The Future of Fibre Aotearoa ~ In Em's Words 05.11.26

Mōrena e te whanau!

Nau mai, haera mai! Welcome to the launch of Future of Fibre Aotearoa: Reimagining the value of New Zealand fibre!

Can I invite you all to have your Imagination Hats on this morning?

Thank you Professor Huhana Smith for your mihi

Acknowledge:

His Worship the Honourable Andrew Little – we will hear from him once I’m done

Me:

Emily Christine Miller-Sharma

Miller: Bio dad. Born, raised, lives in Seattle

Sharma: My dad, born in India, moved to New Zealand when he was 15

A year ago – literally to the day – FTNZ hosted an event in Parliament to basically be like “pay attention! What we have to say is important!”.

On that same day, dad went to hospital because of the pulminary fibrosis he developed from COVID three years prior. He died in that hospital on the 2nd of December, aged 70. This loss is still unfathomable to me, but I hold him with me now.

Emily: Great grandmother on my bio-dad’s side. Born in England she made her way to Seattle via Montana

Christine: Mum. Averaging her parents, she is a 2 and a half generation New Zealander, mostly from Scotland and England

My quals:

Commercially:

I am the General Manager at my family’s company. Have been there for almost 20 years, and GM for about 12. We are based in Auckland and employ 105 staff across New Zealand.

The better-known part of our group is RUBY – 9 stores, design and develop RUBY + Liam Lingerie, and currently produce a quarter of our product here, the rest in China.

The less-NAME-known part, but probably interacted with more, is our uniform arm. We for example make the uniforms for Auckland’s bus + train drivers and parking wardens.

My connection with FTNZ:

Kate Sylvester and I founded FTNZ in 2019. We founded it because, in our bones, we knew that collaboration was the most impactful way to progress the development of our beloved industry. And, to protect what Kate calls the “endangered bird” that is our local manufacturing sector.

I am now Vice-Chair of the FTNZ board, and have been part of the governance group of this Future of Fibre work. Truly this work has been some of the most exciting stuff of my career to date.

Fibre, fibre. Materials, materials

While fibre is not JUST about making materials (Imagination Hats, people!), materials are my daily life, and so that is the lens I use to look at this FOFA work when I have my Commercial Hat on

We all know the importance of materials:

• The physical sensations
• The contribution, or potential contribution, to the economy
• The sense of purpose that comes from the making of them
• The ability to tell a story of who we are – as a person or a culture

All of these things are interlinked, they create a web of connection, and belonging – to ourselves, and to each other

A story of who we are that I have been recently been fizzing over can be told through wool and harakeke. The counterbalance of colonial agriculture – that’s the sheep and the wool, in case anyone is in the wrong room – and indigenous knowledge through riperion planting of harakeke along a farm’s waterways.

To come back to what I said earlier about Kate + I’s starting point of collaboration – a crucial part of the Future of Fibre work is that the potential of both of these fibres is considered. To be the most impactful, we cannot silo our fibres, just as we cannot silo our businesses or industries.

As a side note on harakeke that totally buzzes me out: speaking with scientists at Bioeconomy Science Institute (and please, I am not a scientist so I’ll do my best): unlike other fibres, there is not a consensus on WHAT a harakeke fibre is – you can split it and split it until it’s down to its molecules.

I know many of you were at the Nuffield Scholarship presentations at Parliament last night. Clare Bradley, one of last year’s recipients, spoke beautifully about the work she has done with her scholarship, looking at how to scale her area of expertise: seaweed.

SO, if I may be so bold as to quote The Dude from The Big Lebowski “Oh man. My thinking about this case has become very uptight!”

This story of colonial agriculture and indigenous knowledge that could be told through a harakeke + wool blended material is strengthened by thinking about our physical place in the world.

This incredible island, where most of our market, or potential markets, must be accessed over the sea. A very large moat, if you will. Surrounded by seaweed.

Seaweed can be produced into a cellulosic fibre like the viscose that many of you will be wearing today.

Seaweed, harakeke + wool. The potential story we can tell with this hits me right in the heart.

This morning

After Worship the Honourable Andrew Little, we will hear from:

Lee-Ann Marsh, Chief Executive at Agmardt. My gratitude to Agmardt for the financial and strategic support on this project knows no bounds

Jane Montgomery, producer, and Chair of FOFA governance group. I have had the privelege of witnessing Jane’s combination of expansive thinking and pragmatism, and her ability to wrangle a LOT of Chatty Cathies in the governance group has been inspiring

Jacinta FitzGerald Chief Executive of FTNZ. Kate and I are credited with founding FTNZ, and yup it’s the type of hare-brained scheme that only a couple of designers would have the gumption to do. But Jacinta has been with us since the beginning, and has been the driving force of FTNZ’s growing influence.

We will also hear from Kelly McClean who has worked alongside Jacinta on the FOFA project. I think that we shouldn’t be allowed alone together. Both of us just can see the infinite possibilities, and literally who knows where we would end up

To finish:

To return the The Moat: I have heard it come up a bit recently. And yes sure, we each have our own lil enclaves that we nurture and protect. But it’s important for us to keep central in our Imagination Hat that there is a much larger moat, around our whole country. If we work together, the possibilities and power become so much greater.

Mayor Little, it’s now your time to shine

Read the full report linked here.