Event Details
Join Arapeta Hākura to learn how fibres from harakeke are braided to create strong rope used for lashing and binding. Arapeta guided the process of making a whare raupō for the exhibition Currents Calling Home.
Arapeta Hākura is an Irāwhiti (Transgender Māori) artist, curator, and kaiako based in Whangateau and Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Arapeta is a weaver of stories with a particular focus on Irāwhiti transgender Māori lived experiences, using the poetics of adornment, objects, performance, sound art, photography, and cinema. Their practice draws upon traditional and contemporary art forms passed down through whakapapa, challenging binaries of Western and precolonial Māori gendered making as well as material practices.
Their PhD scholarship, Whare Wawata: Dream Walking through takatāpui storytelling and sovereignty in transdisciplinary contemporary art, grounds their academic work in pioneering indigenous transgender theory, drawing on prophetic dreaming in Te Ao Māori as a framework for decolonial thinking and creative sovereignty.
Arapeta has exhibited widely across Aotearoa and internationally, often challenging Western imperialism in contemporary art spaces. Their exhibitions are site and kaupapa-specific, focusing on community engagement as a primary driver for creative practice. Exhibitions such as Home Sweet Home (2022, RM Gallery), Bunnies Blue Moon (2024, Govett-Brewster Gallery), and Cowboy Motel (2025, Dowse Art Museum) exemplify their ability to merge theory and practice—a skill they impart to students through project-based learning.
