4 OCTOBER 15, 2005
Smoke Signals
Weaving Ties To Oregon
Maoris bring 100 cloaks and baskets to Willamette University's Hallie Ford Museum of Arts in Salem.
By Ron Karten
It was a sunny, autumn day
when the first meeting took place
between the Maoris of New Zealand
and two Indian Tribes of Oregon. It
was on Friday, September 23 at
Willamette University in Salem.
As first Siletz and then Grand
Ronde members welcomed the
Maoris with songs and drums, the
Maoris walked forward, returning
the music with songs of their own.
A crowd of hundreds witnessed
the exchange and welcomes and
then marched behind the
aboriginals to the university's Hallie
Ford Museum of Art where the first
American exhibit dedicated solely to
the Maori weaving crafts started its
Oregon run. It will be at the Hallie
we meet again."
Inside the exhibition hall, cloaks,
baskets and floor mats stood out
from the walls or were held back
behind glass showcases in some
thing of a spiral leading to the cen
ter room, where giant photos of
ancient Maori Tribal members
looked out above some of the finest
examples of aboriginal weaving
that the world knows today.
Grand Ronde Tribal Cultural Col
lections Specialist Lindy Trolan,
who worked with Hallie Ford and
Siletz cultural specialists "for close
to a year now" to put this exhibition
together, noted how some designs
"are practically identical to our bas
ket designs."
i v s it: ? r
People Of Pride The Maoris sing songs of their own while members of the
Siletz Tribe welcome them with Traditional Honor songs.
Ford through December 22.
With more than 100 pieces in two
weaving styles, the exhibition drew
both weavers from around the
world and New Zealand transplants
along with university teachers and
students and the local community.
"Witness a celebration of nations,"
said Willamette President M. Lee
Pelton.
"How often our ancestors met with
other tribes in
this area," said
Grand Ronde
Tribal Elder
K a t h r y n
Harrison. "If you
listen, maybe we
can hear them."
"It's like history
repeats itself," she
said.
Siletz Tribal El
der Aggie Pilgrim,
also a representa
tive of the Inter
national Council
of the Thirteen
Indigenous
Grandmothers
(See Smoke Sig
nals, 9105)
along with Siletz
Tribal Council
Vice Chairman
and Cultural Lan
guage Specialist
Bud Lane
smudged down
the Maori group.
"It's an honor to
be able to brush you down," said
Pilgrim. "Our aura gets clogged up.
It needs to be cleared up. Smoke
takes that all up and only in one
direction, to the Creator."
"I'm looking at the faces you
have. I have seen these faces over
the campfire a long, long time ago,"
said Maori Tribal Elder John
Tahuparae. "Not as strangers, now
"It was pretty stunning to see
their culture. It is present in every
thing they do," said Trolan.
Many of the weavers in the show
had learned their craft in universi
ties. And in fact much Maori cul
ture is enmeshed in the New
Zealand school system, all the way
from pre-school through university,
said Project Coordinator Rebecca
Dobkins, who is also Curator of
Dobkins. They encountered an is
land without large animals and
with flightless birds. "Carving and
weaving were their highest art
forms," she said.
It was not until the 1800s that
New Zealand was colonized by the
British but unlike the experience of
the Tribes of North America, the
Maoris and the British made one
treaty The Treaty of Waitangi in
1840 and all Maoris were in
cluded. The Maori language was
given equal status with the English
language and the Treaty was writ
ten in both languages, though
there remain disagreements in
some respects about what the
Treaty really said.
The Maoris also were given equal
rights to food and forest resources,
according to Ranui Ngarimu, one of
the weavers whose work is exhib
ited at the Hallie Ford. At home, she
is President of the National Maori
Weavers' Committee. "During the
ensuing years," she said, "that
hasn't always panned out. There
are various claims against the gov
ernment on breaches of that agree
ment. But, as each Tribe settles
claims, they are able to move to
ward economic development."
For weaver Pip Devonshire, her
university weaving studies gave
her "a connection with my ances
tors, just by recreating the tech
niques. My great grandmother was
a weaver, and I feel that I have
some connection with her through
these techniques," she said. Of the
Vd I;
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Gifts For Our Leaders Maori weaver Ranui Ngarimu presents Tribal Chairwoman Cheryle Kennedy (right) with
traditional Maori gifts and a book on Maori weaving. Ngarimu, along with her sister, played a part in the publication of the book.
Native American Art for the mu
seum and Associate Professor of
Anthropology at Willamette.
The Maoris, who are now about
20 percent of the nation's four mil
lion people, are thought to have
come by canoe to an uninhabited
New Zealand island some 1,000
years ago from the Polynesian, Sa
moan, Tonga and Fiji islands, said
cloaks she has in the show, she
said, each would take three to four
months to make "if I worked at it full
time."
As her projects were finished, the
curator approached her about put
ting pieces in the show, but she said,
"Little did I know when I was gath
ering the flax that it would end up
here."
Tribal member Leslie Riggs sings an
honor song with Eagle Beak.
Weaver Ranui Ngarimu said that
when she was in her twenties, "I
had a need to learn my language,
and I realized there's a whole wider
world than just language to the
Maoris." She sought out master
weavers to learn the craft. At the
time, she was in a
performing arts
group that
needed costumes.
Weaver Donna
Campbell learned
her craft at design
school, she said,
"and through it, I
discovered my
identity, a way to
be comfortable in"
my own skin."
"All have a lot of
respect for the
Maori," said
David Hansen of
Santa Rosa, Cali
fornia. He was on
hand as a gradu
ate of Willamette
University, and
was enjoying his
40th reunion. He
also was on hand
as a fourth gen
eration New
Zealander, and
had seen the
Maori exhibition
when it was part of a larger San
Francisco celebration in August.
Georgian Le Anne Brown is a
weaver, and "came to see the weav
ers and look at their techniques,
how they prepare their materials,
how they do the knotting. And I
See MAORIS
on page 5