Tapa Moana Nui

13th February - 20th March

Tapa Moana Nui are an intergenerational collective who whakapapa throughout Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, dedicated to the celebration and continuation of tapa-making. Featuring collaborative works, individual works, tools and raw materials of the practice. Each piece is a testament to the enduring bonds between knowledge, creativity, and community.

Tapa-making is a well-established textile that reinforces collective social structures and reciprocity. The process is culturally significant across the moana, expressing the deep interconnection between Tangata Moana. It carries social and economic value, helping maintain heritage and identity for many in the group who are part of the diaspora. Through shared making and knowledge, tapa combines generations of makers, maintaining cultural retention, histories, whakapapa and communal life. Tapa Moana Nui becomes a living archive - a place where elders and emerging makers share skills, stories, and song, keeping the fibres of cultural memory alive through ancestral and contemporary art.