Meet the Maker: Māori weaver Veranoa Hetet honours the past.
Veranoa Hetet weaves aroha and heritage into her work
Weaving is in Veranoa Hetet’s blood. Crafting intricate Māori cloaks, garments and kete is a tradition that has been practised by six generations of her family. The Lower Hutt-based master weaver is a descendant of some of Aotearoa’s greatest carvers and weavers. Her great-grandmother, Dame Rangimarie Hetet, was an internationally renowned weaver who brought the Māori art form to prominence in the 1940s and was later knighted for her craft. Veranoa has been weaving since she was 13 when her mother, Erenora, taught her to craft her first kete. Awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for her services to Māori art, the weaver, teacher and artist now teaches through the Hetet School of Māori Art, which was set up by her father Rangi. Kete is still one of Veranoa’s favourite things to weave: “It is not just a flax bag, and I want to show how the simple kete can be used to express my creativity and how I use it to push boundaries.’’ She makes them out of everything from harakeke (flax) to contemporary materials such as copper wire, satin and silk. “Of all those, flax is still my favourite material. I get it from my garden or my cousin’s garden. It’s like gold,’’ she says. An exhibition of her kete will be held at the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt from mid October.
My favourite things: The korowai my nanna Rangimarie made; it reminds me of my heritage and inspires me to be a better weaver (1). This hoe represents the journey my husband Sam Hauwaho had carving with my father Rangi; it is such an exquisite piece and hangs on a wall of our house (2). Sam found this mussel shell for me in Wellington Harbour about three years ago and I’ve used it most days since to extract fibre from flax; it’s like an extension of my hand (3). My dad gave me this lamp he made out of a gourd as a Christmas present (4).