'Ron' Te Kawa who has created this mahi to commemorate Matariki. This, and other pieces are on display at Commercial Bay. Photo / Dean Purcell
'Ron' Te Kawa who has created this mahi to commemorate Matariki. This, and other pieces are on display at Commercial Bay. Photo / Dean Purcell
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
Quilt artist Maungarongo 'Ron' Te Kawa discovered the impact his beautifully crafted pieces had when a couple of construction workers admired his work displayed in an Auckland art gallery.
Mesmerised by the stories that the quilts told, the workers wandered off the street to let Te Kawa know of their appreciation.
"People do recognise themselves in my work. The construction workers came in one at a time and told me their pepeha and their tribal affiliations. They talked in Māori, they talked about the wall hangings. They saw themselves in the centre of a story, not at the edge. That was really neat and special," Te Kawa said.
Te Kawa is Ngāti Porou and lives in Woodville, in Manawatū.
He is self-taught and has been creating intricately crafted quilts since the early 1990s. He started off creating Aids memorial quilts. Today, the stories he tells focuses on kaupapa Māori and whakapapa.
His work will be shown during Matariki celebrations within Auckland's Commercial Bay precinct in an exhibition called Heavenly Bodies, alongside 11 other Māori artists.
Works by artist Maungarongo 'Ron' Te Kawa who has created this mahi to commemorate Matariki. Photo / Dean Purcell
"The whakapapa quilt is a legal document. I work with a lot of nannies and they put their pepeha into their quilts, they tell the story of their land their grandparents, old clothes. It's an educational tool to hang in their house, A lot of nannies are sick and tired of telling their moko about their whakapapa all the time, So it's there on the wall,
"My quilts are metaphors for love, safety, and security. They don't go on beds, they are wall hangings. I just want to wrap my people in love, hugs and stories. I want them to be the middle of the story. I also want Māori to be able to see themselves."
Te Kawa's signature piece inside Commercial Bay, depicts the star Hine Takurua, the Māori winter maiden, and is three storeys tall.
"I love Hine Takurua. She's my favourite. At the end of winter, Hine Takurua dives over the moon and becomes the light on the water and that provides the abundance for the moana over the summer. Then at the end of the summer, she goes back into the sky and becomes the abundance for us. All of our stories are beautiful and relevant," he said.
"The work is not actually complete until we're there - until Māori are there. That they're connecting with the mauri of the art, bringing their energy,"
As a creative, Te Kawa has always been a storyteller and encourages Māori to tell their stories through the creative arts.
"It's just as natural as breathing. It's an inheritance. There are so few spaces in the world where we are at the centre of our stories. It's important for us to hold that space and protect it,"
