Activity A: Reflecting te taiao in the arts
Uncover some of the many connections with te taiao that are recorded through ngā toi.
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He pitopito kōrero Throughout traditional practices such as kōwhaiwhai, whakairo, tukutuku, and raranga, the natural world has been the provider of both practical materials and of deep inspiration. Place-based art traditions reflect the ecosystem that surrounds hapū and iwi Māori. This is evident in both the selection of materials (such as pounamu, totara or kauri trees), and in the shapes of abstract pattern – which often reflect the surrounding landscape. While the materials and art forms may have sometimes changed, contemporary Māori artists continue to express a deep and reciprocal relationship to place. |
Kauae Raro Commission, 2023, by Kauae Raro Research Collective. Te Papa
Connecting to whenua
Kōhatu, stone of many kinds from around the country (such as sandstone, obsidian, greywacke, and flint), have all been incredibly important to hapū and iwi. Many kōhatu are used in the creation of jewellery and adornment, others are used as tools. Can you guess the kōhatu that are used in these taonga ?
Visit your local museum and notice the ways that kōhatu were shaped and used by mana whenua where you live. What are the stone types that are commonly found in your area? What are the practices that are still ongoing and what practices have changed?
Kohatu, 1965, New Zealand, by Selwyn Muru. Purchased 1965. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Te Papa (1965-0020-1)
Many contemporary artists who whakapapa Māori continue to explore relationship to whenua, place and taiao. Selwyn Muru (Ngāti Kuri,Te Aupōuri) was the first contemporary Māori artist to have a work in Te Papa’s Collections. This painting, Kōhatu, from 1965, refers to the rock art of the South Island’s Waitaha people, the oldest art form known in Aotearoa. Built up from thickly textured layers of ochre paint, the surface of Kōhatu is evocative of a cave interior. Zoom in on the details on Collections Online.
Earth pigments, from all across Aotearoa, have been an important artistic medium for hapū and iwi, and the reclamation of these materials in recent years has resulted in a great deal of exciting work from a number of artists.
If you are non-Māori, take time to understand your role as manuhiri in relationship to the whenua you are on before engaging with earth pigments. Sian Montgomery-Neutze (Ngai Tara, Muaūpoko) has written advice for non-Māori about this.
For those that are ready to begin a journey with earth pigments, this set of pātai from Merenia Sawrey at the Kauae Raro Research Collective are a great place to start an investigation:
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He whakapapa ōu ki tēnei whenua? Kōrerotia mai. He manuhiri koe, he mokopuna rānei koe? |
Do you have a connection to this whenua? Describe it in a couple of sentences. Are you entering as a guest, or a descendent? |
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He aha ngā mahara i puawai i a koe i kōnei? |
What memories come to you when you are here? |
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Kua kitea te aha e te whenua nei? |
What do you think this whenua might have seen over time? |
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Ko wai te hau kāinga, te ahi kā rānei o tēnei wāhi? |
Who are/were the indigenous people that live/cultivate/harvest/hunt/fish/look after here? |
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Urupounamu atu ki te whenua, he aha rā tāna e pīrangi nā, e wawata nā? |
Take a moment to ask this place, what might your hopes, or needs be for the pigment you have collected? |
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He aha pea tō koha atu ki te whenua, mō tāu i tango ai? |
What might your koha (gift, often money) be to this place in return for what you have taken? |
Once you have considered your relationship to place, explore the whenua around you, either at school or at home.
Take a walk and use your senses to notice differences in the types of earth pigments that are found in the whenua. Observe the tone and texture of hillsides, banks, river edges, and cliffs.
Take photos of the different colours up close and record where each photo was taken. When you get back to school, you might like to print them out and arrange them in tonal order. Make sure you keep the location recorded with each of the images, to respect whenua. Consider how tonal differences reflect the composition of the soil, and the ecosystem it supports.
Watch and listen to Maraea Timutumu talk about creating self portraiture through photography and kōhatu. Discuss together how she describes the way that she is of the land and the land is of her.
PW1 (Tiki remix), 2001, by Saffronn Te Ratana (Ngāi Tūhoe) Te Papa (2001-0031-1)
Saffron Te Ratana (Ngāi Tūhoe) was influenced by customary Māori artforms in her work. In PW1 (Tiki remix), Ratana arranges painted panels to form a human body. In the top panel, she layered vibrant colours that were scratched into the surface and then drawn over with fibre-tipped pens or markers. These images were protected beneath layers of oil on board. Te Ratana then overpainted a white mass as an energising hinengaro, or mind. This area also contains threads of red where a tiny manaia appears. Te Ratana ‘remixes’ or ‘samples’ elements of tiki – its shape, texture, tā moko elements and colour – to create a contemporary take on tiki and self-identity.
What might you be inspired by in te taiao to define yourself? Take some A4 paper and charcoal, indian ink, or crayon out into nature. Find a space to work on your own, and take note of what is happening. Try to record not only what you can see, but also what you can hear, and your feelings that are running through your body. What mark could you mark to reflect the sound of running water? What might represent the rhythm of your beating heart? The sight of dappled light through the tree branches above you? Use up the whole sheet as fully as you can.
Book and photos by Sarah Hopkinson
You might like to fold your paper up into quarters, and choose one window of your mark marking to enlarge into an abstract portrait of yourself. Consider the patterns, symbols and textiles of the places that your ancestors called home. Play around with dye and crayon, indian ink, and scratching to create layered surfaces like Saffronn Ratana has done in PW1 (Tiki remix).