Ngāti Pāoa ki Waiheke ~ Jeanine Clarkin interview
Sep 6
Jeanine Clarkin of Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāi te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Raukawa and Irish descent. Clarkin chose to move to Waiheke, seventeen years ago, because of ancestral ties. She is an internationally acclaimed Māori fashion designer who will be in Paris and London from Sept. 13-18th to present her latest creations on the catwalk.
Despite an intensely busy creative life (she has curated a number of exhibitions at the Waiheke Art Gallery) plus mentoring and supporting many artists and other creatives on Waiheke, she tells me she had made a commitment to the improvement of the environment she lives in. This is because to her, fashion is a response to social context and she is driven by identity and ngā taonga tuku iho, the treasures passed down to us from our ancestors.
She describes herself as a fashion activist and a human barometer measuring the mauri of the moana on her daily swims at Oneroa Beach. She has always known that something has been happening to the sea (not good).
Jeanine believes the privilege of facing Moehau and Tīkapa Moana on a daily basis comes with responsibility. Part of her picking up the paddle of responsibility, as mana whenua, involves the Rāhui that’s been put in place around Waiheke’s coastline. She would like the Rāhui extended so there is a long enough time period for it make an impact. She knows it takes up to six years for the Koura to become harvestable and is looking forward to having some home-grown koura at her 60th birthday, in 7 years.
As a member of the Waiheke Marine Project’s Ngati Pāoa ki Waiheke partner group she perceives her favourite pipi (action work) as the ‘rewilding’ of Koura, which will be an important contributor to an improved, balanced moana.
There has been a lot of learning and sharing for her coming into the Waiheke Marine Project. When asked “if the Project is making a difference” she replies that it is starting to. The Waiheke Marine Project’s partnership model with mana whenua is ‘getting there’, aspirational rather than completely achieved. She holds hope that more Ngāti Pāoa will be involved in the future and appreciates the effort that mātāwaka and community put in. In some ways WMP is still ‘working at the bottom of the cliff’, at the ‘rescue’ stage, not yet at the regenerative stage. She points out that it will take time to reverse 50 years of damage caused by bad decisions and management. A strong advocate for raising community awareness about environmental matters, Jeanine would like to see more assertive advertising of the Project’s messages e.g. strong messaging on Fullers and Sealink and at the local cinema. She is pleased there are about to be more visible Rāhui signs round the island.
We can be sure that Jeanine will continue to amplify environmental messages in her art and and design.
In a quote from her Waiheke Wāhine Maramatake (2022/23) Jeanine states "I’m passionate about creating opportunities and Implementing change that will allow more Ngāti Pāoa and Hauraki whānau back to the motu to build papakāinga for our future offspring - to me she says Everybody feeds Jeanine".
By Sue Fitchett
Project team member