TE AWAHOU COLLECTIVE

© Wakatipu series: Albert McCarthy

Te Awahou Collective

The Ultimate Reality is Spirit

In process for over a year. The visual direction pursued stem from a spiritual base, a space unique to each artist contributing. The works themselves, though diverse in nature, come together as a unified experience. A shared visual communication.

Albert McCarthy

(Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa, European, Polynesian). Mangai - Ko te atua nānā nel ngā mea katoa 2024-2025. Pine, MDF board, acrylic paint, stain. Collection of the artist. Our great-grandfather was Henry Dargaville Bennett. His brother, Frederick Augustus Bennett, was the first Anglican Māori Archbishop of Aotearoa. This work acknowledges part of our whānau history, of commitment to the Pai Pera Tapu (Holy Bible) and whare karakia (church). The māngai (mouthpiece of God/Holy Spirit) is represented, and provides sacred sustenance to us all, whatever our culture. The manu here, is shown through the beaked waka form, and also links to spirit.

Wouna le Roux

Echoes In the Celestial Thread 2025. Textiles and fibres. Collection of the artist. These panels honour the wahine who shaped me - my mother, older sister, and grandmother. This work reflects the wisdom they passed down, using textiles as a unifying thread. As a migrant, I navigate the space between cultures, languages, and places. This duality is explored through two-sided panels, creating a dialogue between past and present, and capturing the integration of old and new roots in my evolving identity.

Gary Whiting

(Te Whanau-a-Apanui). Te Hi o Ngi Atua 2025. Multi-screen video installation. Collection of the artist. We are linked to the atua through whakapapa or genealogy. We possess Ira Atua and Ira Tangata, the essence of the gods, and of humanity. The natural and supernatural world are one. Each tempers the other, so the potential of the creative spirit can be realised, ensuring the regenerative process continues. The hā is the essence of the atua, their sacred breath. When we are personally and collectively confronted, it is the mātauranga of our ancestors we need to listen to. Their hā carries the wisdom for us to meet challenges and move through them.

Phillip Andrews

(Ngāti Whakaue, Te Arawa) Ngā tau: Seasons 2025. Video, photography, digital hand-drawn 2D art with 3D animation and Al. Collection of the artist. This porohita, or cyclic installation, captures the natural chaos of seasonal change through motion-based seascapes over the solar year. These are enhanced by overlay animation that supports the narrative.

SEASONS | Projection mapping Te Manawa installation pre-viz and concept art

Tracy Underwood

(Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Tüwharetoa) Waiterangi 2025. Harakeke, Teri dyes, wood. Colledion of the artist. Waiterangi signifies water from the heavens. One might think of this heavenly water as rain. A deeper insight suggests this 'wai' is metaphysical in nature and its function is to cleanse and purify. Its source is from the heavenly realm of Te-toi-o-ngā-rangi.

Steve Leurink

Mind the gap 2025. Board, acrylic paint. Collection of the artist. This work references my experience as a tourist, away from my small world in Aotearoa. To stand and behold monuments and buildings in Europe, with their revered history, was a visual bombardment. In stark juxtaposition, these emblems of civilisation stand resolute above crowds of the homeless that live in the grit and grime of the footpaths. Marginalised, displaced, and left to fall through the cracks of society, these people are condemned to a life of destitution and poverty.

Huhenia Paurini

(Ngati Raukawa kite Tonga, Ngati Tūwharetoa, Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki me Ngapuhi). Ko te pii (The origin) 2025. Coloured inks on paper. Collection of the artist. These works are a series of complex, symbolic expressions of the oneness of life. Whakapapa, whenua and wairua connect all life to each other, and back to primal origins. I am drawn to nature with its intricate patterns, swirling lines, and organic shapes. Repeating motifs in my work, mirror Maori kowhaiwhai, reinforcing cultural storytelling, grounded in toi Maori. Creating art allows me to express more of who I am. Finally, I am beginning to understand the mastery within. Life moves in a circle and all creation is related, offering a universal truth.

Asher Raawiri Newbery

(Tūhoe, Ngāti Manunui). Tanerore 2025. Acrylic on board. Collection of the artist. In one tradition, Tanerore is the child of Tamanuitera, the sun, and Hine-Raumati, the atua of summer. As Tinerore dances for his mother, he is seen personified in parearohi, the 'quivering of the atmosphere from heat: also known as the 'haka a Tanerore: This meteorological phenomenon is expressed by humans in haka, in particular the wiriwiri, or trembling of hands. You are inv·ited to remove your shoes and complete the artwork by performing your own haka.

Cecelia Kumeroa

(Te Ati Haunui-a-Paparangi) Ngā Puna Atua 2025. Digital moving image. Collection of the artist. My work is hand-coded and includes specific scientific data, built of things that happen under the crust of the whenua, in the currents of our water, and at a microscopic level. The sound you are hearing is the Tasman Sea breaking on a beach. My visual display of this data makes the unseen seen. Dr. Huirangi Waikerepuru CNZM (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Ruanui, 1929-2020), posited that combining bodies of knowledge can lead to a spiritual and physical connection to the Natural World. Ngā Puna Atua connects diverse knowledge, from Western science and matauranga Maori, inviting us to think about how we commune with our atua Māori.

Karen Pedersen

(Whānau Lambert) Pōrangahau. Tūhononga 2025. Harakeke, Teri Dyes,natural willow, harakeke cordage, kiekie, rimurimu, Weiss ducting. Collection of the artist. Tuhononga is a pikorua shape, symbolising the eternal, emerging paths in life, and the entwining connection of myself with Māori culture. This began five generations ago with my ancestors from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Norway, and with my raranga journey. The willow, woven in three-rod wale andEnglish rand, represents my ancestral beginnings. The harakeke honours Mōri culture. I have woven it in a takirua pattern, meaning two working side-by-side. The colours are inspired by te moana, and Cliff Whiting's works. The land and sea, together we are connected.

Warwick Smith

I am the connection between the past and the present 2025. Photography, Warwick Smith. Colour photographs, ACM panels with custom operating system, motion sensors. Collection of the artist. This work is a collaboration between Warwick Smith, photographer, and Teena Johnson, tumuaki of Te Kura o Wairau, with participation of three tauira from the school, and their whanau. The tauira featured are bilingual and multicultural, with some communicating naturally in additional languages. This series of photographs provide a touchstone for appreciation of the diversity that is part of the community fabric of Te Kura o Wairau, and the City of Palmerston North.

Matty Green

Beyond the veil 2025 (Tangata Tiriti). MDF board, acrylic paint, paua inlay. Collection of the artist. He waka eke noa, we are an in this together. Through spirituality, we can experience a reality beyond what our physical senses perceive. My five panels show: Celtic knot work, Toi Māori, Chakras, Veil of Maya and Cymatics.

Leala Faleseuga

Expansions II 2025. Digital collages, with lightboxes by Tawan Tuttiett. Collection of the artist. My two collages are made through repeating digital and analogue cycles. Side by side, these works illustrate the whakapapa of growth through to consciousness, as each stage reaches its potential. I was inspired by Dr Cliff Whiting's paper The Ultimate Reality is Spirit (2015), which gives his reflections on creation, growth, and the emergence of life into Te Ao Mārana, the World of Light.

David Pearce

Neither here nor there 2025. Acrylic on 80 canvas boards mounted on wood panels. Collection ~ the artist. In homage to Rosalie Gascoigne and Imants Tillers, this piece delves into narratives of self and place, juxtaposing images, symbols, and text. It reflects on our codification of experience, landscape, and the vast night sky. Our cultures construct nature, as nature shapes us.

Te Awahou collective Artists

Te Manawa art gallery 2025 - contribting artists for Te Puna o te Atua. The wellspring of the ancestors.