Designer’s gift to her son ‘IT’S A DREAM COME TRUE’

Kiri shares how opening up about her family’s history has strengthened their bond

- Kasia Jillings

When fashion designer Kiri Nathan and her broadcaster son Astley committed one year of their lives to learning te reo Māori full-time, they expected to learn a new language. But they didn’t realise how life-changing the journey would be.

For Kiri, it was both a deeply traumatic and healing experience, as she delved into her family’s history and faced head on the mamae (hurt) and whakamā (shame) of her whakapapa (ancestry) and upbringing.

While for Astley it was a powerful reclamation of his roots and this journey has given him a sense of true belonging.

Speaking about her decision to take a year offto study, Kiri, who is celebrated globally for her self-titled clothing label, reveals she had been trying and failing to learn te reo for 20 years.

“My business and my life were based around te ao Māori [the Māori world] and I got to a place where I couldn’t take another step forward without learning my language,” says Kiri, 48.

Very quickly, Kiri realised the full-immersion year at Auckland’s Te Wānanga Takiura o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori o Aotearoa wouldn’t be easy.

“When you’re used to working at a certain pace and achieving, and then you sit in a classroom with 32 other people and everyone else seems to understand and you don’t, it’s really humbling. Not being top of the class really hit my ego,” she laughs.