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Kauri Wharewera (Ringatoi)

Kauri Wharewera (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Awa, Tūhoe, Te Whānau ā Apanui, Ngāti Kahungunu) is an emerging artist based in Papaioea.  Kauri designed our Te ORA Hoodie and has explained the concept below.  You can find more out about Kauri here: 

Image One:  Explanation

Puhoro is a main component within this design, which creates a base for the ara manawa (neutral space). Puhoro, in this instances speaks about the journey and are patterns usually carved or painted underneath the tauihu of a waka to improve its agility and speed. In this instance I am using Puhoro to create a rhythm that portrays the long journey each Maori medical practitioner has taken to arrive at their chosen field of practice.

Puhoro also has strong connection to water so secondary reasoning for Puhoro is to represent the healing properties of clean water and different kinds of Wai, which could also allow the inclusion of western medicinal IV fluids.

Extending off most Puhoro within the rhythm are koru.

 Koru are the representation of new nodes on a plant which eventually sprout into branches or ponga stems uncurling to form new leaves. Koru commonly symbolise new beginnings, fertility however their connection to plants and the Ngahere makes us able to use koru as a reference to rongoa, healing and vitality.

 These koru sometimes reflect and rotate to create new units within the ara manawa. Units commonly known as mangopare can be recognised within in the rhythm which commonly symbolise strength determination and perserverence (mate ururoatia). 

Image Two: Mangopare

Mangopare can also imply direction, in this instance the purpose was to arrange the center mangopare swimming upwards as a symbol of pursuing goals, experience and Knowledge.

On the left side of the design the mangopare are flipped downwards symbolising the transference of knowledge from a higher source to us as tangata whenua on Papatuanuku.

From a contemporary perspective these mangopare are layered to imitate different layers of the forest which is a source for rongoa Maori as well as an acknowledgment of clean air and the respiratory system.

Image Three: Mangopare

The right-hand side is similar to the left but this time the mangopare a going both directions (up and down) this symbolises the exchange of information between each other and the sharing of experience to help widen each other’s puna matauranga.