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Vivienne Mountfort and Riki Manuel, Mango Pare (Hammerhead Shark Design), 1995
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TitleVivienne Mountfort and Riki Manuel, Mango Pare (Hammerhead Shark Design), 1995
DescriptionVivienne Mountfort and Riki Manuel (Ngāti Porou)
Mango Pare (Hammerhead Shark Design), 1995
Handspun wool, tōtara wood, pāua shell, plywood
Courtesy of Lincoln University Art Collection
Mango Pare (Hammerhead Shark Design) was made by renowned textile artist Vivienne Mountfort (1918–2004) in collaboration with master carver Riki Manuel. Vivienne’s watery off-loom weaving forms the background for a makōpare — a hammerhead shark — carved from tōtara wood.
Their partnership began in 1986, featuring Riki’s carvings of significant figures and symbols from te ao Māori (the Māori world), mounted on Vivienne’s weaving. A traditional kōwhaiwhai pattern, the makōpare design is used to represent strength, persistence, and resilience. This is echoed in a whakataukī (proverb) from Riki’s iwi, Ngāti Porou: ‘Kia mate mangōpare, kei mate wheke’ — ‘Don’t die like an octopus, die like a hammerhead shark,’ encouraging one to act with shark-like tenacity.
Through her textiles, Vivienne explored her relationship with te ao Māori as a Pākehā person. This was addressed in her 1986 work, Te Whakakotahi o te Maoritanga me te Pakehatanga, which at the time was translated as ‘The unifying or coming together of the Māori culture and the culture of the white settlers.’ Considering her incorporation of toi Māori (Māori art) within her practice, art historian Jonathan Mane Wheoki observed that her practice was ‘enriched by the acceptance of difference and the commerce of ideas’.
DateMay 2025 - February 2026PhotographerSam Towse
DescriptionVivienne Mountfort and Riki Manuel (Ngāti Porou) Mango Pare (Hammerhead Shark Design), 1995
Handspun wool, tōtara wood, pāua shell, plywood
Courtesy of Lincoln University Art Collection
Mango Pare (Hammerhead Shark Design) was made by renowned textile artist Vivienne Mountfort (1918–2004) in collaboration with master carver Riki Manuel. Vivienne’s watery off-loom weaving forms the background for a makōpare — a hammerhead shark — carved from tōtara wood.
Their partnership began in 1986, featuring Riki’s carvings of significant figures and symbols from te ao Māori (the Māori world), mounted on Vivienne’s weaving. A traditional kōwhaiwhai pattern, the makōpare design is used to represent strength, persistence, and resilience. This is echoed in a whakataukī (proverb) from Riki’s iwi, Ngāti Porou: ‘Kia mate mangōpare, kei mate wheke’ — ‘Don’t die like an octopus, die like a hammerhead shark,’ encouraging one to act with shark-like tenacity.
Through her textiles, Vivienne explored her relationship with te ao Māori as a Pākehā person. This was addressed in her 1986 work, Te Whakakotahi o te Maoritanga me te Pakehatanga, which at the time was translated as ‘The unifying or coming together of the Māori culture and the culture of the white settlers.’ Considering her incorporation of toi Māori (Māori art) within her practice, art historian Jonathan Mane Wheoki observed that her practice was ‘enriched by the acceptance of difference and the commerce of ideas’.
DateMay 2025 - February 2026PhotographerSam TowseConnections
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Written ByErin Lee
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Vivienne Mountfort and Riki Manuel, Mango Pare (Hammerhead Shark Design), 1995 (May 2025 - February 2026). Selwyn Stories, accessed 18/10/2026, https://selwynstories.selwynlibraries.co.nz/nodes/view/6990