ko au te kete

It’s been awhile since I blogged and it’s had me worried.

I wondered if maybe I’d said all I can say about mahi raranga.

But that’s impossible because weaving is timeless, endless and limitless.

What I mean by that for instance is, there’s at least 75 plus different types of our indigenous harakeke plants. I don’t even think I’ve tried using more than 20!

When you get passed the types of harakeke, there’s loads of different species of plants that were used to weave with like, kiekie, pingao, ti kouka, to name a very small handful of the most well known ones.

NEXT there’s types of baskets, fishing nets, eel traps, shoes, floor coverings and then to get really advanced, clothing, or as we call it, kākahu!

As I said, it’s limitless. For the timeless part, you just have a look into Egyptian, Greek or Biblical stories about weaving and you’ll see what I mean.

So, if I’m going to be at all honest here, very little in the way of weaving has been going on around these parts.

Yeah, I said it, I’ve done bugger all weaving!

BUT THAT’S OK! It’s winter, the first month of the māori new year and in the old ways, this was never a time to be productive.

It was a time to get fat and enjoy the rewards of the hard work done in the sunny months, prepping, stocking, salting, processing, and storing all the fruits of the growing season if this whakataukī (proverb) of the old people is anything to go by;

Kua uru nga kai kai te rua, kua mutu nga mahi a te tangata. Crops have now been stored in the store pits. The tasks of man are finished.

Rangi Matamua’s book Matariki, outlines the lunar calendar and all the ancient sayings that went with each lunar cycle. They are fascinating and take time to unpack, but reading about them is one way of passing the time on these long dark nights in our little slice of heaven at the bottom of the earth.

Regarding our monthly meet-ups, they’ve been going brilliantly. We’ve had three so far and they’ve been incredibly fruitful. We seem to have different people each time which is awesome because we get lots of news from around the country and world and it’s just so exciting and fresh each time.

A reminder to myself as I attempt to be a blogger and writer—doomscrolling on social media is a surefire way to waste time and creative energy. But that’s another whole story, and I don’t want to get too far down that rabbit hole for now.

I have done a tiny bit of raranga with some Paoa –

just quietly the most aesthetically beautiful harakeke to weave with if not a little short although that just means I may have to make small things with it (INHAAAAALE) …

I made some super dinky little kete with flaps, seems to be the thing I’m naturally doing at the moment. It made me think of doing a series of kete, using different coloured materials to showcase their beauty.

I also had another reflection. I’ve resisted dyeing my material for most of the short six years that I’ve been weaving. Each year I think, maybe I’ll get into dyeing this year, but when I go to do it, I’m repulsed by the idea!

The harakeke, different species or whānau, are so delightfully gorgeous and stunning in their own right, I feel that covering them up is sacrilegious! So I’ve decided, for now, no dyeing. And that’s my thing. And it’s been my thing. For ages, but it’s only through weaving that I’ve realised this.

Understanding the material, harvesting and prepping it in a way that uncovers it’s natural, innate beauty, is the overarching theme of my weaving.

…and it’s only in writing this that I realised, it was the topic of our last monthly meeting!

Mauri Ora!