Te Whakatōhea iwi reaffirm connection to woven taonga in Los Angeles

Descendants of Te Whakatōhea have reaffirmed their connection to an ornate woven taonga which has long been beyond their reach.

A group from the Bay of Plenty iwi recently returned from the United States where they opened an exhibition - Uhengaparaoa, Taonga Tuku Iho - at the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles.

At the centre of the exhibition was a historic kaitaka, a cloak, named Uhengaparaoa from the Fowler Museum collection, regarded as an ancestor by Te Whakatōhea.

Woven of flax fibre or muka the kaitaka featured intricate tāniko geometric designs across the entire cloak.

Artist Tangimoe Clay said the kaitaka was made among Te Whakatōhea, but she wasn't sure exactly by whom. She said the kaitaka was sold for just three pounds, eventually ending up in the collection of the Fowler Museum at UCLA.

"It was an incredible experience for all of us," she said of the trip to Los Angeles.

"The exhibition is for six months. And once it's finished, we'll go back, close it up and then return. We're still having discussions about our nanny Uhengaparaoa, that's her name, as to what our intentions are with her. The Fowler is very open to send her over when we've got something organised, something solid."

Clay handwove a poi tāniko which she gifted to the museum in the lead up to the exhibition as a "hoa haere", a companion for the kaitaka.

Maui Hudson was part of the iwi research team for the exhibition, he echoed Clay saying the trip was an amazing experience.

"It was a really nice cross section in the sense that we had people in there that were some of our cultural leaders. We had kaumātua, we had academics, we had rangatahi, we had whānau, we had artists."

Hudson said another highlight of the trip was engaging with the American Indian Studies Department at UCLA and forming a connection with the Tongva (Gabrielino) the indigenous people of Los Angeles.

Hudson said the kaitaka had been a facilitator of many levels of relationships between Te Whakatōhea, the Fowler Museum, UCLA and the indigenous nations.

"One of the challenges with something like the kaitaka is that it's the loss of connection and the loss of the relationship that's usually associated with it. And so through this process of holding an exhibition, we've actually recreated the relationship that sits around that taonga and the places where it is.

"You talk about the kaitaka itself or the taonga as having a mauri, but it was also the connection between it and the people that really brought it to life. So I think she brought us to life in a way, as a rōpū, but we also brought her to life by being there with her as well. And I think that restoring of the mauri in and around it was really something that was probably an unexpected feeling that emerged from being there in person."

Iwi development manager for Te Tāwharau o Te Whakatōhea Danny Paruru said the longer term strategy may not always be that repatriation of taonga belonging to the iwi was the outcome.

"Perhaps those kaitiaki, wherever they might be, around the world, Whakatōhea at least forming a relationship with those institutions or people that do have taonga from Whakatōhea and understanding what type of relationship we should build with them as the guardians of those taonga that originated from our tribe."

However if the opportunity arose where repatriation was an option, then the iwi needed to prepare themselves for what that might look like, he said.

Uhengaparaoa, Taonga Tuku Iho: Ancestral Gifts and Contemporary Māori Art runs at the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles California until 16 May 2027.