Maureen Lander (Ngāpuhi, Te Hikutū) – Kitset Whanaungatanga, 2017

Kitset Whanaungatanga is composed of a grid of flat-packed kete, traditional Māori woven baskets, made from harakeke (Phormium tenax). Through this interconnected field of kit-sets, Lander explores whanaungatanga: relationships that extend beyond blood and are developed through mutual interests, collaboration and choice. Lander developed this work collaboratively with a group of weavers who each followed the same instructions for size and form while introducing their own colour and pattern variations. The result can be described as a “series of similar diversity”, drawing attention to subtle differences in technique. Its modular structure allows the composition to be assembled, disassembled, and reconfigured in different places — an approach that reflects the concept of relationships as something that we carry with us wherever we go.

Weaving forms the foundation of Maureen Lander’s practice, which extends across installation and spatial composition. A Māori artist, she works with materials such as harakeke (Aotearoa New Zealand flax) and muka, a fibre extracted from it, bringing ancestral knowledge into dialogue with contemporary forms. Her work explores how relationships between material, genealogy, kinship and place are structured, remembered and carried. Attentive to the transmission of knowledge across territories and generations, her installations create spaces in which inherited practices are reactivated and sustained within the present.