Anaru Ruka’s Kaikohe garage doubles as a carving workshop. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Anaru Ruka’s Kaikohe garage doubles as a carving workshop. Photo / Peter de Graaf
A Kaikohe graffiti artist and carver is hoping a national award will inspire youth to follow their dreams and convince them art can offer a viable career.
Anaru Ruka won the Te Tohu Iho Pūmanawa title in Creative New Zealand’s Ngā Taonga a Te Waka Toi Awards for the “contribution of a Māori artist with lived experience of disability”.
The recognition was extra sweet for Ruka because he thought art was over for him when a crash left him paralysed and unable to paint the large-scale outdoor murals that were his speciality.
Originally from Taheke, Ruka went to Kaikohe East School until his family moved to Mangere in Auckland, where his artistic journey started as a 12-year-old tagging fences.
One day he was tagging a building when some graffiti artists approached him.
“They said: ‘That’s not graffiti, you should do this’, and they showed me bombing. It just grew from there.”
Later Ruka juggled work as a dive instructor with painting large-scale murals from a cherry picker and also took up whakairo (carving), which he does mainly for koha (donations).
He moved back to Taheke with his family about five years ago and had the accident not long after.
“A guy came out of Matawaia Rd with no brakes and smashed into me. I thought it was all over. I was in a wheelchair and couldn’t get up in a cherry picker. I had to think out of the box — how do I carry on and still have my art up on the walls?”
These days Ruka designs his murals on an iPad and the results are printed on billboards.
Commissions include a mural designed for health organisation Mahitahi Hauora’s headquarters in Whangārei.
“They asked me to create an image that reflected how do we, as Māori, stay true to our tikanga [customs] during this time of Covid. They wanted something provocative that was beautiful at the same time. It got so many mixed reactions, as art is supposed to do. Some people were really angry, others loved it. The role of art is to provoke conversations and to inspire.”
Anaru Ruka’s graphic work includes a deliberately provocative mural designed for Mahitahi Hauora on Whangārei’s Rust Ave. Photo / Brodie Stone
Ruka said the Mahitahi Hauora billboard wasn’t his most technical work but he was proud of it because the unveiling brought his whole whānau together.
“When I was growing up I was always told to stop drawing on things and that I’d have to get a real job. But when my parents come to the unveiling of my art it was a realisation.
“They were proud. They could see who I am and what I’m doing with my life. It also showed being in a wheelchair doesn’t have to be a barrier. You just have to do things differently.”
After the crash, Ruka moved to Kaikohe where he became involved in youth mentoring.
“I always wanted to learn from somebody, but I just couldn’t sit in class. So I’m self-taught. I want to show kids there’s so many ways to skin a cat.
“We have an education system, but that’s not the be-all and end-all. There’s other ways of getting educated and you can be just as successful as anyone else.”
The 38-year-old said his four children were his main inspiration.
“I want to show them there’s a viable pathway. When you’re an artist, you’re your own person. You don’t lose your autonomy. You can be who you want to be,” he said.
“At the time of the accident, I felt like my life was over, that I was nothing. But now I’m doing what I love and making a living from it.”
Ruka (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Tuwharetoa) was first nominated for the award in late 2021 but the Covid pandemic derailed the awards ceremony which was eventually held online.
Other Northlanders recognised in the awards include emerging artist p. Walters (Ngāti Kuri), voyaging waka kaihautu [captain] Stanley Conrad (Te Aupōuri) and mosaic artist Gabrielle Belz (Ngāpuhi, Te Atiawa).
