Bethany Matai Edmunds is a multidisciplinary artist and curator whose practice re-imagines tūpuna kōrero to speak to contemporary Māori urban experience. Grounded in ngā taonga tuku iho and committed to their transmission, her work bridges ancestral knowledge with present-day realities, ensuring cultural practices remain visible, relevant, and alive for future generations.

Raranga is central to her practice. Taught within her whānau and further shaped under the guidance of esteemed cloak weaver Nikki Lawrence, Edmunds refined her weaving practice while completing a Bachelor of Applied Arts: Māori Design and Technology. She later extended this kaupapa internationally through a Master of Arts at New York University, where her research examined the conservation, storage, and display of Māori cloaks across four museums in the United States — interrogating how taonga are cared for and contextualised beyond Aotearoa.

On returning home, Edmunds spent seven years at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum as Youth Outreach Programmer and Associate Curator Māori, strengthening connections between rangatahi, taonga, and institutions. Most recently, she designed and delivered the inaugural Tai o Hi Tai o Ha Wānanga Toi Series , a Toi Ngāpuhi initiative supporting emerging artists across Te Tai Tokerau to pursue creative pathways grounded in their own whakapapa and communities.

Through making, research, and curatorial leadership, Bethany Edmunds advances a practice that honours mātauranga Māori while actively shaping its future presence.

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