“Manawa Rau has become embedded in our performance culture. The many different elements of Manawa Rau help us to conceptualise what performance is about — the good times, the tough times, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows — the duality around performance that sometimes you can’t explain but can feel; the ultimate pursuit of dominance in the performance realm while providing meaning, substance, purpose and strength from the spiritual realm and Te Ao Māori.
“Manawa Rau is the pou – the pillar of guidance and steadfast strength. It’s so uplifting.”
The Māori artists who created Manawa Rau — Tairāwhiti ta mako artists Maia Gibbs and Henare Brooking — have strong connections to the Silver Ferns and netball in general.
Henare (Ngāti Porou, Rongowhakaata, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Tuwharetoa) is the nephew of Netball New Zealand President Tina Karaitiana.
Maia (Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Kahungunu) is the son of former Silver Ferns player and coach Leigh Gibbs, who competed in three world cups, including captaining the Silver Ferns to victory in 1987.
Leigh Gibbs had no idea her son was helping to create the design until it was presented to the Ferns team.
The opportunity for Maia and Henare originally came about through Leigh’s other son Pera— the strength and conditioning coach for ANZ Premiership champions Northern Mystics.
Mystics captain and Silver Fern Sulu Fitzpatrick had mentioned the team’s wish to incorporate an indigenous design into theirworld cup dress.
Maia and Henare, who work out of the Toi Ake Māori art gallery they established in Gisborne, had just designed a jersey for the New Zealand Warriors, which they wore in their NRL indigenous round match in 2022.
Called Te Amokura, it was an “expression of connection, unity and identity”.
The Silver Ferns wanted a design which linked them to the players who had gone before them while also representing who they were as players today.
“Henare and I are really only pencils to their designs,” Gibbs said. “We are truly grateful and humbled they came to us.”
It was important to the two artists that their work was more than just a drawing on a dress.
“We are tā moko. We move in a Māori space where everything has meaning, everything is inclusive,” Gibbs said. “We didn’t just want it to be a design. It needed to be grounded.
“That’s what’s really special to us. From when we had the first korero with the team last year to coming back and hearing their thoughts on what we had delivered has been really amazing.
“We’ve learned how they’ve added their own whakaaro (understanding) to what we had given them and seen how it has been reflected as an entirety.”
Fitzpatrick, a travelling reserve for the world cup, said the team were thrilled with the way the design captured what their campaign represented.
“Our patterns placed intricately on our black dresses represent Te Ao Marama — light and life — and Te Pō — darkness and hard times — working in tandem,” she said. “The duality of light and darkness, challenge and clarity, feminine and masculine attributes, Te Ao Māori and our own world views.”
Within the design name, Manawa represents the heartbeats of Silver Ferns players of the past, present and future beating in unison.
Rau is the multitudes — not only those who have worn the dress, but all those who sit behind every player. Rau is also a fern frond.
Around the skirt of the dress runs the taniko weaving pattern Aramoana, which represents the pathway to the sea, symbolising the players’ wider connections to family, culture and nature.
The sharp angles of the niho taniwha pattern reflect the style of netball played in New Zealand — agile, dynamic and explosive.
The shark’s teeth represent the rows and rows of Silver Ferns past and present, the strength of their collective.
A continuous red thread runs through the design, signifying “a human rope”.
“In a literal sense, we turned our minds back to when we were kids watching the Silver Ferns play — that moment when they all stand together for the national anthem,” Gibbs said.
“In a metaphorical sense, it’s a line of whakapapa that ties them together — the opportunity they have to play together — facing the now while acknowledging the past.”
There are a couple of unique features on the back of the dress.
Down the spine run five small patiki (diamond-shaped designs symbolising “the womb and the power and strength of women”) — one for each of the Silver Ferns teams who have won the world cup.
“It’s a pou tuarongo (the back wall post of a meeting house), the legacy on the players’ backs,” Brooking said. “And now they’re ready to add to that legacy.
“And not to put them under too much pressure, we mentioned when we presented the design to them that hopefully this collaboration will continue and we can add a sixth pātiki after this world cup.”
A figure that may not be spotted immediately is a small, stylised lizard.
“It represents āaui — the greatest shapeshifter of all,” Brooking said. “It’s about being able to adapt, problem solve and be elusive under pressure.
“That’s the narrative for the team; when they are in pressure situations, they have a solution to overcome any challenges in front of them.”
Brooking and Gibbs are proud of the dress design, putting toi Māori on the world stage and representing their iwi, hapū and the people of Te Tairāwhiti.
“They’re grateful for the mentorship of their artist fathers — Jack Brooking is a tohunga whakairo (carving expert), and Dr Tipene Gibbs is an accomplished Māori artist.
And they’re appreciative of the opportunity to collaborate with the Silver Ferns.
Their connections to this world cup campaign continue through to the mauri stone gifted to the Silver Ferns last week — a piece of pounamu carrying the energy and spirit of New Zealand’s world cup captains before them.
The carver, Dean Marjoribanks, is the uncle of Maia Gibbs’ son, while Brooking has worked with him and they share whakapapa connections to Te Whānau-a-Apanui.
