Te Wiki ĀHua O Aotearoa: The Underground Fashion Week For Māori And Pacific Creativity

Monday, 24 March 2025, 8:14 pm
Article: RNZ

Coco Lance, RNZ Pacific Digital Journalist
Layla Bailey-McDowell, Māori News Journalist

An underground fashion week is redefining Aotearoa's fashion industry, offering a platform for Pacific and Māori creatives to challenge the status quo.

Frustrated by the lack of spaces to showcase Aotearoa's creative scene following the cancellation of NZFW (New Zealand Fashion Week), rangatahi wāhine Nina Bailey, Fifi Kwon and Billy Blamires took matters into their own hands - launching Te Wiki Āhua o Aotearoa in 2024.

The show is back this year transforming Karangahape Rd venues into a runway from 24-29 March.

Organisers said the event's name, Āhua, meaning "form" or "shape," speaks to the importance of representation in fashion, a space historically dominated by Western ideals of fashion and beauty.

The showcase has brought together Māori and Pasifika creatives, which producer, and co-founder of Āhua, Nina Bailey said is "only right".

"Artists aren't defined by the colour of your skin, what race you are or how you identify.

"The beauty in the arts is that it's inclusive to everybody and we encourage all of our brothers and sisters from all backgrounds, all ethnicity, all ages to come and apply yourself and be a part of something."

Bailey said it was important for them to "represent the Aotearoa we live in".

"We don't have restrictions; we have doors open for everybody."

Rebekah Stowers, a Samoan model, began her career with Aotearoa's renowned Pacific Fusion Fashion show.

Reflecting on her modelling journey, Stowers said it was about learning to be confident within oneself.

"Which is challenging in a generation so focused on external validation. Being confident and proud of who I am and where I come from is truly powerful."

Stowers said there was a great sense of community within Māori and Pasifika cultures - where connections ran deep - and shone through with events like Āhua.

"There may not be many of us in this industry, but those of us who are, we stick together.

"I always think of my parents and how they'd want me to feel empowered, especially when representing my family back in Samoa. No matter how I look - whether I fit the 'model' stereotype or not - my confidence, attitude, and pride in my heritage shine through in my walk."

Personal trainer, healthcare worker and part-time model Selwyn Vaka joined Āhua to challenge stereotypes about brown and dark-skinned people in the modelling industry.

"I've been in this industry for a long time, and things have changed," Vaka said.

"In the beginning, I was told I didn't fit the 'right' skin tone or body type. But I stuck with it, and now I see many more Pacific and Māori men coming through, and I support them 100 percent."

Vaka said they believed the modelling industry, and events like Āhua, offered a platform for Pacific and Māori communities to boost their confidence and gain representation in spaces where they have traditionally been underrepresented.

"When I first started, I wasn't always confident. Being proud of what you are, what you represent and what you stand for shows the world… we're confident and we're here to stay."

Model-turned-producer and key supporter of Āhua, Aellerie Konia-Storey (Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa, Rangitāne, and Ngā Puhi) said she was excited to be a part of Āhua in 2025.

"I think diversity is really important, especially in the creative industry, where it's a really hard niche to get into."

Konia-Storey started as a model at the first show last year. Now, she is part of the production team.

"I started in this industry as a model, and I found that quite boxing. I wanted to just open up that door for other wāhine as well, to come into this kind of space and not feel like they're out of the box."

For Konia-Storey the fashion scene can be a place to challenge and redefine how Māori and Pasifika wāhine represent themselves.

"I feel like there is more room to improve when it comes to more sensitivity about how we feel comfortable representing ourselves in the media as well," she said.

"It doesn't quite collide with Western ideologies. So, it's showing that we are beautiful with what we bring to the table, and we don't need to adapt.

"We don't need to change to fit into a Western kind of state."

The runway will also feature the designs of John Tanuvasa (OHN), a Tongan-Samoan designer whose collection, The Past, centres around the theme of "transformation through sustainable fashion".

Tanuvasa said his personal journey as both a creative and a designer influenced the overall theme of his collection, On Land, which explores his evolution in the fashion world.

The collection draws inspiration from 'nostalgia,' creating bold pieces that push the limits of sustainability.

"I reference myself and what I have done so far... my segment is based on the past, so it's about reviving collections and giving them another life," he said.

A key pillar of Tanuvasa's design philosophy is an emphasis on confidence, particularly for Māori and Pacific communities.

"I feel that our Māori and Pasifika people have not been given the chance to just be confident in themselves. We have so many beautiful people - why not highlight them? There needs to be more work. We have just scratched the surface.

"The models being selected are still the standard - tall, white, thin - there is nothing wrong with that, but there are also brown people out there; they should be selected too. We come in all different shapes and sizes, with different skin tones and textures. But we all need to be highlighted."

What to expect

This year's Te Wiki Āhua o Aotearoa will feature a total of 11 shows - five group shows, five solo shows, and one signature show.

Organiser and co-Founder Fifi Kwon said they would all embody the overarching theme "pursuing what you've always dreamed of doing".

"It's really hard nowadays - like you have aspirations of what you wanna be when you are younger and then you kind of grow up and you're just chewed up and spat out by the system and forced to be in this corporate machine.

"People are going into debt trying to practice their craft. So, we want to provide a space where people can make mistakes, do things in front of an audience and have that experience."

What to expect is a whole week of "deliciousness," Bailey said.

"We are speaking through the art, really crying out at how hard it is in Aotearoa as creatives to pursue our dreams and to exist as a creative in this industry, in this climate."

Te Wiki Āhua will open on Monday with Revelations, a show dedicated to ancestral storytelling's by Te Ao Māori fashion designer, Niq Atelier.

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