He whiri ake i ngā taura here tangata, e paihere ai te ao Māori ki te ao pakihi—koirā te whāinga mō te hoahoatanga o te Pā Harakeke.
“The Pā Harakeke collection brings to life the concept of the lines that we live by and the lines that kinda connect us all,” te kī a te ringatoi a Arnya Karaitiana (Rangitāne, Ngāti Ranginui, Te Arawa).
“For me it was about identity; it was about whakapapa and whānau and [the] interconnected relationships we have between us as people, te taiao, our past and present and future generations.”
Ko ngā tauira hoahoa a Karaitiana, i ahu mai i te taiao—i te harakeke, i te muka, i ngā rau rākau anō hoki, ka whakatakotoria ki ngā whāriki o ngā tari o te kamupene Milliken.
Ka mutu, ko wēnei whāriki, he mea takoha ki te kaupapa ‘Reconciliation Through Design'—ko te whāinga nui a Milliken, kia whakapūmau i ā rātau hononga ki ngā iwi taketake o Ahitereiria mā roto i ngā mahi toi. Nā wai rā, kua whai wāhi hoki a Aotearoa ki te kaupapa nei.
“These carpets are all designs are telling a story,” te kī a James Mfula, Kaiwhakahaere Auaha o Milliken.
“What we’re looking for is for somebody walks into the building and they see a carpet [on] the floor and people ask, what is this? We want the children to go into school and ask, what’s the significance.”
This marks Milliken’s inaugural Māori design collaboration with Karaitiana, aiming to shape a future where Māori storytelling is integrated into the very fabric of the corporate spaces where we live, work and gather.
The design journey began when Karaitiana was asked to reflect on what wellbeing means to her.
“Wellbeing and hauora to me is knowing your identity, knowing your whānau, knowing your whakapapa, while maintaining the connections between body, mind, and spirit.”
This is the first step in bringing Milliken’s Reconciliation Through Design initiative to Aotearoa, reinforcing its commitment to amplifying indigenous voices in the design industry.
He kākano i whakatōkia e 20 tau ki muri
Kua whitu tau a Milliken e kōkiri ana i te kaupapa, heoi, i whakatōkia te kākano e 20 tau ki muri.
Hei tā Mfula, “20 years [ago we] planted the seed, we started talking about [cultural] exchange and putting it onto from design onto project floor. But the market wasn’t ready for it.”
Engari kua ea rānei te whāinga kia rangona whānuitia ngā reo taketake i roto i te ao hoahoa, i roto i te ao pakihi?
“It’s not seen enough of from a te ao Māori perspective,” te kī a Karaitiana.
“We have such potential and rich korero, and I think what Milliken have done with their focus on their indigenous voices, the aboriginal communities, has been hugely successful.”
I tae atu a ngā māngai o Milliken ki Te Puia i Rotorua (NZMACI) rongo ai rātau i te hōhonutanga o ngā tikanga Māori.
“What we’re trying to do some actually empower the artists and their communities [by] providing royalties to every design they do,” te kī a Mfula.
“We need to look at [the] significance of all these designs.”
