Wheke's Tukutuku Art Session

This is Wheke working on prayers and tukutuku panels.

This is a student from Wheke working on a prayer about Waka Hourua.

These two students are working together on either side of the panel. This is close to the traditional way of weaving through laths. 

This is a student who is very concentrated working on this and cannot muck up.

This is a student from Wheke working on a tukutku panel.

By Mitchell and Liam

Tukutuku Panels

For art in the past two weeks, Wheke has been creating tukutuku panels that have previously been started by Toroa and Rimurimu. These panels will be placed in the entrance to Waka Hourua.

We used the habit of mind work with others and decided to make our bit of the panels different from the other base groups by writing prayers in the outline of a wheke (octopus) to stick them on the back of the panels.

Tukutuku is an art designed to tell stories and legends by the Māori. Traditional Tukutuku is made from reeds that are woven between horizontal timber laths and can take quite a while to complete. Since we have limited time to finish the panels we are weaving plastic bags folded into a thin line through pegboard that has been painted blue to represent the sea and sky.