Marquesan patterned child's shirt

Wahine Toa

This shirt was created by Nita Pilago of the Hawaiian label, Wahine Toa, which is Maori for ‘strong women’. In 1993, Nita attended the World Indigenous People’s Conference on Education in Aotearoa New Zealand. During the conference, Hinewirangi Kohu, a prominent Maori poet, activist and artist, encouraged her to attend a theatre play called Wahine Toa. The play resulted in several recurring dreams which led to her changing her company from Anela Designs, after her husband, to Wahine Toa Designs.

Nita Pilago began making women’s wear, but expanded into men’s wear due to demand.

Honouring cross generational and cultural binds

This shirt was made especially for a young boy who lives on Maui Island. Nita recalls the young boy tugging on his mother’s arm for one her aloha shirts. At the time, Nita hadn’t produced any keiki (children) clothing and felt compelled to produce something for the young boy who wanted to wear it for his class photo. Nita arranged for two to made for the boy to try on. This shirt is one of the two produced.

The pattern was drawn by Nita's son, Che Pilago, an artist and tattooist. While working on the Hokulea, the Polynesia Voyaging Society's main voyaging canoe, Che met Tava Taupu, who was from Taiohae, Marquesas. Taupu had joined the Hokulea crew in 1975, and was a veteran sailor, carver and canoe builder. Che created the artwork in honour of their friendship and the close cultural binds across the Pacific.

Keeping it in the family

Nita Pilago runs Wahine Toa from her home in Kona on Hawai’i Island. Many of her family members are involved in the business, from creating design work to helping staff the company’s popular pop-up stalls at events such as Merrie Monarch and the MAMO wearable art show (the company does not have a store nor do they wholesale).

‘The art … is done by myself, my husband, Angel, my son Kaleo and my son Che. All four of us contribute to the art of my clothing, my line. So that’s a fun part of the designing too, using my family art in the whole process.’

While designed in Hawai’i, this garment was individually hand painted and printed using the Batik wax process in Bali, by another family run business.

Co-collecting in Hawai'i

This shirt was acquired by Te Papa during a co-collecting trip to Hawai'i in 2017. Te Papa worked with Noelle Kahanu, a cultural specialist from the University of Hawai‘i, to develop collection of aloha shirts that reflects the ways in which Hawaiian culture has been historically represented, and misrepresented, through the aloha shirt, and the ways in which contemporary native Hawaiian designers are utilising the aloha shirt to communicate indigenous cultural values. This shirt was purchased directly from Nita Pilago.

Te Papa’s co-collecting programmes are guided by the principle of mana taonga – the sharing authority with stakeholder communities.