by Priscilla Thatcher
Māori Art Class
Priscilla Thatcher — September 26, 2022
Our Māori Art classes draw to a close today for the term. Our thanks go out to Alison Trenwith for all the amazing work she has done with the children enrolled in this after school opportunity. She hopes to take the last classes for the year on Tuesday/Wednesday 25th and 26th October; Tuesday/Wednesday 1st and 2nd November and lastly on Tuesday/Wednesday, 8th and 9th November. We hope to be able to offer the same opportunity for budding artists to be creative again in 2023.
Traditional Māori clothing included a maro, a garment worn around the waist and fastened like an apron. Several different styles were made form various native plant materials. Today maro are made of both traditional and contemporary materials and are still worn for important pōwhiri or for kapa haka.
Our Maro are made from dyed rolled newsprint, fastened to a backing with staples and glue and the ties are made with decorative ribbon.
Traditional materials are: muka (flax fibre), native leaves and bark cloth (made from the paper mulberry tree) called aute.
Contemporary materials include recycled or found objects, plastic, cloth material, metal and glass.
During our Māori Art classes children are encouraged to participate in observational drawing at every opportunity. Last week the young artists drew flowers standing in plastic bottles. Their drawings were amazing in shape, detail and proportion.
Yesterday art students used flax to make 'boat baskets'. Earlier they had used light card to create the containers; flax is more forgiving than card but more slippery to handle. No staples or tapes used, only flax. The results were fabulous!
