Te Ara i Whiti Artist
MAHI TOI
He kapu tī māu?
In early 2025, I attended my first marae hui at Mangahanea and made a quick observation — the absence of rangatahi around the table. This installation, ‘He kapu tī māu?’, built to replicate a table, acts as a visual and symbolic call for our younger generation to return to the pae — to their marae, to the hui, to the kōrero, and to the mahi.
The top of the tēpu is adorned with vibrant Te Tairāwhiti-inspired kōwhaiwhai patterns, expressing the continuation of whakapapa and the flow of mātauranga. The outside legs are pou who represent our kaumātua and pakeke, the ones who hold up the tikanga and manaakitanga of the marae.
Inside, the inner faces of the legs burst with neon colours and playful interactive taonga — this space, low to the ground, is a deliberate invitation to our tamariki and pēpi. The design recognises that they learn by watching, crawling, sitting at our feet — mimicking and absorbing. It speaks to the quiet hope that they, too, will follow the path of our ancestors.
This tepu embodies wānanga — a site of learning, laughter, debate, kai and connection. It speaks directly to the kaupapa Ō Mātou Tūmanako — our collective hope that rangatahi will return home, reconnect, and take their seat at the table. But before anything else, “He kapu tī māu?”