Finalist - Art By Riwa
Wahakura Rīwā: sleeping baskets for babies
Rīwā Wawatai has crafted a niche in the market for Māori weaving, specialising in Wahakura, bassinets for babies made from Harakeke/flax.
“I learnt to make one during my training and fell in love with wahakura,” she said. She did a course at Te Kokiri in Levin and a Diploma in Toi Māori Raranga (the Māori art of weaving). She has since developed her own distinctive wahakura that sells around the country.
She learnt raranga as part of her recovery of a serious injury which made a return to her desk job impossible. “When I graduated I decided to buy a housebus and tour the country giving courses, but the bus stranded me in Hawke’s Bay. The local Waiohiki art village took me and my defunct bus in. I was able to use their classroom and started a weaving course.” She has a team of weavers around the country and would love a team of people in Horowhenua. “We have got plenty of work,” she said. In 2021 the bus became a caravan and she shifted back to Levin to be closer to her mokos. She now has a long list of regular clients, organisations, like former DHBs, who offer services to mothers and babies and they each take a set number of wahakura each month.
She continues to expand her product range and also develops her own tools to make the job easier.
Rīwā said safety is the crucial factor in making wahakura, as it is used by a living person. Her wahakura come with a mattress and sheets, if desired.
She also makes burial baskets for babies, and premature babies, as well as Ipu Whenua (a placenta burial box).art by RIWA Ltd was a finalist for the Aotea Region Award at the 2022 MWDI Māori Business Women Awards and now with the Electra Business and Innovation Awards.
You can buy her products online: https://www.artbyriwa.co.nz/