Mahi whakairo at Te Wānanga o Raukawa

I am really enjoying being a full time student at Te Wānanga o Raukawa again, this time learning whakairo (carving).

The last time I was here was back in 2011 when I did most of the Heke Mātauranga Māori.

So far I have completed two whakairo projects as pictured. Working in 3D is an exciting new challenge for me. I love being in a waananga environment again, and the library is one of my favourite workspaces.

I am really enjoying continuing on with my Te Reo Māori studies again too, particularly the mōteatea and karakia components.

Regarding taa moko, I am looking to be setup for tattooing again within the next month or so, here in Ōtaki.

Recent kōwhaiwhai waananga at Takapūwāhia Marae

It was lovely to be with and alongside whānau at our marae recently for our kōwhaiwhai waananga, playing with watercolours and enjoying mahi toi, kotahitanga and whanaungatanga.

I am looking forward to the rest of these waananga toi throughout this year.

Recent tattoo convention and artist waananga in Tauranga

Earlier in March I was grateful to attend a week long waananga for moko artists in Tauranga, followed by the weekend-long Tauranga Tattoo Extravaganza - two awesome events with amazing artists to work alongside. Thanks to everyone that got tattooed by me in Tauranga recently.

I loved making new friends with some new indigenous tattooers that I hadn’t met before, from Canada, Greenland, Tahiti and The States. It was also awesome to collaboratively work on some new paintings with some of these international artists, all cultural art revivalists in their own respective parts of the world.

Big thanks to everyone involved in making these two events, amazing kaupapa to be involved with.

Indigenous Greenland Inuit Inuk artist contributing to one of my collaborative canvases at our waananga.

Getting tattooed by my whanaunga at our artists waananga.

With my new friend, Inuit Inuk Tattoo Revivalist from Greenland.

With First Nation sisters from California region.

With some of our taa moko tatau artist crew.

Indigenous Ink 2015

On 20 - 22 November 2015, I attended Indigenous Ink in Auckland, a gathering of indigenous tattooers from around the world - it was by far the best 'convention' I have been to and was one of my favourite hui that I have ever attended! It was great meeting other indigenous artists from all around the world, and I loved that the focus of this gathering was on 'cultural practitioners'.

Tattooers came to this special and unique gathering from Norway, Alaska, Los Angeles, Samoa, UK, Hawai'i, Tahiti, Japan, Taiwan and more. There was a strong Aotearoa contingent of moko artists too which was awesome.

Here is an article about Indigenous Ink 2015 written by Sean Mallon of Te Papa Tongarewa National Museum of New Zealand.

This episode of Te Kaea also has a short feature on Indigenous Ink 2015 (at around 20.00 mins).