Toi Te Rito Maihi

Toi Te Rito Maihi (Ngāti Ipu, Ngāi Te Apatu o Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Hau o Taitokerau, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Kauwhata, Bland Family Yorkshire) was a master weaver, printmaker, painter, writer and educator.

Born in Hastings, Hawkes Bay, she won a scholarship to the Queen Victoria School for Māori Girls in Parnell, Auckland, where she attended as a boarder. She went on to train as a primary school teacher at Auckland Teachers’ Training College where she met her future husband, Berry Maihi. The pair were married in 1957 and went on to have five children whom they raised alongside their teaching jobs in Northland, Moawhango (Taihape) and Auckland. Toi also tutored in polytechs throughout New Zealand, and at the University of Auckland for a year.

She began exhibiting her creative work in the 1970s, becoming a full-time artist in 1976. Her work has been shown in Australia, the USA (New York, Hawaii, Utah) and Germany as well as throughout New Zealand. From the 1980s through to the 2000s she was a guest speaker at several conferences and events in NZ and Australia, and also ran workshops in both countries.

In 1990, Toi contributed to the Commonwealth Quilt project co-ordinated by Joan Caulfield, and travelled to Canada to formally hand the quilt to the city of Victoria. In 1994 she was one of five artists commissioned by the Wellington International Festival Directorate to design and execute large installations as festival features.

She served on several councils and committees, including being a founding member of the Aotearoa Moananui-a-Kiwa Weavers Committee (now known as Te Ropu Whatu, Raranga o Aoteaora), the Māori and South Pacific Arts Council (MASPAC), the Crafts Panel of the QEII Arts Council of New Zealand, and the National Executive of Nga Puna Waihanga.

A wide-ranging author, Toi published a large body of material including poetry, short stories, papers, reviews, non-fiction articles, catalogue essays. She also illustrated numerous books and her art works have been reproduced in various publications. She was a key contributor to Whatu Kākahu: Māori Cloaks (2011), the publication accompanying Kahu Ora, Te Papa’s landmark exhibition on Māori cloaks.

She lived in Tai Tokerau Northland where she was master weaver for Kohewhata Marae in Kaikohe from 1999, and went on to found the Kaikohe Kura Aho Weavers Collective.

Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery, MTG Hawke’s Bay Tai Ahuriri, and Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato.

See also:

• Toi Te Rito Maihi: Biography (Kōmako website)
• Toi Te Rito Maihi - Wikipedia
• Commonwealth Quilt, Te Tuhi
• Toi Te Rito Maihi, ‘Te Kaitiaki O Ngā Tikanga Toi Raranga’, The Pantograph Punch, 20 June 2020
• Royna Nganui Fifield-Hakaraia, ‘A Sacred Art’, Sheperdess, Summer 2021/22 Issue