Te Wānanga o Aotearoa Student Features at Māngere Arts Centre Exhibition

Nadya Rapata found her passion for creating pākē or traditional Māori raincoats almost by accident. But the He WakaHiringa: Masters of Applied Indigenous Knowledge student with Te Wānanga o Aotearoa says it was one of those fortunate mishaps. 

“My actual kaupapa (topic) for my study was conservation but halfway through the programme I realised that pākē was it and once I clicked on to that it was magic.” Nadya’s works feature at the exhibition He Waka Hiringa: Transforming Communities at the Māngere Arts Centre until January 20, 2018. The exhibition’s theme is about the importance of building community mana through Te Ao Māori.

She’s given the traditional pākē a contemporary shake-up using different materials to produce rain coats such as mop roll, harakeke and another entirely from Chinese silk.

Nadya hopes her art will give something back to her community in a language that’s understood by everyone by introducing people to kākahu Māori and materials that many possibly have never heard of.

“This year I made a pākē using kuta, which is a reed that is quite beautiful and golden when it dries. I also used kiekie, then I worked up to pīngao and neinei. People wouldn’t know some of these materials so it’s about creating an educational resource and something that’s interactive.”

The exhibition features the work of several He Waka Hiringa students, all of whom are the first cohort of the programme that runs at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa’s Māngere campus. “There are some diverse kaupapa on display at the exhitibion. Someone is doing waka ama and another has chosen housing rights as their kaupapa and another has created a soundtrack.”

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