The Presence Of Māori Designers At NZFW Provides A Refreshingly Genuine Depiction Of Indigeneity

Much like Australian Afterpay Fashion Week's considered inclusion of Indigenous designers such as Ngali in May, New Zealand Fashion Week's return after a three-year hiatus was made significantly more special by the decision to open the festival's proceedings with Māori designer Kiri Nathan and to also feature 10 Māori designers on the schedule. Clothing has always been more than a modality for utility or even style for Māori. In a culture that documents its history with the verbal passing down of stories, songs and prayer, a garment weaves together (literally and figuratively) the past, present and future — it's a spiritual touchstone, a taonga. This is why the presence of Māori traditions and customs, along with Māori designers and their perspectives, at NZFW 2023 feels so significant right now.

The event itself has a Māori moniker: Kahuria. It was gifted to the Auckland-based festival by the governing tribe Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, along with the symbolic offering of a cloak (also named Kahuria). Constructed by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei weaver Beronia Scott, the cloak utilises old piupiu strands from ancestral garments that have been handed down through the generations, alongside new piupiu strands, to emulate NZFW's present focus on sustainability and slow fashion. And much like Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei's Kahuria, Kiri Nathan and Campbell Luke paid homage to the past with their collections at NZFW.

Nathan's designs spilled out onto the runway in an elaborate quartet of chapters that spoke to the textile traditions of Māori pre-colonisation, the evolution that occurred aesthetically after the introduction of European clothing, and to the hopeful future with live art from Māori graffiti artist Mr. G, who emblazoned the word 'TŪMANAKO' (hope) across the skirt of one model. Nathan worked alongside ten different Māori weavers to create the collection, and featured footwear designed and made by her husband. It was collaborative, and considered, and the message was clear throughout: Māori have and will always be here.

Luke, on the other hand, aesthetically and spiritually spoke to a post-colonisation experience of Māori. His clothing married together the ethereal and pastoral. Footage of barefoot wahine running through open fields and engulfed in voluminous rivers of white cotton and lace played in the background. On the seats of the front row were neatly packaged parcels decorated with dried flowers and lace that contained Kawa Kawa balm and the text 'Imagining Decolonisation'. It all felt like the beginnings of a much larger conversation begging to be had about what it means to be a woman and simultaneously Māori, and the spiritual and referential touchstone of matriarchial love within the context of the Māori experience.

The presence of Māori performance and ceremony was keenly evident too. Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei had the rightful honour of welcoming the fashion festival to Auckland with a traditional Pōwhiri ceremony. Kiri Nathan opened the festival with waiata from Māori musician Ria Hall and a parade of young Māori wahine belting in unison. Campbell Luke scored his runway with a live Māori choir and the voice of a Kuia regaling her memories of what it means to be Māori in New Zealand narrated the show. Luke punctuated the tear-jerking performance with a mis-en-scene mid-runway centred around a mother and her newborn baby dressed in a lengthy korowai cloak. The designer even honoured his Elders, handing out bouquets of flowers to the Kuia and Koroua present.

These special moments felt genuine and a far cry from the performative reach for culturalism within a capitalist context that Māori have grown accustomed to. It didn't feel like a faceless brand was utilising the culture, the language or the mana of Māori to turn a profit. It didn't feel like a single moment was orchestrated to meet the standards of a painfully 'woke' audience. It felt familial and warm, considered and artful — it had heart.