Vereara Maeva-Taripo

Vereara Maeva-Taripo (also Vereara Maeva, Vereara Teariki Monga Maeva, Vearea Ngarangi Teariki Maeva BEM; born Aitutaki, August 27, 1940; died 2019) was a Cook Islander political organiser also known for her quilting of tivaevae.

Biography Maeva-Taripo was born and raised on the island of Aiutaki. She originally trained as a school teacher and later worked in public service before becoming involved in non-governmental organisations. Her husband was a doctor, and the couple had three sons and one daughter.

Political work Maeva-Taripo served as the president of the Cook Islands Association of Non-Government Organisations (CIANGO), often pressing local government to consider environmental issues. Much of her organisational work stemmed from her observation that alternative support networks were needed as kinship networks began to fray.

She participated in feminist organisations and projects, reporting on the challenges women face in the Cook Islands, and starting organisations such as Cook Islands National Council of Women (CINCW), which she founded in 1984. She summed up her attitude as, "I just want women to realise their potential as women." She has been interviewed and featured in academic works on feminism in the Pacific.

Art

Textile work Maeva-Taripo learned the craft from her aunt and grandmother and made her first tivaevae at age sixteen. and the United States, and are held in the collections of several Cook Island institutions. Her work is often depicted in academic writings about the medium. :71 In 2001, Maeva-Taripo sold one of her tivaevae, which had won the highest honours at the National Council of Women's annual conference the previous year, to the Rarotongan Beach Resort and Spa for $10,000 (in New Zealand dollars), which was an unprecedented sum to be paid to a quilter.

She positioned tivaevae as central to her identity as a woman from the Cook Islands, with the communal labor serving as a place for socializing, networking, and expression. Tivaevae (2015) in Queensland Art Gallery.

Her tivaevae are in the collection of Oceanside Museum of Art in United States, Christchurch Art Gallery, in New Zealand, and a dress, or mu'umu'u, she made, is in the collection of the British Museum.

Music Maeva-Taripo composed her first song at age nineteen. The majority of her songs are about legends or Cook Island culture. She was also a singer and competed in national contests. She wrote and recorded songs, some of which are preserved in the New Zealand National Library. Some of her songs were recorded by other artists as well.

In 2010, Maeva-Taripo served as the leader of the Cook Islands Music Association, which was part of UNESCO meetings on intangible cultural heritage.

Discography

Vereara Maeva and The D.O.G. Band, Korero; Araura taku ipukarea (Arorangi, Rarotonga: Teura Music Productions, 1997)