Aiaikitekura (Aiai) Kavana came to New Zealand when she was 10, till then she had been living with her grandparents in Aitutaki.
During the 1950-60's a number of Cook Islanders, including her mother, had come to Hawke's Bay to work as cook/housekeepers, farmhands, railroad workers and on other labouring jobs.
They formed a small close-knit Cook Islands community here, often joined later by the children they had left behind.
As Aiai grew up with her grandmother she had become steeped in the traditional ways of her Aitutaki village as she sat in on the women's social gatherings.
Under the shade of mango and breadfruit trees she absorbed the stories as the women chatted and stitched tivaivai/tivaevae, their embroidered appliqué work.
The change in the Cook Islanders' lifestyle here meant traditional crafts took a back seat but with the encouragement of her female relatives, Aiai realised that these New Zealand-born Cook Island women had not been taught this unique work.