Arlie Bates submitted her Korowai to the Ringa Toi Exhibition that showcases the artwork of secondary school students, with a focus on Toi Māori. Arlie was successful and her korowai will be displayed at Te Papa, from the 28 September to 9 October.

Arlie shares the story behind her korowai

I designed my korowai to show and tell one of the famous purakau from my iwi. The story of Paikea and how he traveled to Aotearoa. I choose it to keep our iwi puraku around so future generations can learn the story of paikea. Because he is a ngati porou ancestor and I think it's important to know some of the purakau from your iwi. It's designed for my family to be worn on special occasions in their life or big stepping stones. I also want this korowai to stay within my immediate family and be a taonga that we can all enjoy. 

Paikea was an ancestor that traveled from Hawaiki to Aotearoa on the back of a humpback whale. He was the youngest and most favored son of uenuku. Paikea’s older brothers wanted him dead as they were extremely jealous of the favoritism. Paikea's older brothers planned to take him out fishing and kill him. They would then go back and tell Uenuku that he drowned. Paikea realised what they were planning so instead he flooded the waka and drowned his older brothers. Paikea was left floating in the ocean this is when Tahorā appeared and bought paikea all the way to Aotearoa. Here in Aotearoa is where he married Huturangi the daughter of Te Whironui. In the waiata Paikea their marriage is remembered. Paikea is an ancestor of my iwi Ngati porou and I want to be able to keep the taonga of purakau alive. By choosing one from my iwi and having it on display I can explain to people how one of my tipuna got to Aotearoa.

To make this korowai it took a huge amount of dedication, determination and hard work. It took a lot of long nights to complete and at times I felt like giving up. In total it took me about 6 months to fully complete. One of the first steps to making this korowai was to design a tatua that would sit at the top of my korowai. I used my own take on an Aramoana to represent the oceans that Paikea traveled through as well as my own take on a patiki to represent all life in the ocean. 

The colours shown in my tatua all represent something different. Blues represent the ocean and the sky. Grey represents the whale and white represents the moon and stars visible in the night sky. During the making of my korowai I had to learn a number of new skills. The first and most important skill was learning how to cross stitch. The way I completed it was stitching from top left to bottom right, top right to bottom left. This created crosses along the tapestry. During the cross stitching process I had to make sure I wasn't pulling the tapestry too hard and wasn't leaving it too loose. It all had to be even. I also had to make sure the bottom and top of the stitches were connected in the same hole. I also had to ensure all of my crosses were going the same way and I was following the same pattern the whole time. Cross stitching wasn't hard to get the hang of, however this was the most time consuming part of creating this korowai.

I am very proud of this korowai and it is something I will treasure forever. It is a korowai that holds an important Purakau of my iwi. It will be able to be passed down for many generations, to not only treasure but to learn purakau. The end result of this korowai was more than I hoped for. I did my best to complete this korowai to the absolute highest standard and believe that I well and truly did exactly that.

Link to more information on the Ringa Toi Exhibition