Weaving a path to restoration

We were honoured to host representatives from Tangoio Marae, who endured the devastating impact of Cyclone Gabrielle earlier this year, resulting in severe damage to their marae and prized artworks. 

They visited Wellington last week to acquire restoration skills from experts at Te Papa and Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga enabling them to clean and store their marae and artworks. 

During their visit to the Capital, we gifted them kiekie from the sanctuary to aid in their restoration efforts, particularly for the intricate tukutuku cross stitch patterns that will adorn the marae walls. 

Tohunga/expert Jim Schuster expertly harvested the single head of kiekie, an amount equivalent to 150 cross stitches in a tukutuku panel.  

It is incredible to think that as Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne has preserved and protected our taonga, that it is now in abundance and the condition to be able to protect and preserve other important taonga around Aotearoa, like Tangoio Marae. 

It’s richly rewarding to think our sanctuary story is now woven into these other stories through the use of our flora and that these two examples of kiekie harvest are moving us towards more whakaaro and kōrero about the use of some of our natural materials for various uses in cultural expression.