From Ngati Hine and a descendant of Hine A Maru, Maude is one of New Zealand's longest-established textile designers.

She creates garments, duvets, manchester, hats and ties and has produced a range of garments for Dame Te Atairangikaahu, the Maori Queen and the Maori Women's Welfare league.

In the 1960s she began working with tufted wool, making images and murals. Several years of exhibiting these resulted in pieces bought for collections in NZ and overseas. A highlight was the Wool Board Commission for the NZ Embassy in Beijing.

Maude already had the skills of sewing and construction and in 1971 she did a night class ("Teach Yourself to Screen Print") and subsequently started printing.

She set up a workspace at home, printing, sewing and selling the garments. Hanna Te Hemara of Maori Affairs gave her strong support, promoting her work and wearing her clothes and often compering her fashion shows. Maude also supplied retail in Auckland, Rotorua, the South Island and Australia, along with commissions and direct selling to many overseas visitors.

Her work has always been colourful and she says she likes to educate women to wear bright colours.

Maude is a one-woman business; she does her own designing, printing and marketing. The fabrics are screened and block-printed. She uses cotton, silks polyesters and crepe micro-fibres.

Recently, she has also been making korowai (traditional cloaks) from ostrich and emu feathers, combined with print.

Maude particularly enjoys meeting the clients and getting direct feedback. She works out of Whangarei and can be contacted on 09 4596693 or 025 6035546.