StarWars.com is shining a light on those who truly give the saga its power: the fans. In this Fan Spotlight they focus on Graham Hoete, a.k.a. multi-disciplinary Māori artist Mr G, who recently created a wooden carving of Boba Fett’s iconic helmet, but it almost didn’t happen.
He crunched and finished the piece on time, always with the goal of presenting it to Temuera Morrison — the Māori actor, and one of Hoete’s greatest heroes, who plays the beloved bounty hunter in The Book of Boba Fett. But due to COVID-19 and the safety challenges it created, the exchange had been delayed several times. Yet there he was in Rotorua, Morrison’s hometown in New Zealand, gifting his art to the man behind the armor.
“It was a beautiful moment,” Hoete tells StarWars.com over Zoom. “It was a bit of an epic life moment for myself.”
When they met, Morrison offered a traditional Māori greeting called the hongi, in which two people touch, nose-to-nose, for a moment. It was a recognition of their heritage and Hoete’s work, which he calls a “huge honor.” Given the chance, Hoete made sure to tell Morrison just how important he is to the Māori of their shared home country, New Zealand.
“There was a moment there where I said, ‘You know, we’re extremely proud of you.’ Seeing Temuera on such a global stage, playing the main role as Boba Fett — for a lot of young Māori, that’s a huge inspiration,” Hoete says. “I just wanted to acknowledge it face-to-face. And so, I said that to him. ‘We’re extremely proud of you. It makes me proud to be Māori.’ And I could see he got a little bit teary there, because I know it means a lot to him. So, yeah, it was very special.”
Crafting a helmet fit for a Fett
The opportunity to craft the helmet came from, of all things, a gumboot. Or rather, it came from Hoete’s gumboot (a specific type of rubber footwear with long-standing ties to New Zealand) art piece. He created a large-scale work of art that was auctioned off to benefit mental health, garnering national coverage — and catching the eye of Stacy Flahive, content marketing manager at Disney, who’s based in New Zealand.
“She was blown away by it, really, and just thought it was really cool,” Hoete says. “And she had sent an email inquiry through my website, and that was essentially how it all started. From there it was actually my wife that told me. She was like, ‘Oh hon, you’re not gonna believe the inquiry that came through.’”
Hoete quickly got to work, sketching out his basic ideas for a carving of Boba Fett’s helmet, using his own replica version for reference, and then hand-carving every inch. As he explains, his technique, and carving in general, has deep roots in Māori culture. For Hoete, his work would be a celebration of his people just as much as it would be of Boba Fett. “I really wanted to honor our culture, as well, in this piece,” he says. “The wood that I used was what we call kauri, and it’s native to Aotearoa, [the Māori name for] New Zealand. In Māori culture, we have a lot of stories of kauri, as well. We call it the whakaruruhau, or the protector. We have these beautiful stories infused into the actual wood itself. And so, you know, we didn’t just use any old wood. We had wood that had meaning, that had story, that had a connection to Temuera. It’s laying those foundation stones for this piece. All that stuff just adds to the uniqueness of the piece and the finished product.”
The completed carving is a stunning work. More than just a wooden version of Fett’s helmet, it features beautiful etchings and wave-like swirls that hold important meaning, relating to both Boba Fett and the actor bringing him to life. “We have patterns in Māori culture called the puhoro, which relates to Māori warriors having speed and agility. Also one called the mangōpare, which relates to strength, bravery, tenacity, all those things,” he says. “So, it’s just understanding those surface patterns, what they mean, and using them within a context that’s appropriate for the piece.”
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