Whitu 2020

Stevei Houkamau Ngati Porou, Te Whanau a Apanui, Rangitane He KÄ kano, 2018 Clay, Sigilatta, Proxy Glue, Gold powder, spray paint; 590 x 230 x 200mm

NFS

STEVEI HOUKAMAU He Kākano Tupuānuku is the oldest of Matariki daughters and is connected to the growing of kai in the ground, through this, we nurture, nourish and heal. When we see Tupuānuku shining bright in the sky it is a reminder to tend to our Pūkenga.

He Kākano speaks of its connection to not only Tupuānuku but also Papatūānuku. He Kākano sits on the whenua for it is through this connection that we can heal, grow and thrive. As we see with plants, without nourishment we will never meet our full potential. The whakapapa seeds that spill from He Kakano are unmarked with a future unwritten but with their whakapapa intact.

STEVEI HOUKAMAU Stevei's journey with Uku started with a small pinch pot at a Wananga with guest tutors Wi Taepa, Manos Nathan and Baye Riddell in 2011.

From that moment on, her fascination, commitment and love of Uku has continued to grow. Stevei is a member of Ngā Kaihanga Uku (Maori Clay workers Collective) and has been mentored in the early stages of her career by Wi Taepa.

Her works reflect the influence of her whakapapa and the impact and impression of her surrounding growing up in Porirua. You see a strong integrating of Maori and Pacific Island patterns that derive from Ta Moko and Tatau (tattoo). With a fascination and experience of Ta Moko and Tatau, Stevei is interested in how these art forms are used to accentuate and frame the body while telling stories of a people.... past present and future.

Stevei has exhibited both nationally and internationally and has been part of nationally traveling exhibitions as well as having her first public Solo show “He Kakano” at Pātaka Art + Museum in Porirua in 2020.

Arielle Walker Taranaki, Ng훮ruahine, Ng훮puhi, P훮keh훮 Not there yet, 2020 Knitted and embroidered badges on brass pins; L80 x W70mm

$110 each

ARIELLE WALKER I first made these badges as a reminder that there is still so much mahi to be done to dismantle/rebuild/unravel/reweave systems based in fairness and reciprocity. Right now these little words feel like both a defiant shout and a gentle reminder to hold on, to keep going, kia kaha, in whatever form of doing or notdoing or un-doing that means for you.

Arielle Walker (Taranaki, Ngāruahine, Ngāpuhi, Pākehā) is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based contemporary artist, writer and maker. Her practice seeks pathways towards reciprocal belonging through the intersections and connections between land, language, and craft, focusing on tactile storytelling and ancestral narratives.

Rose Greaves Ngati Kahu – Ngapuhi Hineukurangi (Clay Goddess) NFS Heitiki Uku - Salt Glaze, Pupu eyes, Korari Muka Kakahu, Wearing Amethyst taonga; L210 x W120 x D30mm On Loan from Vanessa Cole

Hinemoana (Sea Goddess) NFS Heitiki Uku - Vellum Underglaze, Paua Inlay eyes, Pingao & Dyed Korari with Embroidery thread Whatu Kakahu Wearing a Paua Taonga; L210 x W120 x D30mm On Loan from Emily Parr

Rose Greaves Hinetauira (Sacred Stones) NFS Heitiki Uku - Vellum Glaze, Turquoise eyes, Korari Piu Muka & Linen & waxed thread Whatu Kakahu - Chalcedony NZ gemstone taonga; L210 x W120 x D30mm On Loan from Awhina Murupaenga

ROSE GREAVES Atuawahine Heitiki As one of the first Kohanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa Mothers in Aotearoa I am a strong supporter of the revitalisation of te reo Maori. I enjoy combining my love of weaving native fibres with clay. To support my endeavours in Raranga Whatu and Uku I decided to develop a range of Atuawahine Heitiki to bring back the names of our female deities from the past to bring them back to the present. These are 3 from the Series.

Rose Greaves was raised by her grandparents in the Far North where she descends from Te Hiku o te Ika in Ngati Kahu and Ngapuhi from Hokianga. A mother & grandmother Rose currently lives in Ponsonby she teaches wananga for friends and whanau in the Art of Raranga Whatu and Making Taonga. She attends a weekly Clay Class at the Auckland City Mission and is interested in ending Racism and Homelessness in Aotearoa.

Hana & Rachael Rakena Ngāi Tahu, Ngā Puhi He waiata stoneware, acrylic; 600mm x 950mm x variable heights

$1800

Hana & Rachael Rakena Ngāi Tahu, Ngā Puhi He mōteatea stoneware, acrylic; 600mm x 950mm x variable heights

$1800

Hana & Rachael Rakena Ngāi Tahu, Ngā Puhi He oriori stoneware, acrylic; 600mm x 950mm x variable heights

$1800

HANA & RACHAEL RAKENA These three works take their inspiration from cosmogenealogical narratives, and particularly from the first line of a manuscript written in 1849 by Ngāi Tahu tohunga, Matiaha Tiramorehu.

“Kei a Te Pō te timataka mai o te waiatataka mai o te atua” The beginning of the singing of the atua is with Te Pō (The Night).

And so everything is sung forth; the realms of Te Pō, of Te Ao, of Te Kore...

The ceramic words create the only stillness on the light reflective black watery surfaces. Each word describes a traditional chant or song form, suggesting rhythms, patterns and waves of sound that stretch back to creation, sung forth to us.

An oriori is sung to a child before and after their birth. It tells them who they are and how the belong in the world. A mōteatea is the term that describes all Māori chanted or sung oratory forms from haka to laments. Waiata is both a noun and a verb, a song and to sing.

RACHAEL RAKENA (Ngāi Tahu, Ngā Puhi) Rachael coined the term 'Toi Rerehiko' to describe and locate her own video/ digital/ electronic-based art practice in terms of continuum, motion, and collaboration. Critiquing notions of fluid identity, Pacific understandings of space and water through metaphors of digital space as water space, inhabited by iwi Māori, her art installations have evolved to enculturate and politicize water itself, navigating issues of ongoing Pacific diaspora, flooding and rising sea levels, and decolonization/(re)vitalization. Rachael uses water as an amniotic medium to play out ideas of ‘otherness’, alienation, cultural loss, colonisation, immersion, through narratives of creation, desire, consumption, belonging and ownership.

Known for her collaborative practice, she has been exhibiting internationally for 20 years. Highlights include Aniwaniwa, the 52nd Venice Biennale; Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Canada; Contact: Artists from Aotearoa New Zealand. Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt; Haka Peepshow, The Octagon, Dunedin; FEEDFORWARD: The Angel of History/El angel de la Historia, LABoral Centre for Art and Industrial Creation, Gijon, Spain; Māori Moving Image, Dowse Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ; Te Puna o Waiwhetu Christchurch City Gallery.

Rachael is a senior lecturer at Massey University Whiti o Rehua School of Art in Wellington.

HANA RAKENA Ngāpuhi/Ngāi Tahu Hana Rakena’s vessels reference landforms, plants, shells and the human body. These organic shapes that reference the Māori concept of ihi (essential force). Hana’s works are handbuilt so that she can carve into them to refine the form, and gritty clay is used for the directional marks left in the process.

Hana’s fluid forms evoke the softness of the raw material and reflect connections between the human experience and Papatūanuku.

Terence Turner Tainui Four Fingers from the horizon Mouth, L 80 W95 x D55mm, Takaka Marble.

$1800 each

Terence Turner Tainui Four Fingers from the horizon Finger, L175 x W105 x D35mm; Colac Bay Argillite.

$1800 each

Terence Turner Tainui Four Fingers from the horizon Ear, L130 x W75 xD40mm; Basalt from Green Hills.

$1800 each

Terence Turner Tainui Four Fingers from the horizon Eye, L125 X W120 x D50mm; Colac Bay Argillite.

$1800 each

TERENCE TURNER Four Fingers from the Horizon Mouth= Kauae runga- knowledge - upper jaw Finger= Tuhi - to write, draw, record Ear= To taringa - to listen more carefully Eye= Haraurau - to see indistinctly like through the fog.

These forms speak of knowledge once held.

Shards of Kaupapa that knew of voyages.

My hands try to answer what I cannot know.

TERENCE TURNER Tainui, McLeod Terence has always made things; using object and physical form as a language to communicate story. He creates by deriving a core concept from an abstraction, leaving the observer to join their own dots, thus touching on the universal longing for identity, connection and culture. Tere enjoys the capacity of certain objects to speak for themselves, via medium, form, and personal reference; and to hold their own place in time and culture. In his work with pounamu, Terence seeks to explore the fluid importance of the stone. The diverse and changing tikanga and oral traditions around the stone, as well as the stories behind each piece of rock, give it a life of it's own that can be honored and reflected in his carving. In this exhibition, Terence's work explores the universal human desires for collection and connection. History's many examples of the collection of body parts, and the dehumanization of indigenous bodies, become an evocative lense through which to explore humanity's obsession with material possession, in an increasingly demoralizing society, deeply disconnected from its cultural roots. Terence has been working as a professional sculptor within the film and conceptual arts industry for fifteen years. He was Highly Commended in the New Zealand Jade Artists’ Society biennial carving competition in 2014. In 2015 he was invited by the Suzhou City Jade Carving Association to exhibit at the Zi Gang Bei exhibition in Suzhou, China, and was awarded a bronze medal. Tere lives and works in Wellington, Aotearoa, carving jade sourced both locally and internationally.

Mandy Joass Kete o te WÄ nanga, 2020 Kete Tuauri red wicker, recycled aluminum venetian blinds, harakeke; 800mm x 420mm x 380mm

$1400

Mandy Joass Kete o te WÄ nanga, 2020 Kete Tuatea black wicker, recycled aluminum venetian blinds, zip ties; 670mm x 370mm x 370mm.

$1350

Mandy Joass Kete o te WÄ nanga, 2020 Kete Aronui $800 recycled aluminum venetian blinds, monofilament, crystals (forming the Matariki constellation); 250mm x 200mm x 200mm

Alix Ashworth Te KĹ?hatu Mauri Ä Kete Aronui Take this small piece of hope, this small piece of humanity Use it wisely Pit fired, hand coiled recycled clay, hand pinched porcelain, cream glaze; L240 x W180 x H90mm

$800

Alix Ashworth Te Kōhatu Mauri ā Kete Tuatea Conflict is rising, be wary, take heed Hand pinched porcelain, Slab faceted hand mixed clay, black glaze, clay slip; L300 x W200 x H300mm

$1075

Alix Ashworth Te Kōhatu Mauri ā Kete Tuauri $800 Stand with me brothers Protect my Turangawaewae My Wairua My Māoritanga Hand carved recycled clay with Rakiura iron sand inclusion, Iron saturated glaze; L300 x W120 x H50mm

ALIX ASHWORTH Te Kōhatu Mauri ā Kete Aronui Take this small piece of hope, this small piece of humanity Use it wisely Te Kōhatu Mauri ā Kete Tuatea Conflict is rising, be wary, take heed Te Kōhatu Mauri ā Kete Tuauri Stand with me brothers Protect my Turangawaewae My Wairua My Māoritanga The Raven skull is based on the New Zealand native Corvus Antipodum (now extinct) and the two brothers Tane (hei tiki face) and Whiro (more human face) are based on Rakau Atua.

Tane and Whiro Brothers Competitors Vie for the right to ascend the heavens To the realm of lo Sacred knowledge to be gained Jealousy and rage Whiro is left unchosen He sends Pepetua to twart his brothers ascent.

The realms open for Tane He strives forward the kete in his grasp Aronui Full of hope Aroha All living things Tauri Tohunga teachings The world beyond physical touch Nature and energy Tuatea Darkness of thought Mākutu and Whaiwhaiā Within these baskets the Kôhatu hold the knowledge So that in time Tane can create mankind Instilling this knowledge in us For when we choose to ascend our own realms The realms of the mind We can truly see humanity as it can be

Tracy Keith Hiwa-i-te-rangi (the wishing star), 2020 Raku Fired Ceramic; 200mm x 300m

$1850

Tracy Keith PĹ?hutukawa Rising, 2020 Raku Fired Ceramic; 200mm x 300m

$1850

Tracy Keith PĹ?hutukawa Descending, 2020 Raku Fired Ceramic; 200mm x 300m

$1850

TRACY KEITH My work presented in this Matariki exhibition is called: “The Tears of Pōhutukawa” they are three works representing the stages of the Pōhutukawa star manly how this star connects Matariki to those who have passed from this world since the last heliacal rising of Matariki in the month of Pipiri, it is the reason Māori would cry out the names of their dead and weep when Matariki was seen rising in the early morning. When their spirit leaves the body and undertakes a journey along Te Ara Wairua, pathway of the spirits. This journey ends at the northernmost point of the North Island at a place called Te Rerenga Wairua, the departing place of the spirits. The dead travel along the rocky ledge towards the ocean where an ancient pōhutukawa tree stands. They then descend the aka (root) of this tree and disappear into the underworld. Below Te Aka, the long dry root of the pōhutukawa which does not quite reach the sea, is Maurianuku, the entrance to the underworld and the surfaces and growths protruding through the vessels reflect the encompassing legend of Pōhutukawa.

TRACY KEITH My vessels are a sculptural continuum of the non-place we tread, stripping back it’s rawness through growth and divisions of human settlements inhabited in crevices and folds of a dark universe of the human construct. The attachments are like shards of glass splintering the flesh of the land protruding and piercing the surfaces creating divisions that disrupted the natural order of the container, they are non-utilitarian in a sense they have become unusable and contain the memory of a vessel. They are growths within the land to compensate misuse of the whenua, which is becoming unusable and unrecognisable, objects that intentionally avoid the instantly recognisable and instead create abstracted forms that evoke memoires of the whenua (land) and that reflect something ancient and timeless. The Raku process has become the conduit between the past and the present, the representation of old industry interlaced with new industry, ancient rituals transcending to indorse the new rituals, Raku vessels that reflect tea bowls of Asia where they hold huge significance in ceremonial practices, vessels that hold life to give life, the whenua is but a vessel that holds life and gives life. They are vessels of our natural environment stripped-back, roughly cast and embossed forms, which help to transition between the modern and the past. The presence of the past in a present the replaces it but lays claim to it; it is in this conclusion that we see the essence of a non-place manifesting an idealistic memory of a place, that remembering of what was before a diaspora life set into cultural life. Raised in Tokoroa, Keith talks about his memories of the influence the local timber mill had on the way people behaved and how they lived. This is one example of many towns in New Zealand that were established in order to serve a major industry like paper mills, smelters and freezing works. Their largely Māori and Polynesian workforce becoming the local inhabitants who often relocated there for work which some have remained but most have moved on to other industries. Keith’s works appear to embody the heavy industrial foundations these towns grew from. Their crude appearance reflects the stresses and extremes that working in these factories and living in these communities brought with them. Many of his vessels show cracks and ruptures from the firing process – physically representing what Keith describes as the ‘breaks’ that many families had from their ancestral lands in-order to relocate for work opportunities.

Stills from moving image Jamie Berry & Stevei Houkamau Jamie Berry Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Porou, Ngā puhi) Ko Arikirangi tēnei rā te haere nei, 2019 $6200 Vertical single-door locker, moving image, soundscape, uku by Stevei Houkamau, these are offerings to each star.

JAMIE BERRY & STEVEI HOUKAMAU This Matariki I will be acknowledging the Pohutukawa star, the star that connects Matariki to the deceased. In honour of my tūpuna who built Rongopai Marae, a visual reminder where tradition collided with innovation, the rangatahi who painted the interior who may have felt whakamā after deemed tapu during their lifetime.

This work represents the creation of Rongopai Marae. Rongopai was built at Waituhi and completed in 1889, for the return of Maori leader Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki, founder of the Ringatu faith.

Rongopai commenced in 1886 on the family land of Wi Pere, head of Whānau a kai hapu of Te Aitanga a Mahaki tribe.

Wi Pere’s son Te Moanaroa led the build, which involved up to 500 people of Kahungunu and Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki decent involved at one point, to meet the short deadline the decision to paint the interior instead of traditional carving methods led to disapproval by the elders during final reveal in 1889. Te Kooti never returned to the district nor saw Rongopai in fear of retribution.

The locker represents Rongopai placed under a partial tapu for almost 80 years due to Te Kooti not returning and its fork art illustrations done by the younger generation. Rongopai was used for Ringatū services and as a house of healing during this period.

The soundscape references a passage from Toiroa’s prophecy ‘Ko Arikirangi tēnei rā te haere nei’ as the motivation to build Rongopai for the return of Te Kooti, it also references my DNA, using chromosome sequences translated into unique soundmarks using taonga pūoro, whenua and the surrounding environment, this making a direct connection between myself and my tūpuna.

Tiwhatiwha te pō, ko te Pakerewhā, ko Arikirangi tēnei rā te haere nei.

Dark, dark is the night. There is the Pakerewhā. There is Arikirangi to come.

– Toiroa, Ngāti Maru Tohunga, 1766 “Māori belief determines that when an individual dies, their spirit leaves their body and undertakes a journey along Te Ara Wairua, the pathway of the spirits. This journey ends at the northernmost point of the North Island at a place called Te Rerenga Wairua, the departing place of the spirits. The dead travel along the rocky ledge towards the ocean where an ancient pohutukawa tree stands. They then descend down the aka (root) of this tree and disappear into the underworld. Pohutukawa is the star that connects Matariki to the deceased and is the reason people would cry out the names of the dead and weep when Matariki was seen rising in the early morning.” It is through Pohutukawa that Māori remember those who have died in the past year.

JAMIE ANI ERITANA BERRY Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Porou, Ngā Puhi, Multidisciplinary Artist, Aunty Jamie is a Multidisciplinary Artist who explores DNA, identity, whakapapa whilst reflecting on past and current events.

Throughout her work Jamie blurs the lines between past, present and future through infused DNA based soundscape, moving image and installation. Originally from Tūranganui-a-kiwa and based in Pōneke, Jamie draws inspiration from both locations, moving between the two spaces, Tūranganui-a-kiwa is a place to gather source and guidance from whānau, tūpuna and whenua. Jamie is the founding member and active collaborating Artist of 7558 collective.

Tom Carroll Pūtātara Totara/Charonia Tritonis; L420 X H130 X W150mm

$2250

Tom Carroll Whanganui based Maori artist and musician Tom Carroll’s background as a sculptor and musician led him to Taonga Pūoro – Māori wind instruments. Over seven years Tom has refined his carving and playing skills since reading a book on Māori instruments. Tom works in found materials and native timbers using traditional and modern methods of construction. His mahi explores ideas around lost traditions and the potential of technology in the evolution of tradition.

Rapua te Mea Ngaro: Te Kohimu Parahi Searching for that which was lost: The Bronze Whisper