Dame Rangimarie Hetet (1892- 1995)

E Ngā Uri Whakatupu

The title for the 2015 exhibition at Waikato Museum was taken from a waiata composed by Dame Rangimarie Hetet. She gave the words of this composition to the children of Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ōpārure near Te Kuiti - now te Wharekura o Ngāti Maniapoto. Her aunt Te Mihinga Joseph donated the land for the school in 1903. Rangimarie’s lifelong aspirations included her hope for future generation to hold fast to their Māoritanga.

The exhibition paid tribute to the life achievements of Dame Rangimarie Hetet (1892-1995) and her daughter Diggeress Rangituatahi Te Kanawa (1920-2009), are both respected and acknowledged as New Zealand’s finest traditional Māori weavers of the modern era.

“Taku mōhio kare e mate inaianei i ngā whāwhā a ngā mea katoa o ō tātou tupuna. Kua kaha rawa te haere i ngā tahataha o Aotearoa. No reira, te tūmanako ki a koutou, e ngā uri whakatupu, kia kaha koutou, kia ngākau nui koutou ki te pupuri i ēnei mahi. Kāre hoki e ngaro, ka mau i ā koutou.”

“I know that it will not die out now, the weaving of our ancestors. It’s going really strong all over Aotearoa. My hope is that you, the next generation, will be strong and really determined to preserve these arts. It will not be lost, if you hold on to it.” (Rangimarie interview with Waikato Museum staff, 1987.)

Dr Diggeress Rangituatahi Te Kanawa (1920- 2009)

Weaving a Kakahu

In the foreword of this tutorial book, the author readily admits to having a love of harakeke (flax) and an ongoing fixation to weave it. In its third edition, this book provides an easy to follow guide for weaving a kakahu as intended.

Diggeress Rangituatahi Te Kanawa, Ngāti Maniapoto, was born in Te Kuiti to Rangimārie (née Hursthouse) and Tūheka Hetet. As a very sick child, she was schooled at home, where her mother, weaver Rangimārie Hetet, taught her how to harvest flax, prepare flax fibre, and weave. Like her mother, she was a perfectionist in the art and, as she grew older, she also became a skilled dressmaker, having trained as a Tailor’s assistant.

At 20, Diggeress married Tana Te Kanawa, and together they raised 12 children and in spite of her busy home life she continued to dress make and weave.

A dedication to weaving with natural materials would become her signature commitment to tradition while maintaining a focus on quality. Diggeress also like to experiment with design and techniques which has no doubt influenced others along the way.

Heeding the call of The Maori Women's Welfare League in the early1950s, Diggeress and her mother as well as others from their iwi, embarked on teaching others the art of traditional Māori weaving. She was a founding member of Aotearoa Moananui a Kiwa, the first national Māori and Pacific weavers' organisation, formed in 1983 and travelled internationally with fellow weaver and close friend Emily Schuster (Te Arawa) to research cloaks in overseas museums.

In 2000, Diggeress became a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and in 2007, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waikato. And in an intimate ceremony, she gifted a kakahu to each of her 12 children, a task that spanned 20 years. Interestingly, the design of each kakahu is based on the recipient’s personalities.