09/10/2026
Join artist Arawhetu Berdinner for a whakakai/adornment workshop in the gallery on Saturday 17 October, from 12pm-2pm.
Arawhetu will guide you in making your own adornment using materials gifted from te taiao, such as shells and muka. She will demonstrate how to whiri, plait two-twists, and how to tie off a cord for adornment. We anticipate outcomes of this workshop to be a necklace or hair adornment.
Materials for this workshop are provided, but we invite you to bring along any light weight taonga you may have collected from te taiao (small driftwood, stones or shells with a hole etc).
Light refreshments after the workshop will be provided.
Capacity for this workshop is limited. Sign up via the link in our bio!
Arawhetu Berdinner (Te Arawa, Ngati Pikiao, Ngati Whakaue) is based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. She has recently completed a Masters in Fine Arts through Massey University. Arawhetu’s multi-disciplinary practice spans adornment, installation, and painting, and is about whakapapa to materials, whakapapa of concepts and the whakapapa of making. Her working processes follow ancestral pathways of tikanga practices, to acknowledge and bring forth the mauri of the natural materials in the taonga-based entities she makes.
He uri a Arawhetū Berdinner i Te Arawa, Ngāti Pikiao, rātou ko Ngāti Whakaue e noho ana ki Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Ināia tata nei, kua whakatūtuki a Berdinner i tōna paetohu māhita i Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa. Mā ngā tukanga rau i roto i ngā mahi a te taonga whakarākei, te puninga toi, me te peita, ka tātai whakapapa hangahanga āna mahi. Ka whai tikanga āna mahi, kia tukuna te mauri o ngā rawa kia maea ai i roto i ngā taonga e hanga ana ia.
Enjoy's Public Engagement programme is made possible by the support of Wellington City Council.
Photos:
1. Arawhetu Berdinner. Photo by
2. Arawhetu Berdinner, Hei p**i (piko piko), muka, p**i/flax fibre cordage (waxed), partially mineralised p**i shells, 2026 (detail). Photo by
