Artwork information

Suspended within a box frame, like a foetus in the womb, an embossed hei tiki (human figure), emerges from behind a layer of aute (mulberry paper). Within Te Ao Māori, kurawaka is the name of the place in some creation narratives where the first woman was created. The Tiki reinforces creation, as being the first human, or progenitor of the first human, and aute is the first form of paper made in Aotearoa.

The aute is coloured with kōkōwai, an ochre pigment, often burnt to deepen the red. The red and the embossed figure allude to whakairo (carving), as a form of human representation in Māori art.

Atarangi Anderson’s fine art studies centred on He Wahine, womanhood within te ao Māori and He Aute, at Unitech. Anderson travelled to Samoa to learn siapo (tapa couth), returning to Aotearoa to further study under Nikau Hindin. As a kiriaute (practitioner of aute), Anderson is participating in the current exploration of aute and tae (pigments), led by Māori women artists across the country.