Wāhi auaha – awheawhe toro noa | Drop-in workshops
10am-5pm
event Details
Whakanuia te kaupapa o Te Hui Ahurei o Matariki 2025 – Matariki ki te Wai – mā te whai i te ia o ngā moana me ngā awa mā roto i ngā mahi auaha utukore. Rarangahia he kete, waihangatia rānei he momo tārai takutai.. Tuhia ō moemoeā, ā, waihangatia he tukutuku mō tō tau aroha.
He utukore ngā mahi katoa.
Celebrate the theme of the 2025 Matariki Festival – Matariki ki te Wai – by embracing the rhythms of our oceans and rivers through a range of free, creative activities. Make a kete or coastal sculptural form, write down your moemoeā (aspiration) and weave a tukutuku panel about a loved one.
All activities are free.
- Date
- Location
- Te Ātea | North Atrium
- Cost
- Free
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Raranga Kete me ngā Momo Tārai Takutai
Kete Making and Coastal Forms
Ko te wai te ora o ngā mea katoa.
Water is the life-giver of all things.
Hono atu ki te ringatoi, ki a Tonina Ngātai (Ngāti Whakaue) mō tētahi awheawhe i whakaaweawetia e te takutai me ngā wai. I tēnei mahi ka tūhuratia te hononga o te tangata ki te taiao mā te toi, me te hira o te wai i tō tātou ao.
Join ringatoi (artist) Tonina Ngātai (Ngāti Whakaue) in a hands-on creative workshop inspired by the beauty and essence of our coastal landscapes and waterways. Whether weaving a kete or shaping a sculptural form, this activity invites you to explore how art connects us to te taiao (the natural world) and highlights the significance of wai (water) in our lives. Through this creative process, we acknowledge our bond with the ocean and rivers, embracing their rhythms as a source of inspiration and renewal.
Artist Bio
Tonina Ngatai (Ngāti Whakaue) is a mixed media artist who reimagines Māori kete through contemporary sculptural forms, exploring the potential of discarded and modern materials. Having recently completed a Master of Creative Practice at Unitec’s School of Creative Industries, she is deeply committed to sustainability, storytelling and cultural expression through art.
Her practice breathes new life into materials, transforming them into vessels of connection, resilience, and identity. She explores sustainability through the intimate relationship between water and humanity, emphasising that people are the body of water – fluid, ever-changing, and deeply connected to the natural world. By merging discarded materials with contemporary forms, she seeks to honour this connection, creating works that reflect the shared responsibility to protect the waters that sustain life.

Taniwha: Ngā Moemoeā o Matariki | Taniwha: A Living Sculpture of Moemoeā
I te wā o Matariki, ka noho te Taniwha: Ngā Moemoeā o Matariki hei kaipupuri tūmanako, ā, ka tipu haere i te tāpiritanga o ia moemoeā, pēnei i te unahi. Tuhia tō moemoeā ki te kāri, kātahi ka whakapiri ki te taniwha – he waka kawe i ngā moemoeā me ngā wawata o te katoa.
Crafted from the resilience of cable ties, Taniwha: Ngā Moemoeā o Matariki is a sculptural guardian of aspiration, transformation and connection. Like the taniwha (guardian) that dwells within sacred waters—gliding through rivers, resting in deep lakes, and surging through ocean currents—this vessel carries the flow of collective dreams.
Throughout Matariki, Taniwha: Ngā Moemoeā o Matariki becomes a bearer of hope, evolving throughout the day as each moemoeā (aspiration) is attached to its form, like scales. It transforms like the waters of the world, reflecting the celestial streams above: Waitī, the giver of freshwater, Waitā, the keeper of the vast ocean, and Waipunarangi, the falling rain that nourishes all life.
Beginning as a black silhouette, the taniwha absorbs the energy of the community, shifting into a vibrant, collective tapestry of wishes—its body becoming a rippling current of colour, a constellation of longing and renewal. This interactive experience honours the Māori tradition of storytelling. It acknowledges the fluidity of change – an embodiment of whakapapa (genealogy), where past, present, and future converge like tributaries feeding into a great river.
Through this evolving piece, the taniwha becomes more than a sculpture; it is a vessel of dreams, woven with the voices and hopes of all who contribute to its transformation – flowing like the waters of Waitī, Waitā, and Waipunarangi, forever moving, forever connected.

Tamariki me ngā Whānau
Kids and Whānau
Tūhono atu ki ngā peita o ngā tūpuna Māori mā te mahi toi. Mahi i tētahi tukutuku e kōrero ana mō tētahi tangata e arohatia nei koe, mōu anō, ō wawata mō te tau e tū mai nei rānei.
Tīkina tētahi pukapuka mahi mā ngā Tamariki me te Whānau, ā, haere ki te rapu i ngā whetū e iwa o te kāhui Matariki. Kei te huna i roto i ā rātou mahi toi miharo!
Connect with paintings of tūpuna Māori (ancestors) through craft. Weave a tukutuku panel that says something about someone you love, yourself or your hopes for the year ahead. Grab a Kids & Whānau activity booklet and set off on an exciting journey to find the nine whetū (stars) in the Matariki cluster. They are hiding in their favourite artworks!

Mahi Whai
String games
He tākaro Māori tuku iho a Whai. He tākaro e hanga ai te kaitākaro i ētahi tauira mā ōna ringaringa me te whakamahi i tētahi taura kua hangaia mai ki te muka harakeke. Kei tēnā iwi, kei tēnā hapū, kei tēnā rohe ōna ake tauira whai. Ahakoa te ngahau, he huarahi anō tēnei e heke iho ai te mātauranga me ngā kōrero tuku iho ā-iwi. Kua kitea he tākaro ōrite te āhua puta noa i te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa me te ao!
He mea akiaki, he mea whakakaha e te mahi whai te reretahi o te ringa me te whatu, te whakaraka, me te mata hunahua kei ngā
kawititanga o te ringaringa. Ko te whāinga o te kēmu, kia tōrire te hanga i tētahi tauira Nō reira, kimihia he hoa, ka tīmata ai ki te mahi tahi ki te hanga i ētahi tauira whai! whīwhiwhi rawa atu, ā, he kite hoki ko wai te mea kakama!
Nō reira, kimihia he hoa, ka tīmata ai ki te mahi tahi ki te hanga i ētahi tauira whai!
Whai is a traditional Māori game in which players create patterns with their hands using a length of cord/string, usually made from muka (harakeke, flax fibre) or a strip of harakeke. Whai patterns and formations can vary between hapū, iwi and rohe (regions), and as fun as it is, whai is also a way of passing down knowledge and tribal kōrero (narratives). Similar string games have been found across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa (the Pacific Ocean) and the world!
Mahi whai encourages good hand-eye coordination and finger dexterity. The aim of the game is to create the most complex patterns in the most elegant way possible and to see who can do it the quickest!
Find a friend and have a go at creating some modern whai patterns together!