Paimārire wharenui is a manifestation of years of collaboration, connection and exchange between Māori and the indigenous people of the Northwest Coast of North America connected by Te Moananui-a-Kiwa. Lead by tohunga whakairo Dr Lyonel Grant in collaboration with Salish carvers, Paimārire serves as a Fiber Arts Studio at the Indigenous Arts Campus alongside the Sgwigwialtxw longhouse (pronounced: sgweg-voi-out), House of Welcome at Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, U.S.A.
Paimārire was born from the long-standing relationship between Māori artist leaders and the Evergreen State College Longhouse Education & Cultural Centre. The connection was first sparked when a contingent of Northwest Coast artists travelled to Aotearoa in 1995 for the inaugural Indigenous Arts Gathering, facilitated by Te Ātinga at Apumoana Marae, Rotorua. The contingent included Pat Courtney Gold, a weaver from Warm Springs, Oregon, who invited master Māori weaver Christina Hurihia Wirihana to the Longhouse in 1998 – their first direct engagement with a Māori artist. In the following years, the Longhouse whānau discussed the value of hosting their own international indigenous artists gathering. In 1999, Longhouse Board Director Tina Kuckkahn and colleague Joe Fedderson travelled to the Toi Māori Festival in Rotorua to seek Māori support and approval to host ‘The Gathering’ on their lands, resulting in their first indigenous arts event in 2001, ‘Asta’bsHil3b – Return to the Swing’.
Simultaneously, the relationship between weavers continued to grow when Emily Schuster and Cath Brown, Co-Chairs of Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa, travelled to Sitka, Alaska in 1997 to investigate similarities between Māori and Northwest Coast weavers. This trip inspired the concept for the Eternal Thread: Te Aho Mutunga Kore exhibition which toured galleries and museums in Aotearoa and the Northwest Coast in 2004-2007, which wove indigenous weaving communities connected by Te Moananui-a-Kiwa.
In 2005, Longhouse Board and staff attended ‘The Gathering’ at Te Mata in 2005. They convened with Sandy Adsett (then Chair of Te Ātinga) and Elizabeth Ellis (then Chair of the Board of Creative New Zealand) to discuss an avenue for more regular cultural exchange. Their efforts culminated in the Toi Sgwigwialtxw Residency, co-funded by the Longhouse and Creative New Zealand and administered by Toi Māori Aotearoa. The residency enabled annual Māori and First Nation artist exchanges from 2005-2020. Māori recipients include Christina Hurihia Wirihana (2005), Tā Takirirangi Smith (2007), June Northcroft-Grant (2008), Henare and Tawera Tahuri (2010), Karl Leonard (2012), Lyonel Grant (2014), Rangi Kipa (2016), and Ruth Woodbury (2019), and played a critical role in the development and creation of Paimārire.
Paimārire was first envisioned in September 2013 when tohunga whakairo Dr Lyonel Grant, visited Evergreen College for the Indigenous Arts Campus Planning Conference. He was invited to present a case study of Ngākau Māhaki, his third wharenui, created for Unitec Institute of Technology Ōwairaka, Mt Albert campus in Auckland. The conference aimed to refine the Indigenous Campus master plan, led by the Longhouse staff with architect John Paul Jones (who designed the Sgwigwialtxw Longhouse), and ultimately resulted in the invitation for Lyonel to create a Māori inspired fibre arts studio—a whare—within the Evergreen Indigenous Campus precinct.
This innovative proposal, however, raised many questions, from the feasibility of the process to the functionality of the design. For Lyonel, as tauiwi on foreign land, his foremost concern was to create a whare that honoured tangata whenua of the area while observing tikanga Māori, and adopted the concept of ‘Maneene’ to guide his thinking:
Meaning one choosing to reside in an area outside one’s own rohe (tribal area) Such a choice would require one to assimilate to that land, but not necessarily mean a loss of one’s identity.
While the proposal presented challenges, this project served the greater purpose of learning, exploring and understanding the commonalities of two cultures and expressing this relationship in a harmonious and unified design. As Lyonel reflected:
“Art and art practice has become the conduit that links us. Thus, in a classical sense the whare, the confluence of weaving, carving, and painting disciplines become more than a metaphor for this undertaking.”
The concept design for the campus plan came to be on the 20th of May 2014 – during Lyonel’s residency. The birds eye view would eventually resemble the anatomy of a Salmon, sectioning the campus into four areas, each area serving different purposes and associating with different parts of the Salmon. Paimārire whare would be situated at the tail of the Salmon concept design, sharing a cultivation plot with the Longhouse. The cultivation plot features a water course where Lyonel sourced the mauri stone the year prior; the mauri is now recessed into the floor of Paimārire to represent the egg of the Salmon, abundance, and growth.
In 2015, Lyonel began the carving for the whare, continuing his work over the span of seven trips to the U.S. from 2014-2018. Like most of Lyonel’s projects, the whare features many unique design choices. From curved tāhuhu (ridge pole) mimicking the shape of a canoe to whakatauki sandblasted into the maihi (bargeboards), Paimārire is an impressive display of Lyonel’s contemporary design skills that allow the art of whakairo to shine.
The whare has been constructed with two faces or entrances: the Eastern face being predominantly whakairo Māori with complimenting elements of Salish styles, and the Western side predominantly in Salish style carving.
On the Eastern side, features a pare kuaha (door lintel) which was completed by a number of artists; a Salish inspired mask constructed by Lyonel, incorporating an over weave technique by Chinese weaver Jan Hopkins, placed at the top of a beautiful Salish carved pare by Squaxin carver Taylor Krise.
The pare matapihi (window lintel) originates from a piece started by Henare Tahuri during his 2010 residency. Left in the carving studio, it was later completed by Lyonel, who incorporated additional design elements that enhance its form and meaning.
Another striking feature are the manaia-shaped raparapa. Departing from the traditional hand style, these manaia forms are distinguished by their yellow cedar eyes, intricately carved by Tahltan-Tlingit master carver Dempsey Bob. Dempsey often works with yellow cedar, a wood with very different properties from native rākau in Aotearoa. Its soft, fine-grained texture allows it to be carved without a mallet, making it ideal for intricate pieces like masks, paddles, and bentwood boxes. However, like many native NZ woods, it also produces natural oils that help protect it from rot, insects, and weathering, making it well-suited for outdoor carvings. Lyonel’s mask on the pare kūaha is also made from yellow cedar, and through this work, he learned many techniques while working alongside Dempsey.
The western side of the whare is a striking showcase of the region’s creativity and craftsmanship. The right amo takes inspiration from the 2,000-year-old Sucia Figure, a bone carving now housed at the Burke Museum; known for its size and intricate details, the original figure stands at 13″ tall. The left amo is modelled after the 1500-year-old Bainbridge Figure, originally from Bainbridge Island, the piece was collected in 1792 and is now held in the British Museum. On both amo, the longhouse emblem is carved into the hands, mirroring the placement where the Sucia Figure was likely inlaid with shell, seamlessly connecting past and present artistry.
Written by Hemaima Keane (Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Rongowhakaata) February 2025