Dame Rangimarie Hetet Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire was a New Zealand Māori tohunga raranga.
Background
Hetet was born in Oparure, King Country, New Zealand on 24 May 1892, the daughter of Charles Wilson Hursthouse and Mere Te Rongopamamao Aubrey. Through her father she was a niece of Richmond Hursthouse and Henry Robert Richmond. As her father was generally away for survey work, she grew up amongst Ngati Kinohaku, a hapū (sub-tribe) of Ngati Maniapoto.
In 1899, her father instructed for her to live with a European family at Paemako near Piopio, where she started her schooling.
Education
After breaking her arm aged nine, she returned to live with her mother, and attended Te Kuiti Native School and then Oparure Native School.
Career
She identified with the Ngati Maniapoto iwi. She was unhappy with the arrangements and a year later, she moved to live with an older half-sister in Kāwhia. She was taught the art of weaving korowai (dressed flax cloaks) by her mother.
He was descended from a French whaler.
They had two children before he went to fight in World War I, and another three after his return. He was effected by gas poisoning and died suddenly in 1938.
In the 1950s Hetet escalated her weaving efforts as a result of encouragement received from the Māori Women"s Welfare League. From that time onward she began to regularly produce cloaks and other items.
Contemporary Maori Art Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton (1976)
Craft New Zealand Europe (1978–1980)
Rangimarie Hetet and Diggeress Te Kanawa: Korowai Weavers Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton (1979)
South Pacific Festival Portuguese Moresby Museum, Portuguese Moresby, Papa new Guinea (1980)
Feathers and Fibre Rotorua Art Gallery, Rotorua (1982)
East Nga Uri Whakatupu - Weaving Legacies: Dame Rangimarie Hetet and Diggeress Te Kanawa Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato.
Membership
Hetet was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1973 Queen"s Birthday Honours, promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1984 Queen"s Birthday Honours, and finally, in the 1992 Queen"s Birthday Honours, elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.