Monday, March 18, 2024

Matua: His Mandate with Destiny

November 14, 2010 by  
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Haami Moeke Snr QSM was a respected Maori kaumatua (Elder). He passed away recently. He was both my friend and my carving mentor. To me, he was matua or simply Haami. The thing I loved most about him was

Matua: Sun through a Rock

November 13, 2010 by  
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Many years ago, my artist friend Whero Te Whata asked me, “how do you see the sun through a rock?” I was young and I had no idea! He didn’t answer me immediately but

Haami

November 8, 2009 by  
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My friend Haami (pronounced Har-me) Moeke QSM is a kaumatua. That is, a respected elder in the Maori community. I call him matua. To me, he’s like the Ruahine Ranges that have an abiding presence across the eyeline of

Hura Kohatu, the Unveiling

November 16, 2008 by  
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It was an ambivalent day, the day of my great grandmother Moewaka Jane Rapana’s unveiling, ambivalent how? Well, neither the day nor the weather could agree who was going to have first say about how events would pan out and eventually we left them to argue between themselves like siblings in a childhood dust up.

Vanish the Thought

November 12, 2008 by  
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One of the loveliest stories told during the mihi and whaikororeo was by Aunty June about Nama’s Pond’s Cream. The story of Ponds “began when Theron T. Pond, a pharmacist from Utica New York, introduced ‘Pond’s Golden Treasure’ in 1846, a witch-hazel based

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