
Studio AiR Green 2023
Studio AiR Green is our 8 week residency for one artist
Maungaronga Te Kawa
Studio Air Green Artist fall 2023
24.08 - 19. 10. 2023
Maungarongo Te Kawa (Ngāti Porou) has been working prolifically in fashion, art, community and education in Aotearoa New Zealand for the past three decades. Ron is well-known for create large-scale quilts illustrating Māori world views, his family history and Māori cultural knowledge. Alongside being an artist he is also a Māori educator, working for his iwi (tribal group), Ngāti Porou and other communities across Aotearoa. Using sewing as a conduit to connect with people, he expertly guides workshop participants to confidently create with fabric and express their genealogy through sewing.


For the past two years he has been working with Objectspace in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Through their ongoing partnership with Norwegian Crafts, he is presenting a new exhibition of quilts at two galleries in Norway this year, Nitja senter for samtidskunst and Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (SDG).
The residency at AiR Green will be an opportunity to share more about his practice and matauranga Māori (Māori knowledge), as well and strengthening understanding of Indigenous world views. Ron hopes to collaborate with Sámi artists while working in Norway.
“I have come to understand similarities between Māori worldviews and Sámi worldviews and I am keen to explore these to celebrate the opportunity of coming to share my work in Norway. I am hoping to maximise the time to learn and share in equal measure, all while exploring what textiles mean on the other side of the world.”
Te Kawa has exhibited throughout Aotearoa, including solo exhibitions in 2021 at Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki and Objectspace, and in 2020 at Te Kōputu a te whanga a Toi, Whakatāne. He was awarded Best Futuristic Design at the 2006 Canterbury Fashion Awards, has been nominated for a Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Award and in 2019 he was named the Adult Community and Education Aotearoa Māori Educator of the







