Case Study: Using tāniko to introduce design

This case study demonstrates how technology teacher Sue Bristow introduced design in textiles through an exploration of tāniko (a traditional form of weaving).

She found the exploration of tāniko provided opportunities to:

This case study provides insights into the development of local curriculum and culturally responsive practice.

Learning intentions

Year 10 students at Gisborne Girls’ High School were going to produce a hoodie/sweatshirt that included their own applied design. The programme of learning had a focus on technological practice and technological modelling. It also provided an opportunity for students to develop skills, knowledge, and an understanding of construction in knit fabrics and methods of applied design.

Technology teacher, Sue Bristow, knew that the national secondary school kapa haka competitions were being held in Gisborne the year of this case study.

Sue thought this event, and the importance of costume and design within it, could provide a useful way to introduce design to textile students. The event was local and had relevance to the students at Gisborne Girls’ High School.

Many of the students were excited and looking forward to the competitions, and the Gisborne Girls’ High and Boys’ High kapa haka group, Tūranga Wāhine Tūranga Tāne, was taking part (watch this video on Te Ao Māori News).

Sue approached Toihoukura, Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT), at the Tairāwhiti Campus School of Māori Visual Art and Design about visiting speakers. Leeana Galloway and Erin Rauna, both recent graduates of the Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts (Te Toi o Ngā Rangi), offered to speak to the two classes about tāniko.

What is tāniko?

Tāniko describes both the patterns and the traditional weaving techniques.

Tāniko weaving is used to make pari (bodices), tīpare (headbands), tāpeka (sashes), tātua (belts), taonga whakapaipai (jewellery), and also artworks.

Leeana came home to Tairāwhiti six years ago and met Rawinia Wright, a master weaver. Rawinia had a classroom full of her own beautiful weaving at the Tairāwhiti Polytechnic, where she was teaching at the time. This inspired Leeana to learn the art of weaving.

Erin’s husband is a carving tutor at the Whirikoka campus of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. When they were based in Wellington, he encouraged her to take up weaving at the Hetet Studio in Waiwhetu, Wellington.

As part of their degrees at Toihoukura, Leeana and Erin were tutored by master weaver and EIT Tairāwhiti lecturer, Christina Hurihia Wirihana.

What tāniko patterns are used and what do they mean?

Many of the patterns represent nature and the spiritual beliefs of Māori.

• Aramoana – pathway to the sea, representing the waves
• Niho taniwha – represents guardianship
• Pātikitiki – means abundance, good fortune, and an abundance of stars
• Rau kūmara – is taken from the leaves of the kūmara.
  (The kūmara is important to the people of Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, whose ancestor, Hine Hakirirangi, nurtured and brought the kūmara in the waka, Horouta, from Hawaiki in her sacred kete. Horouta sailed down the East Coast and eventually ended its journey in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa. Hine Hakirirangi was one of only two women on this waka.)

Traditionally, tāniko patterns and weaving were made from muka – a fibre extracted from harakeke (flax).

Specific varieties of harakeke are more suitable for providing the muka. The more muka a plant contains, the more upright the harakeke plant stands. Wherever she lives, Erin transplants her favourite plant variety of harakeke for tāniko.

Tāniko is carried out by hand using a technique that involves folding the strands of fibre over each other in a particular way. The patterns are created by including different coloured strands and bringing these threads to the top as they are twisted.

What process do you follow when weaving a piece of tāniko?

Erin mainly uses muka. She always takes the muka from the same plant to keep the colour consistent.

First, she prepares her whenu (the warp threads that go lengthways) and stores these in shanks. She prepares some of the aho threads (the weft threads that go across) at the beginning and then more as the weaving progresses. This gives the weaver a break from weaving.

It takes a lot of time to prepare and weave the muka. To weave a piece the size of a tīpare (headband) could take two days. A kākahu (cloak) takes months because the strands are very fine.

Traditionally, tāniko was all done by hand using muka. We don’t know how the technique was established or how the muka fibre in the harakeke was discovered. When Māori first arrived in New Zealand, they wouldn’t have been able to find the bark used to make tapa cloth. It is amazing to think how they discovered this material and a method of weaving to create beautiful and functional clothing and adornment.

After Europeans arrived in New Zealand, techniques changed. The tāniko patterns were translated onto graph paper and they were sometimes applied to tapestry material using wool. Originally, the patterns were rectilinear but graphing allowed curvilinear patterns to be translated into tāniko.

Nowadays, some of the tāniko patterns are created on industrial knitting machines.

How do you colour the muka?

Traditional dyeing techniques are still used by weavers today. Initially, the muka is soaked in a mordant solution created from other native plants to ensure that the dye adheres to the fibre. A mordant creates a chemical reaction to bind the dye to the fibre so that the colour will not bleed when wet.

Paru (mud high in iron salts) provided black, raurēkau bark made yellow, and tānekaha bark made a tan colour. Rolling the dyed muka in alum/potash is also used to set the colours.

Erin has experimented with rolling muka that has been dyed with tānekaha bark in potash. This gave the miro (thread) a different colour, but the colour faded over time.

Tutor Christina Hurihia Wirihana from Toihoukura led a project that involved a group of expert weavers creating 50 tukutuku panels for the refurbished New Zealand wall at the United Nations (watch this video on Te Ao Māori News). Because it took longer than anticipated to refurbish the wall, the panels were exhibited at Te Papa Museum.

Christina is the leader of the Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa, National Collective of Māori Weavers in New Zealand.

Alongside weaver, Toni Sadlier, Erin was commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to make a kākahu (cloak) to represent all of the iwi of the East Coast.

It is housed in The Hague in The Netherlands so that visiting dignitaries can wear it. A special request was that the kākahu be made out of threads other than muka. If it was made out of muka, the kākahu may not have been allowed into other countries because of the strict rules around plant materials moving between countries.

Erin loves working with muka but has found that the work on the kākahu has encouraged her to be more contemporary in her weaving practice. Leeana is striving to be more traditional in her weaving!

• It was interesting to see the modern style and the traditional.
• I learned new things about my culture.
• Interesting that not all weavers weave the same.
• Interesting to realise how long it would take to make clothes and stuff.
• I thought it was quite cool how they dyed the muka.

The students also appreciated having the visitors coming to speak to them and giving practical demonstrations:

• They were very nice and told us a lot of information on tāniko. It looks fun and good to give a go.
• It was cool to see people doing it.
• I liked being able to give the weaving a go.

Kataraina’s tāniko

As a result of the presentation, Kataraina Jones-Turipa (Rongowhakaata), one of the students in the textiles class, shared a piece of weaving she had created. Kataraina’s mother, Jacqueline Jones-Turipa (Rongowhakaata), has made pari using the tapestry method for the Tū Te Manawa Maurea (Waihirere) kapa haka group and other kapa haka groups, including Tūranga Wāhine Tūranga Tāne (Gisborne Girls' High School and Gisborne Boys' High School kapa haka groups).

As a nine-year-old, Kataraina watched her mother making the pari and wanted to have a go. Jacqueline gave Kataraina a piece of canvas and she quickly grasped the technique to create the patterns, finishing her piece in two weeks.“I just knew what to do. I worked out the directions quickly and then worked out that moving up and down the squares and counting created the patterns.”

Kataraina has gone on to assist her mother with other pieces she has created for Tū Te Manawa Maurea and Tūranga Wāhine Tūranga Tāne groups.

After the presentation on tāniko, Kataraina also wanted to learn this technique.