Weaving people together

KAIRARANGA – weaving teacher – Jasmine Teei has shared her skills with Kāwhia school students and community members in a recent workshop.

Around 80 children and adults were involved.

Whaea Roimata Pikia from Kāwhia School said it was an important experience for all.

“It’s valuable knowledge handed down from our tūpuna, that often our kids don’t get exposed to anymore, or don’t get access to,” she said.

Roimata said the group created a range of objects as practice ahead of the workshop.

“A couple of them made a kete and placemats. They [were] really getting into it.

“Jasmine teaches them everything. We tautoko, we just support it. She’s the gun, she’s the expert.”  

Many people in Kāwhia were involved.

“All the kids in the school ... and the kindy kids in the learning centre, and a few community members as well,” Roimata said.

Principal Leanne Apiti said the weaving met several learning needs.

“This is a great example of authentic learning by teaching our tamariki by applying maths patterning to weaving in a Māori context.

“This weaving project supports our school whakatauki, Kaua e Mutu Kere Noa Iho, which encourages us to never give up and never stop learning.

“Our tamariki are learning alongside our adult whānau and it gives them a great boost of confidence when they realise they have picked up weaving faster than the adults. But the adults never give up and this is a great example to our tamariki.

“Jasmine is a well-respected weaver … she is a great teacher and everyone leaves her class feeling very proud of what they have created,” Leanne said.

Jasmine sees her work as a responsibility: that of “acknowledging our ancestors, and the skills and knowledge they’ve passed down.”

As a kairaranga her role was to share that knowledge, she said.

Jasmine learnt from her grandmother, Rangi Maikuku, one of the King Country’s many exceptional practitioners of the art.

“She showed us the basics and then after that I went to Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and I did my diploma.

“From there I’ve started my own business, where I go and do workshops in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty.”

Some of that work is at Waikato Hospital, where Jasmine has held wānanga with hapu mamas to weave wahakura: traditional sleeping baskets for the babies.

Her own children are among her students. Jasmine has six children, three of whom attend Kāwhia school. She is also kuia to two.

What did they think of having Mum come to school?

“They’re used to what I do. It’s just something normal for them, I guess.”

Jasmine’s dream is to bring art into schools more frequently, so it is consistent.

“I believe that art itself is good for our well-being. Certainly, it’s important for our rangatahi to have that foundation.”

“[Art gives us] everything that our culture gives us: cultural values, identity and belonging.”

Kōtahitanga – Weaving People Together Through Traditional Education is the project’s full name; the Creatives in Schools programme is a wellbeing programme delivered by the Ministry of Education in partnership with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatū Taonga and Creative New Zealand.

The Creatives in Schools occasion resulted from three years’ conversation between Jasmine, the funders, and the educators.