Erenora Puketapu-HetetONZMJP (née Puketapu, 28 January 1941 – 23 July 2006) was a noted New Zealand weaver and author. A key figure in the Māori cultural renaissance, she helped change perceptions of Māori weaving/raranga from craft to internationally recognised art.[1][2]
Puketapu-Hetet grew up in the Te Atiawa tribal settlement at WaiwhetūMarae near Lower Hutt and married Rangi Hetet, one of the carvers who had worked on the marae. Rangi's grandmother, Rangimārie Hetet, herself a distinguished practitioner of raranga,[5] taught Erenora the art of whatu kākahu korowai (cloaks).
Both Erenora and Rangi worked in the late 1970s at the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute, which was established in Rotorua in 1963 to preserve traditional Māori cultural practices;[6] between 1978 and 1981, as a weaving tutor there she wove the first kahu kiwi for the Institute.[7]
In the early 80s the couple returned to the Hutt Valley, where they led the decoration of Wainuiomata Marae. Later the couple worked at Te Papa as Maori Protocol Officer/Advisor.[8]
Puketapu-Hetet's daughters Veranoa Hetet and Kataraina Hetet are also weavers.[9]
Artistic and cultural achievements
Part of Puketapu-Hetet's work at Te Papa involved bridge-building between the Māori world and the European cultural institutions, leading to her featuring in a number of weaving-related works.[10][11][12][13]
Among other places, a number of her art works are in Te Papa's collection,[14] and the British Museum holds a pair of poi made by Puketapu-Hetet in 1995 and a kete muka (woven bag) made in 1994. The kete is made of flax fibre dyed black, woven in double-row twining, with two rows of pheasant feathers along the bottom; it is decorated with a taniko border in black, brown, yellow, and white, .[15]
In common with other Māori artists, Puketapu-Hetet believed that art has a spiritual dimension and hidden meanings:
The ancient Polynesian belief is that the artist is a vehicle through whom the gods can create. Art is sacred and interrelated with the concepts of mauri, mana and tapu.[16]
Maori weaving is full of symbolism and hidden meanings. embodied with the spiritual values and beliefs of the Maori people.[17]
In 1986, Puketapu-Hetet travelled to the Field Museum in Chicago to demonstrate her craft in support of the international exhibition Te Maori, which toured the United States and New Zealand from 1984 to 1987.[20]
Tu Tangata: Weaving for the People (2000), a documentary by Robin Greenberg, premiered at the New Zealand Film Festival before airing on television.[5][21] In it Puketapu-Hetet and her family discuss "learning the disciplines of weaving and the importance of passing this gift on" to her descendants and the artists "of tomorrow."[21] More provocatively, given weaving's cultural significance within traditional Māori culture and the connection between traditional art practices and Māori sociocultural identity, while presenting some of her more recent work Puketapu-Hetet discusses the need to adopt new practices, e.g., the use of new materials in light of the scarcity of traditional plants, such as harakeke/flax.[21]
A survey exhibition of the work of Erenora Puketapu-Hetet and Rangi Hetet, Legacy: The Art of Rangi Hetet and Erenora Puketapu-Hetet, was staged at The Dowse Art Museum in 2016.[22] Robin Greenberg's Mo te Iwi: Carving for the People (2019) follows preparations for this exhibition; along with its focus on Rangi Hetet's work, this film again shows how the art form is learned and shared within family and community as a whole. As Lillian Hetet, Erenora and Rangi's daughter says in Mo te Iwi, "Carving does not exist alone, just as a skill. It exists within a whole body of knowledge and that body of knowledge exists and is held by a whole community of people, by a whole nationhood of people."[23]
^"Obituary: Erenora Puketapu-Hetet". nzherald.co.nz. 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2011. Erenora Puketapu-Hetet, weaver, cultural leader. Died aged 65.
^"Weaving Magic – Erenora Puketapu-Hetet". penneylaneonline.com. 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2011. When one speaks of renaissance in weaving one might consider Erenora Puketapu-Hetet, weaver and cultural leader a major contributor to the Maori cultural renaissance and a key instigator of the push to turn Maori weaving from a craft into an art form. Her steel wire and paua-shell cloak, made on the theme of the Maori fishing rights settlement was part of 'The Eternal Thread' Exhibition that toured the US between August 2005 to June 2006.
^ abTaylor, Alister, ed. (2001). "New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa 2001". New Zealand Who's Who, Aotearoa. Auckland: Alister Taylor Publishers. ISSN1172-9813.
^ abDekker, Diana (3 August 2006). "Weaver threaded ancient craft into modern era". Dominion Post. p. 7.
^ abcWharerau, Lawrence (2000). Gosden, Bill (ed.). Tu Tangata: Weaving for the People. Jackie Hay, co-editor; assisted by Diane Pivak. Wellington, New Zealand: The New Zealand Film Festival. p. 130. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^"New Year honours list 2002". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 31 December 2001. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
^"beehive.govt.nz - Maori Arts and Crafts Institute Board appointments". beehive.govt.nz. 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2011. Erenora Puketapu-Hetet, co-founder of the Maori Treasures arts and craft centre, has been weaving for 25 years, including 17 as a tutor and lecturer. Her work is held in very high regard, and has been exhibited internationally.
