Hastings wa¯ hine adds her story to travelling show
Exhibition features real-life recordings
Wa¯hine is a touring multimedia exhibition that amplifies Ma¯ori women’s voices around Aotearoa. The exhibition allows communities to be enriched by their life stories while fostering mutual understanding.
From October 8 to 30, The Woven Women Wa¯hine exhibition will be on show at the Toitoi, Tama Tu¯ranga Huata room in Hastings as part of Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival.
Wa¯hine is community-focused, with free entry to anyone wanting to have a look.
In Heretaunga Hastings, Panache Huata Ropitini of Nga¯ti Kahungunu, Te Arawa, Tu¯hoe joins the kaupapa and the exhibition’s journey around the North Island.
Panache said a piece of advice she is often offering wa¯hine Ma¯ori is to dish out the ma¯tauranga or knowledge they have.
“We can’t just hold a part of what is being said to us. You know, we need to give everything, whatever we share, we need to share it all.”
Through personalised sound stories and portrait photography,
Wa¯hine is an immersive exhibition inviting communities to come together, be inspired, and learn from the raw, honest, and vulnerable stories of Ma¯ori women.
Stories touch on their joys and inspirations, their troubles and tribulations, and the resilience that has moulded them into the women they are.
The words of each interview are
woven with real-life recordings captured by the women themselves and exhibited alongside a photography portrait of each wa¯hine.
As part of the exhibition experience, audio guides with headphones are provided.
The public is also welcome to bring headphones and smartphones to access the audio stories via QR code.
Wa¯hine creative director Loren
Pasquier hopes that by creating her work, wa¯hine will inspire empathy for the stories they hear and reflect that same empathy onto ourselves.
“Because I do believe it is through empathy and respect that we can start to acknowledge each other,” Pasquier said.
While it travels around Aotearoa, Wa¯hine expands each time it changes locations by inviting a wa¯hine from
local iwi to join the kaupapa and hold space for the other women.
Hawke’s Bay is the first of eight North Island centres to exhibit Wa¯hine. Between 2022 and 2023, it will also be on show in Hamilton, Whanga¯ rei, Auckland, Rotorua, Palmerston North, New Plymouth and Wellington.
Panache’s story will join eight other wa¯hine who shared their stories and toured the South Island.
By holding a sacred space for women to share their experiences, the Wa¯hine exhibition hopes to inspire compassion in everyone and ignite a wider sense of belonging, community, and togetherness.
The exhibition will be open on October 8-13, 10am-4pm, and October 14-30, 11am-6 pm.
This is a Public Interest Journalism funded role through NZ On Air