'Interweaving in New Zealand Culture: a Design Case Study'

Abstract

Carin Wilson is one of New Zealand’s significant designers and makers of studio furniture. This analysis of his career is enmeshed with New Zealand contemporary craft history, and the national Pākehā (non-Māori) organization that advocated for craft issues and education from 1965 to 1992. During this period and subsequently, Wilson negotiated his bi-cultural heritage to engage in one-of-a-kind furniture-making as well as benefit non-Māori and Māori communities and the nation. Unlike New Zealand’s coat-of-arms, which portrays its founding cultures as equal yet separate, Wilson’s career shows that New Zealand’s cultures merge into each other, manifesting in hybrid individuals and communities.