Tamanui Ki Mua!

Nā te paraihe mākohakoha a Tāwera Tahuri i whakaapaapa te Takutai o te Tairāwhiti ki muri i te āhua miramira o te tupuna. Kua whakatakotohia ngā pūreta ‘TAMANUI’ hei heru ki te upoko o taua tangata hei tohu rangatira mō tōna tipuna a Arikinui Rawiri Tamanui, he rangatira nō te rohe o Mangatū i ngā tau whakamutunga o te rautau 18. Kua peita a Tahuri i tētahi kurī skok kei te tapatai, hei tohu mō te Iwi Skokomish, he iwi taketake o Amerika. Kei te tohu atu i te whanaungatanga i waenganui i ngā iwi taketake huri noa i te ao, ka mutu kei te kitea atu te wawata o te ringa toi kia tū ngā iwi taketake hei kaitiaki o ngā wai me ngā whenua katoa.

Tāwera Tahuri’s expressive brushwork layers a Tairawhiti coastline scene behind a bold-line ancestral figure. The Letters ‘TAMANUI’ are positioned as a heru or hair comb at the head of the figure to revere her tipuna (ancestor) Arikinui Rawiri Tamanui, rangatira (chief) of the Mangatū area during the late 1700s. At the water’s edge, Tahuri paints the skok dog, a symbol of the Indigenous American Skokomish people. Signifying Indigenous whanaunga or communities across the globe, it signals the artist’s ambition for Indigenous guardianship over wai (water) and whenua (land).

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