IRIHIPETI
CO-CREATING LIVING ARCHIVES
AT THE INTERSECTION OF KINSHIP, SPIRITUALITY, MENTAL HEALTH & TIKANGA MĀORI
KO WAI AU
A people and practise weaver of multi-dimensional stories, Irihipeti Waretini is a Māori artist, creative director, and decolonial practitioner whose work navigates the intersection of cultural healing, storytelling, and artistic expression. Drawing from Pasifika wayfinding and Māori epistemology, her projects focus on Indigenous ways of knowing, belonging, and remembrance, blending visual art, sound, movement, and ritual.
Irihipeti’s art explores themes of grief, ancestral connection, and ecological stewardship, with a particular focus on ritual and mourning practices and their relationship to the environment. Her bodies of work embrace holistic, cyclical, and relational creative practices that honor both personal and collective histories. Irihipeti is committed to rematriation, self-determination, and the reclamation of Indigenous cultural sovereignty. Her work is a call to return to the sacred, to heal from colonial trauma, and to reconnect with the land, ancestors, and each other.
Resume Request
He uri au noo Ngaati Rangi. Ko Irihipeti Waretini taku ingoa.
Past Projects
Image of Ipu Ti by Shuttermain Photography featuring Irihipeti Waretini & Fipe Preuss
HONONGA
BLAK DOT GALLERY, 2025
HONONGA is an interweaving of bloodlines across oceans; seeds dispersed by Tāwhirimātea, of kinship across timelines; A crafting of cosmologies through cycles of life and death. Restoring the balance within our stories of place and belonging. An acknowledgment to Country, HONONGA affirms community anchoring under a shared canopy of presence, culture and care.No hea koe? Ahakoa he aha te rākau, me ngākau whakaute te whenua.
(Where are you from? No matter the tree, to cherish the land)
MĀREIKURA:
Kā rere te rongoā
IMMIGRATION MUSEUM AUG 24-FEB 25
Māreikura: Ka rere te rongoā (the medicine flows) is a contemporary display of traditional Maori cultural practices which shape a narrative centring the celestial sacred feminine in a dramatic show of identity, healing and kinship.
Image credit: Tiff Garvie
Resonance
Gathering around shared rhythm, values, and purpose, 6 Narrm-based interdisciplinary and intergenerational artists of the diaspora, weave together their creative and cultural practices for the crafting of story and ceremony. Presented by Multicultural Arts Victoria and Melbourne Museum.
Main image of Irihipeti, inset of Hayes Keepa (L) Kaycee Merito (R) Tim Te Hau (BG) Image credit: Gianna Rizzo
TE PŌ
An ensemble of highly skilled warriors navigate the formidable realms of unintentional greatness. Created and directed by Irihipeti Waretini. Written and Performed by Te Ara Hononga. 5 sold out shows presented by Fringe Melbourne 2023 & Maribyrnong City Arts & Culture.
Main image of Taonga Wiata. Inset of Mahana Neho by Tom Noble.
Film credit Project nRt & Irihipeti Waretini
Carving Gang
A collaboration with Kaiwhakairo Hayes Keepa. Sharing culture and traditional cultural practises in contemporary and creative settings.
Main image of Pou Atakau: Guardian between worlds at Melbourne Museum. Inset Djirri Djirri dancers Welcome to Country. Images credit Gianna Rizzo. Film credit Irihipeti Waretini.
Ipu Tī
Ipu Ti is a weaving of contemporary and classical performance art with traditional Pacific/Maaori storytelling co-created by Fipe Preuss & Irihipeti Waretini. Tikanga, traditions and rituals for Pacific peoples are centred around people, land, our environment and our connection to food. Through ritual, the elements and engagement with our communities, we develop, shape and share our conversations through various modalities including classical and acoustic guitar, song, chant, language, traditional instruments, drumming, ukulele, movement and fire.
image credit of Fipe Preuss by Irihipeti Waretini
Djeembana Whakaora
A co-collaboration between First Nations and Māori, Pasifika Diaspora living on sacred Aboriginal Land. An online exhibition with Geoffrey Kaye Museum that recognises and values traditional modes of care and knowledge transmission of health and healing.
Rangituhia Marae (L) Brent Watkins (R).
Image credits Irihipeti Waretini