How Maui made the sun slow down

Te āhua nei ko Pauline Yearbury (née Blomfield) te Māori tuatahi tonu ki te whiwhi Pokairua Mahi Toi; i puta tōna ihu i te Elam School of Fine Arts i Tāmaki Makau Rau i te tau 1946. 14 ngā tau o Yearbury i tōna urunga ki Elam i te tau 1943. He mahi rorotu te peita matarahi i te kura i te taenga atu o Yearbury, ā, nāna i hanga ngā peita pakitara rahi tonu mō te hītori o Waitangi, ā, nāna hoki i whakatū tētahi toa i tōna tāone tupu, i Kororāreka i te Taitokerau. Ko āna toi he kōmitimitinga o ngā kōrero o tōna kāinga tupu me ngā hoahoa kōrekoreko, ka mutu ko ia tētahi o ngā ringa toi Māori tuatahi o nāianei ki te whakauruuru i ngā kōrero Māori ki āna toi. Ko tāna whakamārama i tēnei aronga ki ngā kōrero o nehe:

Nō mua noa atu kua rata au ki ngā kōrero Māori o neherā – he tukunga iho ki ahau. Ko ngā kaupapa nui ki ōku tūpuna, he kaupapa nui ki ahau nei . . . Me whakamahi i ngā kōrero nehe engari me whakapuaki mā te aratau o nāianei.

Ko *How Maui Made the Sun Slow Down*, 1970 he kōrero mō Māui e tāhere ana i a Tamanuiterā hei whakapōturi i tāna haere, kia roa ake ngā rā. Ehara i te peita māori noa i runga i te kānawehi, i te papa rānei, he rīanga papa tāpatu ōpure rimu, he momo tikanga i hangaia e Yearbury rāua ko tāna tāne a James, nāna i pākati te rākau kia rite ai mō te tae.

Pauline Kahurangi Yearbury (née Blomfield) is believed to be the first Māori to obtain a Diploma in Fine Arts, graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland in 1946. Yearbury was 14 years old when she entered Elam in 1943. Mural painting was popular at the school when Yearbury arrived. She went on to create several large wall paintings about the history of Waitangi and established a shop in her hometown of Russell, in the Far North. Her works combine local narratives with dynamically stylised designs and she was one of the first contmeporary Māori artists to incorporate Māori narratives within her art practice. She explained this approach to the old stories:

I have always been interested in Māori mythology and legends – it is part of my inheritance. What was important to my ancestors is still important to me . . . One must use legends but interpret them in the modern manner.

*How Maui Made the Sun Slow Down*, 1970 tells the story of Māui snaring the sun to slow its journey and lengthen the days. It is not a typical painting on canvas or board, but rather a stained rimu plywood panel, a technique Yearbury perfected with her husband James, who incised the wood for his partner to dye.

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