In the third installment of our Te Wiki Āhua o Aotearoa story, we find ourselves seized by the echo chamber. A space where the glamour is loud, the pressure hits harder and the line between opportunity and exploitation becomes dangerously thin.

This is not your hero’s journey. It’s a mirror held up to an industry that grooms and consumes. Where control is dressed up as mentorship, and creativity is traded like currency. Yet, we find ourselves returning. Not because it’s easy, but because it matters. Our stories matter.

We give everything because we know, every season of Āhua, that this might be the last time we get to make this stand. We’re a community of young, scrappy, and hungry creatives that show up to the arena seemingly ill-equipped and eyes bigger than our stomachs.

Every show this August 22nd – 30th is more than just a runway, it’s a declaration. It’s a stand for what we value, what we protect, and what we carry forward as a community.

Runway 14

Show Title - Angel of Time

An angel falls backwards into the future, eyes locked on the wreckage piling at its feet. “Angel of Time” by Te Rina Coffin of Vessels of Decay, featuring jewellery designer - Platform, is a meditation on decay - on what we lose in the name of progress, and what refuses to stay buried. Through shredded feathers, ghosted korowai, and silhouettes that look half-remembered, this solo show explores the cycles of collapse and return. Sacred cloth frays. Māori motifs, once protective and ceremonial, are pulled through the storm, reworked and reborn. This isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about the aftermath. And maybe…what comes after that.