TAURANGA MOANA
At the entrance to Tauranga Harbour in Aotearoa’s Bay of Plenty, the volcanic cone of Mauao (Mt Maunganui) presides over the territory of the Tauranga Moana iwi (people). Linked through a long history of migration, wars, and allegiances, they won a famous victory against British troops in 1864. The battle of Gate Pā remains a testament to the courage and ingenuity of the tribes (groups of people, or families) of Tauranga. The name “Tauranga” is a Māori name, which means: safe anchorage or resting place. Our logo embodies the anchor stone. Te Tauranga Toi provides this place for the artistic expression of Tauranga artists. From here, artists extend to the world an invitation to their remarkable creative realm.
kete by Tarryn Mautere
The people of this region descend from three Polynesian canoes: Te Arawa, Tākitimu and Mataatua, the tribes being Ngāti Pūkenga, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngā Potiki. Within these tribes are whanau (families) and hapu (sub-tribes) that share whakapapa (genealogical descent, connection) to each other. Māori art is characterised historically by an integration of form and function. Art takes on the important role to venerate ancestral legacy and to empower object use. Objects serve a practical purpose, but art provides symbolic power to that purpose. So, no one word serves as ‘art’ in a Māori sense because art is integrated to all parts of life. Fish hooks, for example, acknowledge the origin of carving from the realm of Hinemoana and Tangaroa - sea deities - and ensure a good catch, which represents wellbeing. Hooks made significant through fishing pursuits might be hung around the neck and, specifically, carved ones would become even more powerful by association with the individual.
Giving respect to material things in their original form as plant, wood, stone or bone, right through to crafted, decorated items, permeates Māori society. In te ao Māori (the Māori worldview) everything is personified and has whakapapa (genealogy), which can be traced back to the atua (powerful deities). The Poi, for example, have their own whakapapa. Poi are the children of Raupō (Bullrush) and Harakeke (Flax) and they, in turn, are the offspring of Tāne Māhuta the atua of the forest, and Pakoki and Repo the Swamp Maiden. Tāne Māhuta is the son of Papatūānuku the earth mother and Ranginui the sky father. Consideration of each material as persons, demonstrates Māori regard for everything as a living being. It follows, then, that all creation is a dual balance between physical and spiritual realms - and this also equates to the dual role of women and men. And so, toi (art) created by our artists is viewed as the physical manifestation of a spiritual relationship, no matter whether the material is modern or nature-made. Toi is an acknowledgement that the mauri (lifeforce) of everything is intimately interwoven.
detail of "Resilience in the Shadows II" by Tania Lewis-Rickard
Te Tauranga Toi was established to bring a public facing storefront for kai toi of Tauranga Moana. As an online gallery it hosts online only exhibitions to cater for the current digital trend of eCommerce. However, it broadens the idea of a gallery by not promoting itself - rather the artists it represents. In addition to the advertising and promotion of the artists - it also provides a wrap around service that provides up skilling towards sustainable creative careers.
Te Tauranga Toi aims to foster the creative outputs and creative careers of its artists in a way that stays true to te Ao Māori - and by working together as a collective community.
“Everything comes back to indigenous art.”
Julie Paama-Pengelly
detail of "Huakina Ngā Parirau" by Louis Mikaere