13 Facts About Maureen Lander

Maureen Lander continues to produce and exhibit work as well as attend residencies and symposia both nationally and internationally.

Maureen Lander began learning weaving with noted Maori weaver Diggeress Te Kanawa in 1984 and spent many years researching fibre arts.

Maureen Lander worked as a teacher before attending Elam School of Fine Arts.

Maureen Lander taught Maori fibre arts over many years, mainly in the Maori Studies Department at the University of Auckland where she was a Senior Lecturer in Maori Material Culture.

Maureen Lander was first introduced to muka by noted weaver Diggeress Te Kanawa in 1984, when she went to stay several times with the senior artist at Ohaki Maori village, near Waitomo and learned the basics of preparing materials and techniques such as whatu.

Maureen Lander describes her three decades working with muka as a 'journey of discovery'.

Maureen Lander's work plays on Rene Magritte's famous painting Ceci n'est pas une pipe with a woven kete placed on top of a plinth with the words 'This is not a kete' inscribed on it.

In 2006 Maureen Lander was one of fifteen New Zealand artists, most of Maori and Pacific Island descent, who were invited to take part in the Pasifika Styles exhibition by making site-specific works throughout the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge that responded to objects in the museum's collection.

Maureen Lander made new pieces, including the site-specific installations Airy-Theory Artefacts and Tane Raises His Eyebrows.

Maureen Lander made a piece titled Crown Grab Bag for the exhibition, a large woven crown placed on a royal purple silk pillow with gold tassels.

Hariata is shown wearing a woven sash unlike anything Maureen Lander had seen before.

Maureen Lander recreated the sash for the exhibition, along with a number of other pieces.

Maureen Lander is of Ngapuhi, Te Hikutu, Irish, Scottish and English descent.