For Cori Marsters, the lead tutor at the National Weaving School, the craft began not with an institution, but with a person—his grandmother, whose community of weavers first drew him toward the loom. Though he trained as a wood carver, graduating from the institute in 2012, the pull of the harakeke proved irresistible. Now, he oversees the tauira who come to Te Puia to learn the specific tikanga of the plant: how to harvest at a downward angle to protect the heart of the bush, and how to work only when the sun is up.
The school’s name, Te Rito, refers to the tender baby shoot at the center of the flax plant, the part that must be shielded by the outer leaves if the bush is to thrive. That protection took a concrete form during the launch of the NZMACI Foundation. Tukoroirangi Morgan, chair of Tainui, stood among the carvings and the looms to commit the funding necessary for the 2026 intake of students, ensuring that the cost of study does not stand in the way of cultural survival.
In the workshop, the work is slow and sensory. To find the muka—the fine, silk-like fiber used for traditional cloaks—the students use a kuku, a simple mussel shell, to scrape away the green skin of the leaf. They utilize paru, an iron-rich swamp mud, to achieve a permanent black dye, and the bark of the raurēkau for yellow. It is a process that requires patience and a deep intimacy with the land.
As master carver Fayne Robinson noted at the foundation's launch, the value of the institute lies in its transformative power. By securing the path for future weavers, the community ensures that the rito remains protected, and that the hands of the next generation will know exactly how to hold the heart of the flax.