Description
All of our HineKURA range are made right here in Hauraki, with recycled bike inner tubes sourced from local bike shop Jolly Bikes in Thames.
And don’t forget, we look after our HineKURA for life! If you ever need them repaired etc, just send them to the gallery with a stamped self-addressed envelope and we will take care of them for you.
The coloured earrings use a special paint that’s good for rubber, but they will weather over time.
We recommend not swimming or sleeping with them on.
They are usually painted on one side only as the majority of our customers wanted the backs black to prove they were bike innertubes!
ABOUT
Aroha Hathaway made her first pair of HineKURA about 5 years ago when she couldn’t do IronMāori anymore after being diagnosed with polymyalgia. She took all of her old innertubes to the bike shop so they could be recycled. The bike shop said, “That’s not a thing.”
So, she embarked on a new mission – to repurpose the waste she had unwittingly contributed to for many years.
The first pairs were ugly! And she had a full time job and a teenage son… which meant she couldn’t devote much time to the mission.
A few years on and she has left that old full time job and now owns the ArohArt Authentic Māori Art Gallery in Thames. She has had many versions of these earrings in the gallery, all made by different people, some even from ex-pat kiwis overseas. Now that she has more time to create, she has started refining her own offerings and the HineKURA range was born!
