Craft Curriculum: The future of craft education in Aotearoa

5.30pm doors and drinks
6pm conversations begins

Level one, Objectspace
13 Rose Road, Ponsonby

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As part of Objectspace's Craft Curriculum series, join Carin Wilson, Natalie Robertson, Richard Fahey and Tessa Forde for a kōrero presented in conjunction with .

Using Carin's 1983 ‘Realising the Potential’ paper as a starting point, this kōrero explores the future of craft education in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Bringing together perspectives from across education, making and practice, the conversation considers where craft education could go from here, and what possible futures might emerge.

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Carin Wilson (Mātaatua, Ngāti Awa, Tūhourangi) began making furniture in Ōtautahi Christchurch in the 1970s, after leaving law school to pursue a creative career. Since then, he has become a pivotal figure in New Zealand’s creative landscape, particularly advocating for Māori participation in design and urban development. He was a leader in the country’s craft movement in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, promoting dynamic discussion towards defining an aesthetic reflective of Aotearoa and advocating for the value of craft practice. Alongside his furniture making, Wilson has exhibited sculpture extensively, has taught at tertiary institutions and is founder and director of Studio Pasifika, a multidisciplinary design and architecture studio. Wilson has also held a number of leadership positions across institutions, including as founding member and inaugural chair of Ngā Aho: Network of Māori Design Professionals, president of the Designers Institute (1991–93) and president of the Crafts Council of New Zealand (1982–85). His practice continues to span different disciplines and kaupapa, including the 2025 sculptural commission Ngā Poutiriao Torohū and the further development of Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi.

Centring Waiapu River, the ancestral river of Ngāti Porou – world-famous for its erosion – much of Natalie Robertson’s creative practice and research is based in Te Tai Rāwhiti, her East Coast Ngāti Porou homelands, to advance Māori counter-narratives to settler-colonialism. Robertson is a photographer, moving-image artist, writer and Associate Professor at Auckland University of Technology. Her PhD thesis, ‘Tātara e maru ana: Renewing ancestral connections with the sacred rain cape of Waiapu Kōkā Hūhua’ (2021) led to the photographic series collected by Te Papa Tongarewa. Natalie is a principal lead in AWA (Artists for Waiapu Action), alongside tohunga taiao Graeme Atkins. Their project He Uru Mānuka, He Uru Kānuka (2024) was exhibited at the 11Th Asia Pacific Triennial (APT11), Gallery of Modern Art in Meanjin Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Richard Fahey is a senior lecturer within the School of Creative Industries, Unitec, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. His research activity has largely focused on material culture within Aotearoa via the historical and institutional contexts of education, collection and exhibition. These activities take the form of writing, curating and active participation in the visual arts sector as a teacher, speaker, assessor and advocate.

Tessa Forde is an architectural designer, researcher, and educator based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Forde is a co-director of architecture practice Groupwork Aotearoa, organises with pre:fab platform, co-organised the Free School of Architecture in Los Angeles, and founded The Night School. Her practice explores how experimental gathering platforms provide spaces in which new realities can be imagined and deployed to disrupt and reshape the field of architecture. She is currently working with her co-conspirators on a new architecture and built environment school – pre:fab school.

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Objectspace’s Craft Curriculum event series is developed to accompany Carin Wilson’s retrospective exhibition , extending his work in advocacy and education around Aotearoa craft and design.