Te Koha

Te Koha is a series of paintings that depict the story between Ngāpuhi and the British Empire before the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

In 1793, two Māori men were kidnapped from Motukawanui— an island at the tip of the Bay of Islands. Imperialist intentions backfired from this dubious plot, yet two worlds collided that altered the course of history. From Kings to Chiefs, rangatira to missionaries, fates were sealed from the journeys undertaken and the taonga (treasures) that passed between their hands.

Te Koha draws upon the 1925 essay ‘The Gift’ by anthropologist Marcel Mauss— who asks ‘What rule of legality and self-interest… compels the gift that has been received to be obligatorily reciprocated? What power resides in the object given that causes its recipient to pay it back?’. Mauss draws upon a famous passage from a tohunga called Tamati Ranapiri who explains the ‘hau’, or the spirit, of the gift.

In Te Ao Māori, The Māori World, all forms of life are shaped by hau. Despite the english translation for hau being breath or wind, it fails to convey its significance. The hau is not the wind that blows, Ranapiri points out, rather, to present a gift is to present something of oneself. The bond of law in Māori, between things, is that between souls. When taonga are received they aren’t inactive objects, they’re productive, invested with life whilst seeking to return to the soil in which they sprung.

Exactly a century on from Mauss’ essay, in a time of economic fragility where money seems to have a devouring effect on the soul; this other time, before money was minted and inscribed, shows the morality and organisation that operates in such transactions. Agreements were honourably made to not act within one’s own economic self-interest. This wisdom challenges the hyper-individualistic tendencies behind our current economic activity and order. It makes history readable again, where the journeys, stories, and relationships initiated by Ngāpuhi continue to be shaped in the present by its descendants.

The catalogue for these works will be available September 20.
They will be exhibited at Blakdot Gallery from October 4.