Through the Teeth of the Taniwha: A Painted Journey of Reconnection to Te Ao Māori

Abstract

Guided by the concept of wā, this abstract painting project explores my journey to reconnect with my Māori whakapapa, and considers how these discoveries might negotiate and interact with my Pākehā heritage. Being of a bicultural identity in two opposing worlds, the feelings of belonging and disconnection are very apparent to me. Through visits home to ‘sites of whakapapa’ in Taranaki, and focusing on my awa, Waingongoro; the weaving of intergenerational narratives inherent within ancestral knowledge, and the embodied experiences have become the material for my abstract paintings. Through the means of painted studies and large-scale canvas paintings, I explore how painted layers, composition, and a personal visual vocabulary of Indigenous mark-making can co-create a methodology of whakapapa. This process aims to help me engage in the reclamation of my identity and Māori language to gain an understanding of Ko Wai Au?