List of Works H to L
He Tipuranga At home learning with mum. She a visual teacher with the knowledge watching the weave of creativity in a Hakopa mokopuna coming to understand who they are. Me the mokopuna is retelling stories from the old people contained within the hand written family whakapapa. I saw mum sit for two days writing both sides of our whakapapa before letting me go to the pakeha art school. She started our Awahou line in writing with Jacob Hakopa. I saw the pattern in her words as the weave of Te Ao Tapu shined from her pages.
2024 Size 6Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas
Heaven and Earth a veil of the mirrored lake viewed from inside the wharenui walls. We weave life through breath to their ears listening from eternity as the call to our tupuna signals an eye opening. The paepae stands on the edge of another universe who awakens to hear life from the present through hui and tangi.
2023 Size 5Ocm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
Hehe Hakopa ruled his mauri with a Maori bible and wove stories for the family encased into the karakia inside. He taught all his children to use the karakia and waiata like a mere searching through a person to find and speak to their inner spirit.
2024 Size 5Ocm x 60cm Acrylics on Canvas
Hei Tiki the feminine in Maoridom. In myth her skill beyond the knowledge of trees. To us she is both talisman and kuia named for ancestors and proverbs of those on the other side. I saw my mum bless my hei tiki Te Wai Whero in the awa waters. As she lay the heavy pounamu on top of the water I was surprised to see it float as she began her karakia. The hei tiki literally began swinging from side to side swimming away up the awa as mum spoke her old words. My mum grabbed it back and growled my hei tiki saying 'no you don't' so matter of factly.
2001 Size 5Ocm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
Hine Nui Te Po the mother goddess at death's door. Breaker of the immortal body of Maui, protector of souls, and entrance to the afterlife behind her. Her symbolic carvings set inside nga wharenui across papatuanuku churning to the wairua and chants of her people.
2022 Size 1.2m^ Acrylics on Canvas
Hinerua Self portrait of a mother with her first daughter and a continuation of te ao tapu. I knew I was having a girl when I realised her father came from Ngati Hine. For me I felt the need to encase my girls to maori baptism in our awa so my whakapapa from mum would lead their journey into life with familiar guardians like Pekehaua and Hinerua. Tawera and her younger sister were also influenced growing up around my own brothers and sisters carrying on our Awahou customs of where we come from first. Rangiwewehi spirit safeguards them today as they continue customs visiting their uncles in the north then returning to the Pa in the south like a familiar woven pattern.
2000 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
Hinemoa and the Pennydivers Tells the story of the pennydivers of Whakarewarewa who dove for pennies as tourists threw coins off their bridge. They were made famous through tourism that embraced the swimming feats of Hinemoa swimming across the motu for her love of Tutanekai on Mokoia Island.
2021 Size 5Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas
Horn of the Pacific the Maori battalian was famous during the war for playing musical instruments from cutlery to hamonica and guitar during a lull in battle. Their ability from warriors to performers keeping up moral with songs and dance was acknowledged through the writings about the Maori prowess from later turkish german and english writers.
2023 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
Housing Suitors The life of a busy single mother hiding from her commitment to whanau and faith for friends. The old world can push through to the present when practising Maori mahi. Sometimes I felt the wairua of my tupuna invade my life and reset the path drawn out for me as a Maori storyteller as friends came and went while the mahi whakapapa grew stronger in painted images.
1998 Size 75cm x 9Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
Inside the Well of Jacob Poutama and the karakia up the steps to our Maori universe of heaven through dreams and song. Stories about old Jacob the first weaving the english bible into Maori ways of seeing was often pondered when mum spoke of her spiritual side. She said he sealed all our descendants to the crossroads in the dreaming bible story of the ladder and Maori Poutama. Jacob embraced leaving the old practices of cannibalism and war behind is all my aunties said about his story. Mum maintained her link of strength from her own grandfather and left the old to sort the old.
2018 Size 1.2m x 9Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
Inside the Wharenui The wharenui threshold opens like an eye at the time of the tangihana and during this time the world of our dead awaken to welcome a new soul to their side. Mum taught us one prayer with her bible. The Lords Prayer in english or maori didnt matter it was how you used its wisdom when needed. Mum was a great performing swan to me watching on by the awa or listening to her speak about their Poutama ways of seeing.
2022 Size 5Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas
Island beneath The Island The mythical story of the Rangiwewehi lands and their peoples spirit world beneath the Island of Mokoia. Stories tell of the old wairua of such tupuna were only awoken for the most sacred of events, a blood wrong to the tribe. Signs in nature bring warnings as the elements reach out to speak after the loss of a great soul to the family so even the old spirits rise to acknowledge feats of their life.
2025 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
Jacob's Creek The source of old Jacob's mauri was Te Wai Whero the first stream of Awahou that awakens during flood times. Many of the children today have not been told of the stories of the little stream that runs parallel to the awa beneath the papakainga.
2023 Size 9Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas
Jacob's Ladder Mum spoke of the way up to Poutama through our dreams existing within Paipera Tapu. Each time the paepae speaks the steps to the ladder home opens but having your voice carry over the door through to another level is best left for the old. Youthful speakers were food for some on the other side as humility and charm combined comes with experience not confidence.
2021 Size 5Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas
Kaiwhakaako the ultimate teacher for mum was her father's oldest brother Hunuhunu Hakopa. "I only teach innocence" was his lesson for all Mokoia Island teachers. Hunuhunu gave her te whakapapa, Ngahara te paiperatapu and her father Te Waere gave her guardianship of papakainga land.
2024 Size 1.2m ^ Acrylics on Canvas
Koroua's Guitar... The flute of a guitar when passed down to mokopuna by great speakers. The instrument signaled the knowledge of love honour and suffering in stories contained within music.
2021 Size 5Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas
Lady of the Lake guardian by name and nature unmoving of faith to the temptations of belief she guards the gateway to Mokoia Island's cemetary of chiefs. The wonders of their old baskets of knowledge beyond human sight of those students and tourists who visit today. Their world unmoving with the times.
2024 Size 1.2m x 9Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
Lila The hebrews speak of 'the way', and Maori call this the path of our sacred thread through the immortality of our children. I listened to mum karakia words from the Maori bible using a tone of voice saved for great karanga as te kupu danced from her pages while in this painting her father watched on from the other side.
2020 Size 1.2mm x 9Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
