Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa or MÃÂori Weavers New Zealand is the New Zealand national MÃÂori weavers' collective, which aims to foster and preserve MÃÂori traditional textiles. It has played an important role in facilitating the gathering of weavers of MÃÂori and Pasifika descent to meet, teach and learn from one another.
The collective was established when the wider collective of Aotearoa Moananui a Kiwa Weavers, founded by the MÃÂori and South Pacific Arts Council in 1983, was split into the MÃÂori and Pasifika portions of the organisation. This split came about as a result of funding reasons — current Toi MÃÂori Aotearoa funding is specifically targeted at MÃÂori arts. This split of groups occurred in 1994.
Te Roopu holds national hui (attendance of which is required by a number of tertiary courses), regional workshops, publishes a newsletter, coordinates with research funding agencies and publishes books.
Emily Schuster of MÃÂori Arts and Crafts Institute in Rotorua was the first chairperson. Diggeress Te Kanawa was a co-founder. Cath Brown was also a founding member and went on to coordinate the production of the organisation's newsletter. Christina Wirihana is the current chairperson and Te Hemo Ata Henare is the deputy chair.
There is some overlap of personnel and events with MÃÂori Women's Welfare League, but the League has a much broader remit, longer history and more political outlook.
The national hui is held biennially at Labour Weekend at different Marae around the country.