Erenora Puketapu-Hetet

Erenora Puketapu-Hetet ONZM JP (née Puketapu, 28 January 1941 – 23 July 2006) was a noted New Zealand weaver and author. She was a key figure in the Māori cultural renaissance and helped lift Māori weaving from a craft to an art.

Of Te Atiawa descent, Puketapu-Hetet was born in Lower Hutt on 28 January 1941. Her parents were Vera May Puketapu (née Yeates), who was Pākehā, and her husband Ihaia Porutu Puketapu.

Puketapu-Hetet grew up in the Te Atiawa tribal settlement at Waiwhetū marae near Lower Hutt and married Rangi Hetet, one of the carvers who had worked on the marae. Rangi's grandmother, Rangimārie Hetet, taught Erenora the art of whatu kākahu korowai (cloaks). Erenora wove the first kahu kiwi for the Institute of Māori Arts and Crafts (now called Te Puea) when she and Rangi worked there in the late 1970s. In the early 80s they returned to the Hutt Valley, where they led the decoration of Wainuiomata Marae. Later the couple worked at Te Papa as Maori Protocol Officer/Advisor. Part of her work at Te Papa involved bridge-building between the Māori world and the European cultural institutions, leading to her featuring in a number of weaving-related works. A number of her works are in the collection at Te Papa.

In common with other Māori artists, she believed that art had a spiritual dimension and hidden meanings:

The ancient Polynesian belief is that the artist is a vehicle through whom the gods can create. Art is sacred and interrelated with the concepts of mauri, mana and tapu.

Maori weaving is full of symbolism and hidden meanings. embodied with the spiritual values and beliefs of the Maori people.

She wove using materials such as muka (prepared fibre of New Zealand flax), paua shell, stainless steel wire and feathers, including kiwi feathers.

Puketapu-Hetet died at Lower Hutt on 23 July 2006.

A survey exhibition of the work of Erenora Puketapu-Hetet and Rangi Hetet, Legacy: The Art of Rangi Hetet and Erenora Puketapu-Hetet, was staged at The Dowse Art Museum in 2016.

In 1990, Puketapu-Hetet was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. She was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2002 New Year Honours, for services to weaving. She was appointed to the board of the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute in 2004. She was a member of the Queen Elizabeth Arts Council of New Zealand.

• Erenora Puketapu-Hetet, Maori weaving, Auckland: Pitman, 1989 ISBN 0-908575-77-7

• Erenora Puketapu-Hetet (1941–2006) discusses her life as a weaver, video interview by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
• Weaver Erenora Puketapu-Hetet, Te Atiawa, text interview by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
• Map of artworks by Erenora Puketapu-Hetet and Rangi Hetet on public display