Poropiti Wairua. Poropiti Rongomau. Poropiti Toi

Kua whakamahia ngā rawa māori noa – he pepamārō, he pene waituhi tūturu – kei te whakaatahia e ēnei ‘whakairo kua peitahia’ e te tāera kai parāoa a te ringa toi. Ko te aronga hou a Reweti Arapere ki te auaha tangata he āhuatanga i takea ai i ngā tikanga peita o ngā tau 1870 e Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Tūruki, te poropiti, te kaiwhakatū i te pono Ringatū. Ko ngā āhua a Arapere he piriti e hono ai i ngā kōrero o nāianei, o mua, o ngā rangi tūhāhā, ā, kei te aro atu ki ngā reanga kaihautū Māori haere ake nei, whai muri atu i a Te Kooti, nā rātou i tārai te tuakiri ā-ahurea, me te hauora o te Māori.

I a ia e tamariki ana i ngā tau 1980, ka kuraina i roto i te reo Māori a Arapere mai i te kōhungahungatanga tae noa ki te kura toi. I konei kei te mihia e Arapere te tirohanga whakamua o ngā kaihautū Māori i hautū ai i te reo Māori, i te toi, i te mātauranga; nā tā rātou whakatutū puehu, akiaki hoki, i whakatō ngā kākano e ārahi ai i āna toi.

Using everyday accessible materials – cardboard and permanent markers – these ‘painted carvings’ reflect the artist’s street-style vernacular. Reweti Arapere’s innovate treatment of the figurative form has a legacy that tracks back to the striking painting traditions established in the 1870s by Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Tūruki, prophet and founder of the Ringatū faith. Bridging contemporary, customary and celestial histories, these figures draw attention to the successive generations of Māori leaders, after Te Kooti, who have shaped Māori cultural identity and well-being.

As a child of the 1980s, Arapere grew up at a time in which he could receive all his education – from early childhood to art school – in te reo Māori (the Māori language). Here, he pays tribute to those visionary Māori leaders of te reo Māori, toi (arts) and mātauranga (knowledge and teachings) whose activism and advocacy laid the foundations that informs his artistic practice.

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