Wāhine Exhibition - Whangārei

Weaving together intimate sound stories and powerful portrait photography, Wāhine is an immersive multi-media arts exhibition that amplifies Māori women’s voices around Aotearoa.

Wāhine offers communities an opportunity to come together, to be enriched and inspired by these raw, honest and vulnerable stories – stories that touch on the joys and inspirations, the troubles and tribulations, and the resilience that has moulded these wāhine into the women they are.

The deeply personal words of each interview are woven together from real-life recordings captured by the women themselves and accompanied by portraits taken at each woman’s home, marae, or their chosen location.

As it travels around Aotearoa, Wāhine expands at each new location, inviting a wāhine from a local iwi to join the kaupapa and hold space for the other women. Here in Whangārei, Dr Maia Hetaraka (Ngāti Wai, Ngāi Tahu, Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Paoa) is joining the kaupapa.

"If there was a change that I would hope to make, you know, at the end of my life, I hope that I have had a part in making our children and our grandchildren's experience of, not just education, but of this society, better." Maia Hetaraka.

A public workshop, ‘Wāhine Whangārei - Our Stories’, will be held on the exhibition's opening day, Saturday 28 January from 10am-12noon. Facilitated by the creators of Wāhine, the workshop offers a morning of storytelling and connection, drawing on the exhibition’s kaupapa and bringing in some knowledge and stories in Te Ao Māori. This free to attend workshop welcomes all (ages 16+), held at Hihiaua Cultural Centre. Bookings are essential www.thewovenwomen.org/workshop

16+; Trigger warning required
Free exhibition

“This is one of the very few exhibitions that you experience within a lifetime that has the ability to entirely change your life” - Dr. Jay van der Reijden, PhD Archeology