The koru form dominates exhibitions that coincide with Matariki.
Public galleries are often in close touch with their immediate communities. The festival of Matariki is supported by exhibitions at three galleries, largely by Maori artists drawn from their local area.
Community participation in the work at the Papakura Art Gallery is apparent at the doorway with an installation that allows access to the music and poetry of seven individuals and groups of musicians. Each group has a special emblem designed by Fred Harrrison.
Included is Haare Williams, whose multiplicity of interests extends to an exhibition of paintings called I Te Timatanga that fills the two rooms of the main gallery.
Williams, who lives in the district, combines poetry, art and singing in the expression of his ideas and feelings.
The colours of his art work are lyrical, with texts as part of the image. His chosen medium is airbrush painting with soft edges and mists of colour.
His practice is guided by the inspiration of his ancestor, Te Kooti, and his scripture-based waiata.
The misty quality of the medium is particularly effective in Ko Ranganui, where earth and cultivation, sea and sky rise to a mountain and the space beyond. It captures the soul of an area important to the artist.
A blaze of turbulent red in the dark of Matua Tangata remembers the rage of Te Kooti and the killing of "Pharaoh's overseers", the military officers responsible for land seizure.
Against this ferocity is the delicate patterning of Kia Hora Te Marino and another painting about the song of the tui. In other works tight patterning of koru forms are emblematic of the earth.
Only one work is in black and white and uses darkness shading into light and the energy of two koru forms giving birth to a third covering spirit.
It is this variety of effect and the boldness of the associated lettering that give this exhibition of modestly sized work depth of meaning and persuasive force.
The colour in the work of Charlotte Graham at the Mangere Arts Centre is generally subdued and pale, suggesting warmth and quiet. The exception is one big painting, Kaitaakitanga, where the title word - which relates to trustee, guardian or caregiver - is divided into many forms and used to scaffold endangered landforms against a background of light.
By contrast, a series of paintings on paper are softly toned, with figures of ancestors in pale pink, yellow, green and blue and drops of tears. A special feature is the lines of red stitching that refer to the painter's grandmother, who was a tailor.
The major work dominating the gallery is in the stylised shape of a waka. The whole piece is formed by individual images shaped like paddles or the flounder once so prolific on the nearby Manukau. Each paddle shape has an expression of conservation concern lettered on it. These messages were gained from whanau and friends who were asked to post their thoughts on Facebook. The artist's own paddle forcefully protests against raw sewage in the harbour.
The collection makes the waka a forthright statement of concern for local and general fears and concerns for the environment.
In the smaller room at the gallery is an elegiac work by Reina Sutton called Wrap My Bones in Wild Taro Leaves. It is about bloodlines and inheritance from ancestors.
One wall is given to a short film made in collaboration with artist Robert George. It shows trees throughout a day and night. In the day, light shines on the leaves and in the darkness of night the rustle of leaves at the top of trees is like the voices of ancestors. In addition, shrines include stones and shells and, startlingly, an anatomy model of a spine and pelvis. Together they make a touching memorial.
At the Corban Arts Centre in Henderson Matariki is celebrated by a group of artists with painting and craft mingled.
In one room, Purapura by Jermaine Reihana shows tui as the embodiment of a spirit. Beside it is work by Ruth Woodbury using gourds, not carved in a traditional way, but contained in complex baskets woven in natural fibres. On the wall is ceramic work in red and white clay by Hera Johns.
Two of her pieces are disc-shaped with coloured glaze. They feature wood pigeons carved in the clay while another two are moulded into kumara shapes and blown into to give life to the work.
One work by Peggy Glover has specific reference to Matariki. It is ingeniously made from the stem of a nikau containing the seven stars of the constellation in paua. Charlotte Graham has work here too and Te Atiwei Ririui has innovative patterns on kete.
The exhibition is completed by very assured work by Tony Brown.
Untitled by Tony Brown.
The koru form, which is found everywhere throughout all three shows, decorates wide framing around a detail of carved work drawn convincingly in pastel.
All three exhibitions show the strength of Maori art and, incidentally, the ubiquitous use of the koru suggests it should be on a new flag.
What:I Te Timatanga by Haare Williams Where and when: Papakura Art Gallery, 10 Averill St, Papakura, to August 1 TJ says: Paintings allied with the written word that both look back to Te Kooti and forward to greater concern for the spirituality of Maori.
What:Kaitiaki by Charlotte Graham; Wrap My Bones in Wild Taro Leaves by Reina Sutton Where and when: Mangere Arts Centre, Nga Tohu o Uenuku, cnr Bader Drive & Orly Ave, Mangere, to August 2 TJ says: Statements on canvas and paper and an assemblage in the shape of a waka express one artist's concern for the environment, while the other expresses mourning by video and shrines of natural material.
What: Matariki celebration by various artists Where and when: Corban Estate Arts Centre, 2 Lebanon Lane, Henderson, to July 26 TJ says: A variety of work from painting to decorated gourds express attitudes to nature and the appeal of complicated design.
