‘Roiata’ is Mahuki’s workshop offering for product based businesses focussing on jewelery, home wares, ceramics, art, fashion, and more. With the aim to build these businesses, inspire creativity and produce future-minded products, these businesses and artisans are informed by Te Papa’s own historical collection, and are encouraged to innovate through the notion, “Prosperity through culture”.
The overarching concept for this workshop is, ‘Roiata’, which means ‘the Milky Way’. The idea being that the workshop is a bridge between the old and the new. It’s where old and new worlds collide prompting new solutions and ways of thinking.
Remixing and creating something new could be viewed as one way to understand our past in order to shape the future. A fusion of old and new creates the opportunity to rediscover traditional crafts , objects and iconography. It also provides the opportunity to innovate and inspire. Undeniably, it is an exciting way to communicate a new story or perspective that is fresh, with a twist, while tapping into the power of our collective memory as a society.
Any creative process must be inspired. It has to come from knowledge and also intuition. Any business or artist seeking to innovate needs a clear vision, and sometimes that vision is hard to grasp. That is where a personified force can be a powerful tool or talisman – something physical and visual that can keep one’s focus and incite the imagination; A muse.
For Roiata, an awe-inspiring ‘poster figure’ was created to inspire workshop participants. A figure that speaks to the language of the arts, especially avant garde fashion. Forget those old idols on your bedroom wall when you were a teenager, and open your mind and heart to ‘Manawakura’ (meaning, muse). Engineered from a combination of human, plant and animal, our muse is a supernatural being that traverses the realms of old and new with ease and purpose.
Bursting out of one world and into another Manawakura soars with the stars and beckons our gaze upwards. She is a remix of historical relics; photographs, paintings, objects and iconography. Fused together and silver in tone she is almost angelic. From the waist down, she is built from a Jantzen swimwear fashion photograph dating from the 1930s. The patterns found on a Samoan tapa cloth dating from the 1890s adorns one of her legs, like skin-tight armour. From the waist up, ‘Three Huia’ watercolour by Johannes Keulemans (circa 1900) provides an unusual twist for our muse. Once-extinct, the Huia makes a righteous return. The Huia’s beauty and special place in Māori culture makes her a prized being.
“Engineered from a combination of human, plant and animal, our muse is a supernatural being that traverses the realms of old and new with ease and purpose. ”
Legend has it that the bold and inquisitive nature of the Huia made it particularly easy to capture, however Manawakura is also lightning-quick, and has power in her own hands to propel her into the stratosphere. With sparks flying. Her two wings are ferns unfurling, symbolising growth. She is poised, focused and unstoppable, just like we need to be.
The future-galaxy surrounding Manawakura is lush and rich with colour, in contrast to our silver-toned heroine. It explodes with stars and raw gemstones in a kaleidoscopic arrangement while a ceramic planet shatters in the distance (symbolising the breaking of rules and boundaries to push through).
An astronaut and shuttle can be seen floating by almost in slow-motion compared to Manawakura’s speed. Mervyn Taylor’s drawing titled, ‘Maui and Mahuika’, provides a stunning texture that swirls up from the atmosphere and into Manawakura’s wake adding complexity to this new environment.
Manawakura shows what is possible once the imagination is set free; tradition can be drawn upon, renewed and transformed into something for the future. Let Manawakura inspire you and become a muse for your creativity and innovation.
