Te Ao Māori 2/3

Rīpoinga

FEATURE | ISSUE THREE | WHENUA Written by Elise Sadlier (she/her) | @elise_sadlier | Contributing Writer Illustration by Skye Lunson-Storey (she/they/ia) | @uku_rangi E tōku Whenua, Do you hold a place for me still? My ancestors are pressed into the soft moss of the Mangaoporo Valley I circle home like the Kārearea always swooping, never landing It is the east and you are the sun. I spent a month of my summer this year at home, in Gisborne. While I was there, my friend

Elise Sadlier

Mar 244 min read

Kōkōwai, Whenua, Mauri

TE AO MĀORI | ISSUE THREE | WHENUA Written By Ivy Lyden-Hancy (she/her/ia) | Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Wairere, Samoan (Falefā), Tongan (Vava’u) @tekaraipiture | Contributing Writer Kōkōwai, Whenua, Mauri. When I think about whenua and its connection throughout history, I think of kōkōwai. Kōkōwai carries the colour of papa’s first breath. A deep, iron-rich red that binds Māori to the land, to their whakapapa, and to the pulse of mauri: the life force that threads through a

Ivy Lyden-Hancy

Mar 241 min read

Ngā roimata o Ranginui

The tears of Ranginui TE AO MĀORI | ISSUE THREE | WHENUA Written by Skye Lunson-Storey (she/they/ia) | Whakatōhea, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Tūwharetoa | @uku_rangi Arts, Culture, and Te Ao Māori Editor Concrete weeps. Steel remembers. Water carries the weight of what we’ve buried. When rain falls in Tāmaki Makaurau, it carries the memory of wetlands drained, rivers forced underground, and land reshaped by colonial infrastructure. My recent artworks explore these relationshi

Skye Lunson-Storey

Mar 244 min read

The Power of Indigenous Print

ARTS | TE AO MĀORI | TUAKIRI / IDENTITY Written by Skye Lunson-Storey (shethey) | @uku_rangi | Arts, Culture, and Te Ao Māori Editor Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua: ‘I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past. In an age of disappearing stories and endless scrolling, there’s something radical about ink on paper. It archives. It refuses to vanish. For Indigenous and minority communities in Aotearoa, that permanence has always mattered. Print has histo

Skye Lunson-Storey

Feb 234 min read

Kotahitanga #12: Hope is the Thing with Feathers

KOTAHITANGA | COLUMN | ANAMATA / THE FUTURE Written & illustrated by Hirimaia Eketone (they/them) | @hiri_music | Te Ao Māori Editor He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. What is the most important thing in the world? The people, the people, the people. I’m struggling to kōrero about the future when global and local events keep driving us further down as a community into the depths of despair. Usually at the end of the year I find myself in a reflec

Hirimaia Eketone

Oct 20, 20253 min read

You Probably Won't Read This

FEATURE | ANAMATA / THE FUTURE Written by Elise Sadlier (she/her) | @elise_sadlier | Contributing Writer Rejection. I’ve never been good at it. I spent the summer on the couch, popsicle dripping down my wrist, refreshing Seek and offering up prayers. I had high hopes for the year. I saw each month stretched out before me, clean and full of potential. I fantasized about a working holiday in Bali, a cute gallery job, money flowing into my account. I was finally free from unive

Elise Sadlier

Oct 20, 20254 min read