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Georgina May Young, Ara Manawa, 2025
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Title Ara Manawa, 2025 
DescriptionGeorgina May Young (Te Ūpokorehe, Te Whakatōhea, Irish)
Muka, indigo, coreopsis, uku, mineral watercolour, gum arabic, houhere, linen, cotton
Steven Junil Park invited Ōtepoti Dunedin artist Georgina May Young to contribute an artwork to The Soil Addresses Us As One, using natural dye plants from Gina Russell’s 2025 harvest.
Central to Georgina’s textile art practice is the use of taonga materials, including native plants and whenua pigments. In Ara Manawa, she uses two taonga materials used in customary raranga weaving; muka (harakeke flax fibre) and houhere (lacebark). The embroidered nohoanga (chair) and hue (gourd) are stitched with muka, and the trim at the bottom of the work is made with houhere. To colour these materials, Georgina used Gina’s natural dye plants. The blue colour comes from Japanese indigo pigment and yellow is from coreopsis flowers.
In using these non-traditional dyes to colour native plant fibre, Georgina sees them bringing their own whakapapa (genealogy) to sit with the taonga materials. Georgina believes their whakapapa includes Gina’s role in growing them, saying her ‘hard mahi, dedication, and hope [are] embedded in wild, joyful colour.’
The embroidered and painted elements represent symbols that Georgina reflected on when approaching this project and the materials used. A kaitiaki figure speaks to the care of those who garden, the noho taniwha (taniwha teeth) pattern referencing whakapapa and the transmission of knowledge, the tānekaha (celery pine) plant embroidered to reference a native dye plant.
The reverse of the work is purposely displayed. Georgina shows us the often-hidden underside of her embroidery, encouraging us to appreciate the unseen systems that sustain the connections between us and the environment.
DateMay 2025 - February 2026PhotographerSam Towse
DescriptionGeorgina May Young (Te Ūpokorehe, Te Whakatōhea, Irish) Muka, indigo, coreopsis, uku, mineral watercolour, gum arabic, houhere, linen, cotton
Steven Junil Park invited Ōtepoti Dunedin artist Georgina May Young to contribute an artwork to The Soil Addresses Us As One, using natural dye plants from Gina Russell’s 2025 harvest.
Central to Georgina’s textile art practice is the use of taonga materials, including native plants and whenua pigments. In Ara Manawa, she uses two taonga materials used in customary raranga weaving; muka (harakeke flax fibre) and houhere (lacebark). The embroidered nohoanga (chair) and hue (gourd) are stitched with muka, and the trim at the bottom of the work is made with houhere. To colour these materials, Georgina used Gina’s natural dye plants. The blue colour comes from Japanese indigo pigment and yellow is from coreopsis flowers.
In using these non-traditional dyes to colour native plant fibre, Georgina sees them bringing their own whakapapa (genealogy) to sit with the taonga materials. Georgina believes their whakapapa includes Gina’s role in growing them, saying her ‘hard mahi, dedication, and hope [are] embedded in wild, joyful colour.’
The embroidered and painted elements represent symbols that Georgina reflected on when approaching this project and the materials used. A kaitiaki figure speaks to the care of those who garden, the noho taniwha (taniwha teeth) pattern referencing whakapapa and the transmission of knowledge, the tānekaha (celery pine) plant embroidered to reference a native dye plant.
The reverse of the work is purposely displayed. Georgina shows us the often-hidden underside of her embroidery, encouraging us to appreciate the unseen systems that sustain the connections between us and the environment.
DateMay 2025 - February 2026PhotographerSam TowseConnections
Subject (Keywords)ArtCollectionTe Ara Ātea Exhibition 2025: Close-KnitTe Ara ĀteaArt at Te Ara ĀteaImageSteven Junil Park 박준일, Stories from the Soil, 2025Gina Russell, Growing Textiles, 2025Christine Brimer, The Ways of Water, 2025Steven Junil Park, Gina Russell, Christine Brimer and Georgina May Young, The Soil Addresses Us As One, 2025
CollectionTe Ara Ātea Exhibition 2025: Close-KnitTe Ara ĀteaArt at Te Ara ĀteaImageSteven Junil Park 박준일, Stories from the Soil, 2025Gina Russell, Growing Textiles, 2025Christine Brimer, The Ways of Water, 2025Steven Junil Park, Gina Russell, Christine Brimer and Georgina May Young, The Soil Addresses Us As One, 2025Attribution
Written ByErin Lee
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Georgina May Young, Ara Manawa, 2025 (May 2025 - February 2026). Selwyn Stories, accessed 26/05/2026, https://selwynstories.selwynlibraries.co.nz/nodes/view/6982