Mum's Raukura

Harakeke
330mm (W) x 230mm (H)Not For Sale

Whenever I wove something new I would show my Mum - my teacher.She was always encouraging of my efforts.I recall the first time I exhibited my work.  I was so overjoyed to see, on opening night, a red ‘sold’ sticker on one of my pieces.A few weeks later when the exhibition had closed I saw the piece that was sold hanging on my mum's wall.She was always celebrating my efforts.Mothers day, Christmas day and especially birthdays would see me trying to weave something for my mum to “ooh” and “aah” over.I would spend ages trying to think of the perfect piece to weave for her.  She would unwrap the woven gift and the “oohs” and “aahs” would happen.She was always joyous of my efforts.These past few months I have thought “What would I weave for my mum if she were still here?”I thought about the things she loved, the things she cared about, the things that mattered to her. I thought about the things she stood by. So many things.But what I settled on was the Raukura.  The plume of white feathers she would wear atop her head with such pride.  I thought about what it represented to her.If she were here this kete would be hers and I know for certain . . . she would be proud of my efforts.Here is Mum's Raukura . . .

Kete To Swing

VERANOA HETET
Harakeke
250mm (W) x 200mm (H)
Not For SaleOne day my mokopuna Hawaiki came over to my home (she lives next door which is so handy when you’re six years old and want to hide away from your little sister).I watched her walk through the gate. In one hand she carried her toys.
A beloved stone, a special bracelet and a Little Pony with a purple mane.
In her other hand she held a kete filled with other treasures.She was swinging her kete. It flew back and forth in her happy, swaying arm.
It was like a Piupiu in her hand, swinging, swaying backwards and forwards causing the pattern to blur.Ideas come from the simplest of moments and I wove her a kete reminiscent of a Piupiu. A kete in which to place her treasures when she comes to visit Nanny.

Baa-sket

VERANOA HETET
Wool
360mm (W) x 240mm (H)
Not For SaleOf all the many materials available to weave with, my least favourite is wool.I have shunned it. I have ignored the wool shelves at Spotlight. I’ve found it to be yucky in my hands. It makes my fingers feel like they’ve been covered in fluffy moisturiser.Wanting to push myself into the yucky zone, I decided that I would try wool.
I would give it the benefit of the doubt and see what it can do teamed with what I can do.  Vee and sheep. Hmmm, an interesting mix.So I tried it. It was a challenge.  It stretched and became fluffy with constant handling.Wool and I fought.  We weren't on friendly terms.  I growled it often and asked it to not be so floppy.  It ignored me and became more floppy. I imagine it had come from a stubborn sheep.I completed it and lovingly called it ‘My Baa-sket’ and thought “You're okay but that's enough of that!"

COVID-19

VERANOA HETET
Cotton
250mm (W) x 210mm (H)
Not For SaleTaaniko has been such a part of my life since I was a child.  I saw it being woven. I saw my mum graph patterns and create from those patterns.  I saw Mum create Taaniko without the use of patterns marked out on graph paper. They had been such a part of her life as well.Taaniko was the very first thing I learned to weave as a young teenager.
Taaniko and me have been close friends for over 40 years.I know Taaniko patterns.  I know them so well I can weave them from memory. I know the meanings of the patterns and where to best use them. The patterns are such an integral part of my minds makeup.But one day I realised that my mind was being consumed with another pattern. The Vaccine Pass.  I needed it to get into places I wanted to be. I needed to scan at doors and windows of places I wanted to enter. It became such a vital part of my visual mind-scape that Taaniko was being overtaken.  It was being eaten into by this new pattern.Traditional Taaniko patterns were being diluted by the pattern of Covid. I had a panic moment. What if these are the patterns my mokopuna feel are a part of their mind-scape? What if the dots and dashes of Vaccine passes become their norm, as Taaniko was my norm when a child?So I wove Taaniko being diluted, being eaten away by Covid 19

COVID-21/22
Side II

VERANOA HETET
Cotton
Technique - Taaniko
250mm (W) x 210mm (H)
Not For SaleMy Vaccine Pass.Further to my fear of this pattern becoming so much a part of our lives I decided to Taaniko my Vaccine Pass.It wasn't as easy to weave as the traditional patterns are.  I had to keep stopping to count dots.There was no rhythm to my weaving.There was no clear order in which the black or white dots appeared in the pattern. It was like life was at that time.Unclear, uncertain, no rhythm.

NGAHURU
Weaving In Autumn

VERANOA HETET
Harakeke, Cotton
330mm (W) x 230mm (H)
Not For SaleWhat I weave at any time of year is usually dictated by the weather.Not being able to gather harakeke often in the Winter months means relying on materials I've gathered and prepared in the Summer months.Boiled harakeke, when bleached creamy white in the Summer sun, will accept dye readily - making the colours more vibrant. So my Summer months see me Squirrel like -  storing supplies for Autumn and Winter. Gathering harakeke, boiling, dyeing and storing.It is such a wonderful feeling to know that in the colder, wet months I can simply reach into my hoard of materials and whittle the hours away weaving whilst snuggled up warm and dry inside.This kete speaks of that.It speaks of the joy of weaving in Autumn.

MATCHING ME
Series

By Veranoa Hetet
Mixed Fibre
250mm (W) x 190mm (H)
Not for sale

Hear Veranoa tell the story of this series - watch the video below

KETE OF POTENTIAL

VERANOA HETET
Harakeke, Cotton
330mm (W) x 230mm (H)
Not For SaleWhat I weave at any time of year is usually dictated by the weather.Not being able to gather harakeke often in the Winter months means relying on materials I've gathered and prepared in the Summer months.Boiled harakeke, when bleached creamy white in the Summer sun, will accept dye readily - making the colours more vibrant. So my Summer months see me Squirrel like -  storing supplies for Autumn and Winter. Gathering harakeke, boiling, dyeing and storing.It is such a wonderful feeling to know that in the colder, wet months I can simply reach into my hoard of materials and whittle the hours away weaving whilst snuggled up warm and dry inside.This kete speaks of that.It speaks of the joy of weaving in Autumn.

AHIKAAROA

VERANOA HETET
Harakeke
300mm (W) x 250mm (H)
Not For SaleOver the past year I have tried to stay away from most Facebook pages.
I won’t name them here lest I be blasted on one of them lol.I am amazed at the ugly things some people say online and the absolute disdain they openly show towards Maori people and what we hold dear. Usually the comments come from people without their own face as a profile pic, without their own name and with very few followers. I’ve often rolled my eyes at the comments and thought  “We are not going anywhere!”This thought led to this pattern ‘Te Ahikaaroa - We are still here’Based on the history of Iwi retaining lands through the ongoing burning of fire, I placed seven flames in this kete representing the many Iwi that come from the seven canoes that made their way here from Hawaiki so many years ago. The many Iwi that lit their fires and kept them burning and remain on their tribal homelands to this day.Te Ahikaaroa - I show my face. I say my name.
Te Ahikaaroa - We are still here.
Te Ahikaaroa - We will remain

TE KARU O TE WHENUA

VERANOA HETET
Harakeke, Bamboo, Acrylic
240mm(W) x 340mm(H) x 110mm (D)
Not For SaleI’ve watched kete woven from harakeke deteriorate with constant use.I’ve watched the patterns dwindle away with the sun fading the dyed whenu that create the patterns.I’ve watched the tradition of having a whānau pattern passed down only within whānau. Then I've seen that tradition dwindle away as a result of those closely-held patterns being published by a non-Māori author.One such tribal pattern is Karu o te whenua - Eye of the Land. A pattern attributed to my great grandmother Rangimarie Hetet.I wanted to create a kete that my children and mokopuna could see without the fear of the kete disintegrating or the sun fading the pattern away into obscurity.So I painted it.In the years to come they can study this pattern knowing that it is a part of them and that they are a part of it.

RANGIĀTEA
HE KĀKANO

VERANOA HETET
Harakeke
170mm (H) x 300mm (W)
Not ForSaleI wove this joining of three kete to speak of my latest born mokopuna Rangiātea Veranoa King Hauwaho.  Rangiātea was born with much struggle and spent quite some time in the Neo natal unit.Her parents never left her side. They cocooned her within their love. She was enveloped by their gentle words of encouragement to her.She was their seed that required nurturing.I started weaving this while they were still in the hospital. I was urged on by my feelings of uncertainty and worry but also by hope.My son Te Kurapa and daughter in law, Chelsea, are represented by the two outer kete. The pattern is Raukumara which speaks of nurturing, feeding and caring for.My darling mokopuna, Rangiātea, sits within their embrace.The pattern used for her kete is Whakatū - to be strong and determined.
All three kete are bound by a single plait of muka - binding them together.This kete is for all three of them to place taonga that speak of their love for each other.E kore au e ngaro, he kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea.
I shall never be lost for I am a seed sown from Rangiātea

TUKU ATU TUKU MAI

VERANOA HETET
Harakeke
160mm (H) x 160mm (W)
Not For SaleOne day I was weaving quietly in a corner of my home.  There were a few mokopuna here. The parents were outside with my husband Sam. Our home was alive with the sounds of my little children and my big children. I got to wondering “If I were to weave a kete about my home what would I weave?”Raranga? ohhhh so many different patterns would be needed.
Taaniko? A possibility but it just didn't do it for me. What else can I do? Kowhaiwhai? No.Tukutuku
Tukutuku!Used to lash the walls of a house together. Each pattern having a meaning and bringing warmth to the house. So appropriate.It was easy to come up with the design of the kete. Not so easy to bring the design out from my mind and into my hands to express what I wanted to say and how I wanted it to look. I currently have a whole corner of the spare room of my house dedicated to prototypes, trials, and “No that didn't work” pieces.I had brainwaves and spent money on materials I thought would work.
Hours were spent creating that cluttered corner of my spare room.
I’ll clean that corner one day.
For now it is it's own work of art.But one of the prototypes actually ended up being one of my favourite of all the kete. A sweet little kete. Just big enough to hold memories of the fun I had creating the messy corner of my spare room.

TŌKU KAINGA

VERANOA HETET
Harakeke
250mm (H) x 400mm (W) x 100mm (D)
Not For SaleAfter filling the corner of my spare room with practise pieces, I finally settled on the materials I wanted to use. I set about preparing those materials and all the while I was thinking about this home that my husband had built for me and for our family. I thought about the ‘four’ walls of my home.I was ready.My Papa taught me tukutuku when I was a teenager. Together we have worked on many tukutuku panels. It is a shared love. So my Papa was very interested in what I was doing, in how I was using the technique to create a kete.  He saw me struggling one day with the weaving.  Tukutuku is a two person task and here I was - weaving solo. He watched me struggle. I saw the cogs in his head turn and within a minute he'd come up with a solution for 'sole weaving'. So I credit my Papa for ensuring the weaving of this kete took only a month and not longer.He continues to teach me.The kete -
On one side is the pattern Purapurawhetū to represent those who have gone before us. They remain a constant in our home with us speaking their names often.  I included the Matariki constellation to celebrate 2022 and the year Matariki was made a public holiday.On the other side I wove Kaokao in five panels to represent my five children.Kaokao is a pattern that represents protection. The shape of the ribs protecting the inner organs. The shape of an arm around a child in embrace.  It is often placed in the four corners of a Wharenui - as a symbol of protection of all those within the house.So on one side are our tūpuna represented in Purapurawhetū and on the other side are my five children represented in Kaokao.On either side - binding them together, binding the past with the future, are Sam and I. Using Niho Taniwha, a pattern of storytellers, I made the link for my children with their Tūpuna. They know them through the stories they are told by Sam and me.This is Tōku Kainga - My home