Source: Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum
The Auckland Museum Store presents Kōkōwai, a one-night-only, evening of fashion, art, live music and performance on Friday 12 September at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Kōkōwai, named for the sacred red ochre pigment once used to adorn bodies and mark the tapu, will showcase the work of two acclaimed wāhine ringatoi Māori, Shona Tāwhiao (Ngāi Te Rangi) and Stevei Houkāmau (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui).
Shona Tāwhiao is know for her distinctive “Harakeke Couture” style, which has been presented at fashion weeks in New Zealand, London, Malaysia, and beyond. Tāwhiao will present a special showing of her woven couture and streetwear, and will showcase new works that fuse traditional weaving with contemporary design, highlighting her unique blend of heritage and innovation.
Stevei Houkāmau carved uku (clay) works speak to whakapapa, whenua and tīpuna, and have earned national and international recognition, including winning the 2023 Kiingi Tūheitia Portraiture Award and representing Aotearoa at Munich Jewellery Week. At Kōkōwai, Houkāmau’s clay forms will be brought into dialogue with movement and ritual, extending her practice into a live performance setting.
The evening will culminate in a performance taking place under the Museum’s tanoa. Invoking the sacred, the ancestral, and the earthly, Tāwhiao and Houkāmau’s works will be brought to life through movement and ritual.
Charged with the sonic force of 2025 Taite award-winner Mokotron’s live fusion of hiko (Māori electronic music), with taonga puoro, and expertly woven together by director Te ‘Okota’i Paitai, Kōkōwai is no ordinary night at the Museum.
Hokohoko Musuem Store, Retail Manager, Karyn Watson invites visitors to be curious, “Kōkōwai is a chance to experience firsthand the powerful creativity of two extraordinary wāhine ringatoi we represent at Hokohoko Museum Store. Along with DIVA open late for the evening, audiences can immerse themselves in artistry, story telling and cultural expression. A stunning selection of Shona and Stevei’s work will be available to purchase on the night. Come and explore, come adorned, be inspired!”
Tickets also include entry to DIVA, the spectacular international exhibition direct from London’s V&A. Featuring over 50 looks rarely seen by the public, DIVA showcases costumes worn by some of the world’s most iconic performers, some from their own collections.
Highlights include Maria Callas’ stage ensemble as Norma (1952), Marilyn Monroe’s fringed black dress from Some Like it Hot (1959), and the only known surviving dress worn by silent film star Clara Bow. Visitors can also see Bob Mackie designs worn by Tina Turner, P!nk and Cher; Elton John’s Louis XIV–inspired 50th birthday costume with a towering powdered wig and train, designed by Sandy Powell; and Shirley Bassey’s couture pink gown by Julien MacDonald, complete with diamanté-studded wellington boots, worn at Glastonbury in 2007.
Tickets for Museum Store Presents: Kōkōwai are on sale now at aucklandmuseum.com
Museum Store Presents: Kōkōwai
Friday 12 September 2025 7pm–10:30pm
Te Ao Mārama South Atrium, Auckland Museum
$55 adults, $65 door sales. Includes entry to DIVA. 10% discount for Museum Members.
7 pm – Doors open / DIVA open
8 pm – Kōkōwai performance
8:30 pm – DJ Miss Bee
10:30 pm – Event ends
About the artists:
Shona Tāwhiao
Artist, designer, and weaver Shona Tāwhiao, Ngāi Te Rangi, has exhibited her distinct style of raranga woven work for 25 years.
Having trained in traditional Māori raranga weaving techniques and methods, by Kahutoi Te Kanawa, Tāwhiao’s talent has been described as exquisite and undeniably unique.
The fusing of her love of fashion and culture with her specialised techniques in weaving has enabled Tāwhiao to create Haute Couture from flax fibre known to Māori as harakeke. This has resulted in her unique style being dubbed “Harakeke Couture”.
Tāwhiao’s multi award-winning collections of Harakeke Couture have been presented at New Zealand London Malaysia Fiji Hong Kong and Melbourne Fashion Weeks since 2010.
Tāwhiao has showcased her works internationally at the MaMo Arts Festival in Honolulu, Chapel St Roch in Paris and in London at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich to an international group of museum curators.
In 2016 Tāwhiao was invited by Dr Maia Nuku to participate in a three-week residency at the Oceanic Department of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Tāwhiao leant her creative influence to films such as the Māori Merchant of Venice and River Queen and in 2012 designed costumes for ‘The Māori Troilus and Cressida’ that opened Shakespeare’s Olympics at The Globe Theatre in London to rave reviews. This led to her being nominated and winning the Brancott Estate ‘Best Costume Designer of the Year’ at The Chapman Tripp Theatre awards in Wellington New Zealand.
Stevei Houkāmau
Stevei Houkāmau, Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, is a Wellington‑based contemporary Māori uku (clay) artist whose work speaks to whakapapa, whenua, and tīpuna. Since 2011, she’s drawn on traditional Māori patterns and narratives to craft sculptural, carved clay forms embodying spiritual and ancestral connection.
Her acclaimed work Kia Whakatōmuri te haere whakamua, a derived lineage piece honoring her great-great-grandmother Hinemaurea, earned her the prestigious 2023 Kiingi Tūheitia Portraiture Award, judged at Pipitea Marae before King Tūheitia.
In March 2025, Stevei represented Aotearoa at Munich Jewellery Week through KOHĀ Moana, a collaborative activation with Neke Moa and Sofia Tekela‑Smith, that explored koha, reciprocity and connection with moana in public adornment performances.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including FESTPAC (Guahan), various Indigenous art gatherings, and a solo exhibition at Objectspace, Auckland. Stevei was also the inaugural Māori Artist-in-Residence at Toi Pōneke Arts Centre and maintains pieces in public and private collections at home and abroad.
MOKOTRON
MOKOTRON is a Tāmaki-based Māori producer from Ngāti Hine, who spreads seismic waves of low frequency Indigenous electronic music. Exploring ancient futurism through music, MOKOTRON imagines a reality without colonisation, where the ancestors transition from the ancient world into the modern, creating futures of hope juxtaposed with the hard realities of urban disconnection.
2022 was a breakout year for MOKOTRON, releasing three 12” EPs on Spanish label Electro Records, as well as featuring on a number of digital compilations at home and abroad.
In March 2024 MOKOTRON released THE UNITED TRIBES OF BASS, a landmark remix project, exclusively featuring Māori and Cook Island Māori electronic practitioners from throughout the motu. This was followed in December by the release of the album WAEREA, Mokotron’s debut album which reached Number 4 on the Aotearoa Album Charts and is close to selling out its third pressing on vinyl. MOKOTRON rounded off the year by winning Te Tohu Kaipuoro Toa (Favourite Solo Act) at the 2024 Mighty Aotearoa Alternative Awards and performing at Boiler Room Aotearoa.
2025 has seen MOKOTRON reaching new levels of national and international recognition. After headlining Port Noise Festival and touring across the country, they were awarded the prestigious Taite Music Prize and Te Manu Taki Tāhiko o te Tau Best Electronic Artist at the Aotearoa Music Awards for the album WAEREA. MOKOTRON has just returned from their first UK tour, performing at Glastonbury Festival and London dates at Foundation FM and Colour Factory in East London as part of Lady Shaka’s Pulotu Underworld collective.
Te ‘Okota’i Paitai
Teokotai Paitai (Ta’i) is a multidisciplinary artist with ancestral ties to Rarotonga, Mangaia, Samoa (Moata‘a), and Scotland (Clan Colquhoun). Born and raised in Central Auckland, Ta’i’s creative practice is grounded in both lineage and lived experience.
It’s been over 30 years since Ta’i entered into the contemporary performing arts scene, starting out as a dancer. He’s been fortunate to work alongside and for many of his heroes, some of whom are now shining stars looking down at us.
He is currently exploring and teaching weaving, not only as an artistic expression but also as a tool for well-being. Through this practice, Ta’i actively challenges colonial narratives that seek to dismiss or erase the living cultural traditions of Oceania and Indigenous communities worldwide. For him, weaving is an act of resistance, reclamation, and cultural continuity.
Watch:min World
Amplifying the voice of Wāhine through movement since 2017. Watch:min have been leading in spaces within Street Dance and Krump in Aotearoa uplifting women through programmes, shows, and events.
ABOUT AUCKLAND WAR MEMORIAL MUSEUM
Auckland War Memorial Museum is one of New Zealand’s first museums and is free for Aucklanders. The Museum tells the story of New Zealand, its place in the Pacific and its people. The Museum is a war memorial for the province of Auckland and holds one of New Zealand’s top three heritage libraries.
It has pre-eminent Māori and Pacific collections, significant natural history resources and major social and military history collections, as well as decorative arts and pictorial collections.
