Hineani Roberts & Rachel Shearer

Te Ara i Whiti Artist

MAHI TOI

Pipitaiari i Taruheru

Pipitaiari i Taruheru is a collaborative installation acknowledging the taniwha Pipitaiari, through sound, projection, and imagery. Once known as the sweet-smelling river for the moss that grew in abundance along its banks, the Taruheru was prosperous with small tuna, shellfish and numerous weka and pūkeko. Pipitaiari is one of Rongowhakaata’s most enduring taniwha, whose influence cleanses and heals. At times she revealed herself as a whirlpool, a gesture echoed in the installation. In less than 250 years colonisation, sewage and pollution have stripped the river of its vitality, driving the sacred Taruheru herb to extinction and earning the awa the name ‘stinking river’. However, the source still runs pure and clean: “He urutapu, pari kārangaranga! Whakatangatangahia aku here! Tukuna atu au kia rere!” (I am pure, I call resoundingly, release my bonds, And set me free!) At the heart of the work is a waiata composed and performed by Teina Moetara (Rongowhakaata, Ngā Puhi) that acknowledges our deep connection to Pipitaiari. Moving image by Hineani Roberts and sound by Rachel Shearer create an immersive realm that reconnects audiences to Pipitaiari, acknowledging her enduring presence and calling for the return of mauri and mana to the awa.

Rachel Shearer
Tāmaki Makaurau based, Rachel Shearer (Rongowhakaata, Te Aitanga a Māhaki) explores listening to the earth through Māori and Western philosophies and technologies. Over 30 years she has worked across experimental music, field recording, embodied listening, sound and spatial design, multi-channel installation, moving image, and writing. In her sound installation work she creates immersive environments that invite deep listening and attunement to place. Her work emphasises whakapapa as resonance, engaging with the unseen energies and vibrations that help shape our material world. Through sound, Shearer aims to weave sonic shapes, texture and movement as portals into different ways of experiencing, sensing and knowing place.
Hineani Roberts
Hineani Roberts (Rongowhakaata, Te Aitanga a Māhaki) currently lives in Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa where she works as communications lead for the Rongowhakaata Iwi Trust. Her creative practice spans moving image, projection, digital printmaking, and design, informed by te ao Māori design principles. Hineani brings cultural motifs into dialogue with contemporary digital processes, creating works where ancestral patterns meet modern technologies. Each piece becomes a space for storytelling and memory, exploring how culture, design, and creativity continuously transform and resonate in the present.