:artist feature
A Otaki-based fibre artist promotes Maori and Pacific fashion through her colourful creations
SUZANNE TAMAKI (MANIAPOTO, TUHOE, Te Arawa) is an Otaki-based fibre artist with the label Native Sista. She creates body adornment, costumes and jewellery inspired by legends and mythical creatures in the Pacific, as well as traditional indigenous costuming throughout the world. Suzanne was a founding member of the Pacific Sisters
fashion collective in the mid 1990s, and participated in various multimedia fashion shows including the 12th Sydney Biennale and the 1996 South Pacific Festival of the Arts in Samoa. She often works as a guest tutor at various institutions and also produces multi-media fashion events independently promoting Maori and Pacific fashion, music, movement and image. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout
New Zealand and the Pacific at venues including Objectspace in Auckland, City Gallery Wellington, Pataka Museum of Arts and History, the Dowse, Te Papa Tongarewa the Museum of New Zealand and Belau Museum during the 2004 South Pacific Arts Festival.
Suzanne Tamaki www.hermagazine.co.nz | 111
