Te Koha

Te Koha is a series of large paintings that are an interpretation of the historical events 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 off the shores of Ngāti Kura. Imperialist intentions backfired from this dubious plot, yet two worlds collided where Aotearoa would no longer be the same. From Kings to Chiefs, noblemen to missionaries, fates were sealed by journeys undertaken and the taonga (treasures) passed between 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 the tohunga Tamati Ranapiri who explains the ‘hau’, or the spirit, of the gift.

Following Te Kore, the nothingness which holds the potential for everything to come, came the hau, the breath of life, producing all forms in Te Ao Mārama by whakapapa. Thus to present a gift is to present something of oneself. The bond of law in Māori, between things, is that between souls. The hau of the gift carries the hau of the ancestors to Te Kore. In turn, taonga received aren’t inactive objects, they’re productive, invested with life whilst seeking to return to the soil in which they sprung.

In this present time of economic uncertainty, where money seems to have a devouring effect of the soul; this other time, before money was minted and inscribed, shows the morality and organisation that operates in such transactions.

This indigenous wisdom makes history readable again, in which the contingent events which lead up to its retelling, become ever more potent.

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