Talent aplenty: From left, local designers Rokahurihia Ngarimu- Cameron and Peni Taehi, showcase compere Karen Hattaway and Kuma Māori Business Awards organiser Karmela Rapata

This month’s inaugural Queenstown Māori Pacific Designers Showcase will include clothing by two local ‘‘superstar’’ designers.

They’re Māori tohunga raranga ‘master weaver’ Rokahurihia Ngarimu-Cameron, who moved here in February to be with family, and Pacific
designer Peni Taehi, who’s lived in Arrowtown for about eight years.

The showcase is being held at BuzzStop cafe on September 26 before the Otago/Southland Kuma Māori Business Awards in the resort four nights later.

‘‘Out of that we decided to pull together a series of events that wrapped around that to further celebrate and amplify our Māori voice here,’’ local-based awards organiser Karmela Rapata says.

Other southern designers being showcased include Amber Bridgman and Niki White.

Ngarimu-Cameron will exhibit 12 of her Māori cloaks, or korowai, that she says incorporate ‘‘our ancestors’ knowledge’’, while being designed for 2023.

In 2011 she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori.

Taehi, meanwhile, will be presenting the collection he designed for the Pacific Fusion Fashion Show at NZ Fashion Week in Auckland recently — the event’s first-ever standalone Pacific segment.

Local restaurateur Karen Hattaway, who’ll be compering the Queenstown show, says ‘‘I feel very honoured to be introducing this gorgeous talent we have’’.

‘‘And to have two very local superstars in the fashion industry, Māori and Pasifika, is incredible.’’

Local Ican talent agency owner Tracy Cameron, the show’s creative director, is coordinating the models for the show.

Tickets for the September 26 event are for sale via kuma.co.nz; doors open 6pm, show 7pm.

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