Page 35 July 3 1916

Ko tā ēnei mātātuhi kahupeka he whakaatu i ngā wheako pohewa o Tawhai Riri Tamepo i te Pakanga Tuatahi o te Ao. He ika a Whiro nō Te Hokowhitu Pōkai Whenua Māori o Waipiro i te Tairāwhiti, ā, nāna ōna wheako pakanga i hopu ki roto i tētahi raupapatanga rātaka.

I roto i ēnei toi e rua, ko tā te kaihanga mātātuhi a Gabrielle Belz he whakaatu ā-ataata ngā wheako o Tamepo i te pae o riri i te whenua o Wīwī ki te Raki. Kei te whakatauritehia te wairua o te manawa kai tūtae ki te wairua o te mōreareatanga tūturu o ngā matā a te kaipupuhi tē kitea, me ngā kēhi o ngā matā taika. Ko te kaupapa o ngā toi ihiihi a Belz he whakaatu i te whakapau kaha a ngā taitama ki te kohikohi kai, ki te kai ngātahi, ahakoa te mōrearea rawa o ngā āhuatanga o te wā: he whakamahi i te pohū ki te hī ika, he ngōki i ngā otaota ki te whakaemi tiere, he kai i te kai kua hū (he poaka me te wātakirihi) mai i ngā pereti, i waenganui tonu i te whīra papi.

Putaputa mai ai i roto i ngā toi a Belz, ngā manu hei kaikawe kōrero. I te *Page 27 May 29 1916*, 2017, kei te whakamahia e Belz te pīwakawaka hei whakaatu i te tāhurihuri, i te pītakataka a te manu, hei tohutoro i te matenga a Māui i tōna rapunga i te oranga tonutanga. I konei ko te pīwakawaka te āhua e whakarite ai i te tauoranga e tītahataha haere ana i waenga i te oranga me te matenga.

These linocut prints interpret the surreal experiences of Tawhai Riri Tamepo during World War I. A veteran of the Māori Pioneer Battalion, of Waipiro Bay on the East Coast, Tamepo recorded his service in a series of diaries.

In these two works printmaker Gabrielle Belz provides a visual interpretation of Tamepo’s experiences in the Northern France combat zone. Their sense of boisterous adventure is balanced with the real threat of sniper bullets and artillery shells. Belz’s dynamic compositions centre around the young men’s efforts to collect and enjoy kai (food) together in precarious circumstances: using grenades for fishing, crawling through grass to collect cherries and eating boil-up (boiled pork and watercress) from chinaware in the middle of a poppy field.

Images of birds recur in Belz’s works as messengers. In *Page 27 May 29 1916, 2017*, Belz uses the pīwakawaka (fantail) to evoke the bird’s restless flitting and its connection to the demise of Māui during his quest for immortality. Here, pīwakawaka acts as a metaphor for living on the edge between life and death.

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