WHIRIA TE TANGATA: WEAVE TOGETHER
A community installation that engaged over 15,000 people through shared experience.
HEARTS
Matariki is a time to come together, acknowledging our past, celebrate the present and look forward to a bright and prosperous future. For Matariki 2025, with its theme of togetherness, three Westfield centres wanted more than a display - they wanted their diverse whānau audiences to feel part of something, made together.
Drawing on the tradition of remembrance and aspiration related to the stars Pōhutukawa and Hiwa-i-te-Rangi, “Weave Together” invited reflection, learning, and connection through hands-on weaving and shared experience. Shoppers were encouraged to take a thread in memory or in hope, and weave it in.
An integrated loom anchored each space, framed by bilingual signage that shared the kaupapa. Seating nearby encouraged whānau to sit, reflect and stay a while. It needed no staffing and ran all day, growing thread by thread. And because every hand shaped it, each centre wove its own artwork: the same idea, a different story in every community.
PROVE
Over 15,000 people took part, across three centres and twelve days, weaving more than 5,000 threads at each. People lingered, and came back to see how far it had grown. Three centres, three one-of-a-kind artworks, made entirely by the communities they belong to.
