Based in Rotorua, Valerie Parkes (b.1963) has been plaiting kete since 1988 and completed a Diploma of Maori Craft Design at Waiariki Polytechnic in 1991. Her works are delicate and beautifully crafted with a fine attention to detail and tradition. She describes, 'Working with flax and its fibre, muka, is very soothing to the spirit, while at the same time encouraging the odd well placed callous. I am at my happiest in the middle of working on a kete, be it cutting the flax, stripping out the muka with a mussel shell, plying it, dyeing it, beating it to soften it, whatuing (weaving), adding feathers or tags, or photographing it for my journal. The possibilities for decoration are endless... The flax bushes I planted are coming to maturity and look good. They are taeore from Te Kuiti via Tina Wirihana. I love this link with Diggeress Te Kanawa and her whanua, and my grandmother who lives there.'

Parkes also studied briefly with highly respected weaver Diggeress Rangituatahi Te Kanawa: 'Valerie was an excellent student and to me a true artist. I have two of her pine needle small bowls that I treasure. Valerie is one of the weavers of traditional Maori weaving with knowledge of the preparation of flax to obtain fibre to weave, and with also the knowledge of traditional dyes. May she continue to maintain one of the Arts of Aotearoa.'

Parkes has received many awards for her work, recently winning the 2003 Rotorua Artists' Textile and Fibre Award at Rotorua Museum. Judging an earlier work Carole Shepheard commented, "Valerie's work is small, beautifully made and introduces some non-traditional materials into its construction. Both the inside and the outside of the vessel have been sensitively considered and it is a work that has a quietness and presence."