TE AWAHOU COLLECTIVE

© Wakatipu series: Albert McCarthy

Te Awahou Collective

Working together in one Spirit

Description to come. 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.

Anselm Perkins

Text and description to come

Walter Kupa

(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.

David Pearce

Text and description to come

Warwick Smith

Text and description to come

Karla Karitiana

Text and description to come

Bruce Falloon

Text and description to come

Artist to come

Text and description to come

Te Awahou collective Artists

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