List of Works D to G
Door Panel When I was little some of the ngongotaha kids would come to the awa and ride surfboards down the river past the Pa catching fish with giant hooks. The old people watching from afar would see the disrespect and send their moko down to get them out for using pakeha practices on our awa.
2022 Size 1.2cm x 3Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
Dozen Nappies Series 1 to 4/12 Nappies were objects I saw growing up around the Pa. Utilising the common nappy as a headscarf for weather and illness of the ears or a hanky or baby blanket when needed showed the versatility of pakeha inventions stopping our babies crawling naked and free.
2000- Size 5Ocm x 6Ocm Acrylics and Mixed mediums on Cotton Nappies
Dozen Nappies Series 2 to 4/12 old time practises did not allow children and babies inside the wharenui. Today we embrace all the family inside the big house to strengthen the oral and visual passing on of knowledge. Before mum's koroua passed over they sealed great karakia around the old wharenui. Sometimes koroua would lament the old wharenui is known to call to mokopuna when its lonely for our sacred stone spirit.
2000- Size 5Ocm x 6Ocm Acrylics and Mixed mediums on Cotton Nappies
Dozen Nappies Series 3 to 4/12 old time practises believed babies could be unprotected and open to the dangers of the old tohunga realm through their innocence. Cannibalisim was only a few generations back in time for some Maori families in mum's time. My art tutor told me his pakeha culture nukked people without a second thought so I shouldn't be ashamed of a bit of cannibalism in history.
2000- Size 5Ocm x 6Ocm Acrylics and Mixed mediums on Cotton Nappies
Dozen Nappies Series 4 to 4/12 babies were breast fed at anytime without embarassment as a natural part of our way of life. I watched my older cousins dealing cards while rocking babies slept and fed happily on their laps. We included our mokopuna rather than excluded them from our card games around the motu. Babies would be passed around the table while a game of cards was in play. Nanny kakawa adored babies but the older you got the closer to her temper you would be.
2000- Size 5Ocm x 6Ocm Acrylics and Mixed mediums on Cotton Nappies
Disability Maori Style caring for disabled clients using Maori support methods to cheer the spirit. I painted a picture for two lonely pakeha souls living in a concrete world. These two had to travel to see nature and bath in her healing properties and it reminded me of how lucky our old people are back home.
2000- Size 5Ocm x 75cm Acrylics and Mixed mediums on Cotton Nappies
Drumbeat of an Island Mokoia island bird life echoes across the misty lakes as the towns sleep at night. The swish of water washing up to the shores of our island give peace to those in eternal sleep. Beneath the lake old people talk of another world of taniwha and other sea creatures existing in the spiritual realm of caverns.
2023 Size 5Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas
Family Shelter reflects the meaning of the lores of whangai to Awahou. When a child has been adopted by a family they are baptised a true member by spirit above the blood. Some returned to their own whakapapa as adults to complete their family journey while others returned to share the knowledge they were given.
2021 Size 75cm x 5Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
Fan of the Good Book A pun from Uncle Simon whose pakeha job was a magistrate judge. He spoke of the sacred meaning of Paipera Tapu to our family and Pa of Awahou and how he practised this in his mahi. I first saw uncle up north discussing family affairs with mum in front of the courthouse. It always surprised me how many of mums family found her when they came to the north. Her sister ella brought her whole family up one time and mum enjoyed her time with Awahou in the north.
2017 Size 5Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas
Feeding Funnel Two of my northern nannies descend from an old tohunga blood where one tupuna was fed from a carved funnel when active in the spirit world. They saw through natures eyes was a way of describing this to pakeha friends. Mum said we had both north and south tohunga within the whakapapa but she preferred to stick with her bible.
2021 Size 5Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas
Female Tohunga speaks of the sacredness of tradional chants, protocols and customs on papakainga land. Those with gifts like mum and auntie kato were sacred to a tribe as many families travelled to ask their guidiance. I watched mum karakia in front of my house not caring who saw or heard as she sealed the whare and whakapapa with her own mana on a foreign land. We call this whakapono or truth. I felt the tingling inside me as she spoke those same old words I heard Papa speak by the awa when I was little. Today many mokopuna indulge in tohunga ways to guide themselves forward when they are away from home, working or creating maori mahi on foreign whenua.
2023 Size 1.4m x 1.2m Acrylics on Canvas
Five Kuia Ahi Koinga the fireplace of Pop's old home woven with blankets for warmth. Before proper housing the families lived in makeshift shacks with dirt floors and a wood fire in the centre of the single room. Shelter was a place of sleep but days were spent outside in the gardens nurturing kai for the family.
2023 Size 50cm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas
Five Sisters The bonds of repeated patterns next to each other strengthens te ao tapu. These are my mum and four of her six sisters. Wise cracking teachers of Awahou who enjoyed their own party era back in the day. They could throw out jokes while playing some serious card games but the fiesty tempers on the lot of them if you disagreed. Like my mahi they are a force unto themselves when it came to Awahou as the flow of knowledge would just pour from their lips like water from the awa.
2024 Size 75cm^ Acrylics on Canvas Nappies Series
Four Winds symbolises the karanga of sisters with the gift to call up the wind elements during a time of tangihana. Great nanny Taurarua was a master of nature as mum retold the stories from Poppa Bob about his mother's skill in the karanga. She also did not like her photo taken so pictures were a Te Arawa thing Taururua didn't indulge in prefering gardens and mokopuna instead.
2024 Size 75cmx 60cm Acrylics on Canvas
Gloucester Road memories of walking up the road knowing that each house offers a child comfort with a simple cup of tea or piece of bread. During a time when it was safe to let the tamariki roam the family road freely.
2005 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
Grass Skiing off the mountain The childhood games made from found objects. The bus stop before school had cousins playing spinning tops marbles and grass skiing on cardboard down the hill.
2022 Size 6Ocm^ Acrylics on Canvas Nappies Series
Guide Sophie Her story during and after the eruption of the Pink and White Terraces. Her home remained standing after the eruption of Mt Tarawera that buried the terraces a great wonder during the 1800s. I painted Te Puia for a mechanic who was also a kiwi from back in Aotearoa. He had her photo. I took her photo home to her family. She reminded me of mum and how we brought mum home to Awahou after she passed over. Te Puia came from the north and remarried and stayed forever in Te Arawa dedicating her famous life to its people.
2022 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
Girl with gifts A visual picture of how I saw mum as a young gifted puhi wearing her mana like a shield during growing modern times. She was different up there in the north. Mum looked forward to the trips back home to Awahou giving dad any excuse as he would joke. Maori see the need of feeding our wairua by revisiting our whakapapa and whenua and mum was no different. Like her sister kato lessons as a child prepared her for the role up north holding onto their northern cloak. But she also ensured her knowledge of her children and the afterlife for Rangiwewehi would safeguard her final trip home when the time came.
2025 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
