In the wool shed...

Kotahi te kōhao o te ngira e kuhuna ai te miro ma, te miro ma, te miro pango, te miro whero.

Ko te tino kaupapa o tēnei whakataukī ko te whakahirahira o te whakawhanaungatanga, o te tū kaha hei hapori kotahi. Koia rā te kōrero a Pōtatau Te Wherowhero i tāna whaikōrero tuatahi hei kaihautū tuatahi o te Kīngitanga, ki tāna, ka tū taua kaupapa nui hei tohu mō te kotahitanga o ngā iwi e ātete ana i ngā hokonga whenua, i te rāhui whenua.

Ko tōna whakapapa ki te rohe o Waikato te kaupapa o ngā whakairo a Eugene Kara; kua whakairohia e ia te poro rākau rimu e toru mita te roa, kia ōrite ai ki ngā āhuatanga tārai o te turuturu; kua hākaro te pito tawakatia a runga, ko te ariā he puare o te ngira tuitui.

Kotahi te kohao o te ngira e kuhuna ai te miro ma, te miro ma, te miro pango, te miro whero.

*Through the eye of the needle pass the white thread, the black thread, and the red thread*.

The importance of whakawhanaungatanga or state of standing together as a community is the central message of this whakataukī or proverb. Spoken in April 1857 by Pōtatau Te Wherowhero in his acceptance speech as the first leader of the Kingitanga (King movement), it declared the movement would symbolise the spirit of pan-tribal unity in resistance to the colonial land sales and confiscation.

Creating carvings that articulate his ancestral connection to the Waikato region, Eugene Kara has playfully carved a piece of three-metre-long rimu to resemble the sculptural elements of a turuturu or fibre weaving peg, and hollowed its grooved top so it brings to mind the eye of a needle.

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