Deborah Phillips explains: "I wove this contemporary feathered kete using traditional techniques. It’s my way of weaving and wearing a kahu-huruhuru in modern society with all the honour and respect I feel for tupuna and tangata whenua."

Tēnā koutou katoa. Ko Tainui me Te Arawa te waka. Ko Ngāti Paoa te iwi. I whakapapa hoki ahau ki Ngāti Hine o Waiomio, Moriori o Rekohu, Scotland and England. Ko Deborah Phillips toku ingoa.

I was born to a Māori father and Pākehā mother. After three generations of whānau urban migration, the negative and brutal experiences dad had as a boy, and because we were born pale-skinned, my parents did everything to stop us from being Māori.

It was deeply confusing and had a very negative effect on my life.

I started abusing drugs and alcohol at the age of 14. After many years of trauma, crime and heroin addiction, I was sentenced to three years in Muluwa Maximum Security Prison in Sydney, eventually being deported back to New Zealand upon release. 

When I was 40, my life changed incredibly. I learned raranga, specifically whātu kakahu (cloaks). I am extremely grateful to the kuia who shared their knowledge with me: Mrs Connie Marsden, Ngāti Whātua and Mrs Ani Heta Raharaha, Ngāti Wai.

My life is testament to the profound ability of toi Māori to create change in a person’s life. Weaving taught me perseverance, self-reliance, problem-solving and confidence.

It enabled a connection to tikanga, wairua and aroha, which instilled identity and pride in me. I slowly became what I was always meant to be – a Māori woman.

In 2000, I had a solo art exhibition in Auckland of kakahu, kupenga and other woven works. I’d woven a very large kete out of barbed wire and called it “Māori woman in a white skin”.

Power of producing art to release inner turmoil

That kete allowed me to put all my bitterness, disappointments, grief and sadness into it. The power of producing art to release our inner turmoil is a magnificent therapy.

I’d been kaiako (teacher) of a whātu kakahu weaving group and a couple of years ago, I was asked to write a proposal about what I wanted the group to see and experience at the Auckland Museum.

Subsequently, we were chosen to be a part of Te Aho Mutunga Kore project and received funding to study and learn from tupuna’s woven taonga stored in the archives.

In addition, two other Moriori women and I toured New Zealand’s museums to study our karapuna’s (ancestor’s) taonga. Sadly, there’s not very much.

Grateful for the opportunity to connect with tupuna

Going into the archives is a magnificent experience – both visually and spiritually – and we were all deeply moved and humbled. We came away with a lot of new knowledge and grateful for the opportunity to connect with tupuna in such a tangible way.

With encouragement and support from the Auckland Museum staff, I contacted Neil Wallace, Art in Corrections Advisor at Arts Access Aotearoa, and here I am today.

I’ve completed Neil’s Arts in Corrections Educators course, built around the guide “Te Ara ki Runga The Path Up”, and have nearly finished my proposal to teach whātu kakahu in Corrections facilities.

If my application is accepted, Auckland Museum has agreed that a curator can visit the prison with the museum’s woven taonga during my weaving programme. The participants will then experience the deep sense of wairua and tangata whenuatanga, and learn from techniques that tupuna used and passed on to us. 

Profound way to create connection and rhythm with te ao Māori

It’s a gentle but profound way to create connection and rhythm with te ao Māori, whakapapa, tupuna and ourselves.

It’s important to me that other educators, prisons and museums around the country are included in this mahi and I’m deeply grateful to the staff at Auckland Museum for their support, participation and commitment to this idea. 

I don’t think it’s ever been done before and we are meeting in the new year to discuss how best to achieve this. 

Neil and Arts Access Aotearoa are working on an overarching strategy and vision for this Arts in Corrections work. The Lived Experience Advisory Group, of which I’m interim co-chair, is leading the way in this work. 

Role models, projecting hope 

It’s an enlightened concept to have people who have done time in prison providing insights and teaching the artform that helped us rise above it all; to heal and thrive. Acting as role models, projecting hope. 

So much has been studied and written over the years about the value of art as a therapeutic tool. I was pleased to speak about my journey at the recent Arts in Corrections Network hui at Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison and, in the evening, at a public event hosted by Arts Inc in Hastings.

We also got to visit some of the prison’s various units, listen to a couple of carvers talk about whakairo, and see the artwork in the grounds. How wonderful it was to see this prison providing leadership in using the arts, including toi Māori, as an essential rehabilitative tool. 

No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.