four corners of a Wharenui - as a symbol of protection of all those within the house. 


So on one side are our tūpuna represented in Purapurawhetū and on the other side are my five children represented in Kaokao. 


On either side - binding them together, binding the past with the future, are Sam and I. Using Niho Taniwha, a pattern of storytellers, I made the link for my children with their Tūpuna. They know them through the stories they are told by Sam and me.

This is Tōku Kainga - My home