List of Works A to C
3 Black Swans The Great Migration of Ohomairangi, included their black swans. Their highpitched cries called to the winds of Tawhirimatea to help guide their waka from the whirlpool as they sang to apease Ngatoroirangi's anger.
2020 Size 60cm x 9Ocm Acrylics on Canvas Awahou
7 Medicine Bowls The Arts of healing were carried in carved ornaments and bowls made of stone for the long journey to a new future. These were later buried by tohunga to acknowledge their arrival in their promised lands of Aotearoa and sealed for future guidiance from their sacred mauri. The bible has an opposing story naming our sacred spirits that resided inside 'pestilince'.
2018 Size 60cm x 9Ocm Acrylics on Canvas Tai Tokerau
The Female Artist
The feminine of sharmanic mahi of a tohunga line through the female womb. Through our koroua and kuia we inherit tohunga blood and this can be seen through inspired written, performance and visual arts of our family through the generations when we look back to the Island of Mokoia. In english the story talks of an artist living overseas calling home through her mahimahi
1998 Size 9Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas Tai Tokerau
A Breastplate The breastplate was worn by sacred women who had the strength to lead and be guided by te whenua of their womb's male line. They were wahine toa to their men and guarded for their barefoot hunting abilities. The story of the breastplate comes from Aaron in the bible.
2019 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas Sarah Hera nee Hakopa
The Awa Ceremony
Calling to the awa...When I was a child I watched my Pop stand by the river and karakia to his family in the afterlife. I saw him bless ornate treasures of his family and clean his bible with old old words not spoken in modern times of te reo. He and his brothers would meet at the old church to discuss matters of their family into the future and like all maori ensuring the safety and continuation of maori ways of life.
2020 Size 9Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas Tai Tokerau
The Bridge of Awahou
It is the weaving of the rite families of Awahou as the thread begins with Old Jacob's pathway home to the living. The stars represent all the whangai to Awahou we have in our families and how they lead the way on the bridge to mending broken fences between families. It’s the story of the way to find Rangiwewehi through the navigation of stars, and the forgiveness of those sinners who seek us for their wars through the church.
2017 Size 5Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas TBA
A New Testament The old and the new church of nga tamariki o Te Awahou. to walk the path between is to find the light for all the tribe to see.
​
2021 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas Tai Tokerau
A Royal Game of Cards During the time of the old chiefs gatherings they were always on the lookout for breeding stock. To them hunting was an artform they enjoyed. They enjoyed the command of the hunt and better still, the prize at the end. The families of Rangiwewehi descendants were like shining beacons to such hunters who could transcend time in prophetic universal methods of spirit to make claim to precious puhi blood. *See The Doorway to Eternal Life page for elaboration. In english it is a warning if you try to play cards against the Awahou leagues club you would have lost before you even began due to their prophetic abilities against trouble.
2019 Size 1.2m^ Acrylics on Canvas Tai Tokerau
Ahi Koinga The way of the fire. This was an old sacred ritual of threading names in cleansing fashion through breath and fire. Those kuia who knew the way could make words travel into the future as a token of talisman for their small children, the breath hidden in sacred baskets of knowledge.
1998 Size 6Ocm^ Acrylics on Canvas Tai Tokerau
An Island Resume Is an example of the power of the masculine wairua to walk and talk the earth baritones to open and guide their waka forward as navigators. In english this is a maori suit for maori mahimahi.
​
2020 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas Awahou
Band of Brothers Is a celebration of families who inspire through the arts, their children's cultural advancement into the future. The Awahou Leagues Club was created by Rangiwewehi elders to raise funds by baking, sewing, and supporting their local and surrounding whangai communities. Rangiwewehi teachers maintained old customs with new inspired thoughts stepping up the ladder of life with fun and lots of poetic laughs from humour.
2022 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas Motutapu nee Hakopa
​
Basket of Knowledge Every nanny has a story in their basket of knowledge for their mokopuna. Each story woven with morals and deeds to steer their mokopuna into the light. This still is the way of our wairua today for Te Arawa. On arrival on new land a tohunga would set up the same coordinated navigation for 'the coming of the maori' way so to speak. At Maketu the Tohunga raised Te Arawa's waka vertically burying the carved stern to complete the landing ritual for their new home. Using its wood from Hawaiiki-nui with sacred unspoken karakia he connected back with our sacred origins, and united us as one with the island beneath his feet. This work retells the story of how this old practice of knowledge is carried through sacred bloodlines still migrating todate
2019 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas Tai Tokerau
​
Blue Swan Represents the teaching of nga karanga. Some are versed in many dialects and customs through age and visual experiences linking their wairua with the winds no matter the land, they could call their tupuna across the winds to attend and guide their journey to tangi mea hui. For Awahou it represents all the aunties who have stood in the place of their nannies and called on manuhiri to our pa.
2018 Size 5Ocm x 7Ocm Acrylics on Canvas (Ahipene's mum, the karanga queen}
​
Branches of a cherrytree. Polynesians are masters of breeding as their lessons come from observing nature. Mokopuna are like the new shoots of branches extending from the tree roots of land. By adhering to lores of nature some new branches remain with the tree growing stronger by 'bowing' to that which gives them life. Some are grafted to extend life in other trees or begin new life on new lands. A tree, like nature, will react to the weight of too much inbreeding on itself that weakens to the point of endangering the original source of the main trunk and thereby risking the life of all belonging to that tree. The aim of introducing new life to an old tree is to ensure the main tree's future not the branch growing off it. If a branch becomes too heavy they are excluded of mauri to save the tree itself.
2020 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas Te Arawa Motutapu nee Hakopa
Butterflies Nature and flowers, birds and bees, and her flowers. These were my mother's favourite pasttimes. She used her gardens to create her colourful feminine beauty, whilst strengthening her legs for old age hoeing the soil reciting karakia in rhyme listening to the stories of the land beneath her feet.
2019 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas Te Arawa
​
Cards Under the Cherrytree Weaving stories around the shuffle of cards. The click click of knitting needles, kids in the background swimming, babies being cooed by their nannies. All familiar memories to stimulate the senses of old perspectives woven by the cherrytree family. It was a ritual of our mum's to have card games under the cherrytree with her many cousins and family of Awahou.
1998 Size 75cm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas Nanny Kakawa
​
Cards Under the Cherrytree 3 T
2023 Size 75cm x 9Ocm Acrylics on Canvas
​
Cards on a Blanket Professional card sharks some nannies were as they planned their weeks around the motu private games for money. Wairiti was not to be messed with... but neither were The Matriarchs from the east of Darby.
2020 Size 5Ocm x 6Ocm Acrylics on Canvas Te Arawa
The Chief & his Puhi
The secrets of our tohunga line hidden beneath the dress of Ripeka. We came to another land to stand and show the inspiration of our family cloak of Te Arawa. A perspective in the bible of what lays beneath Joseph’s cloak.
2014 Size 9Ocm x 75cm Acrylics on Canvas Matekino Vallender
​