Whakamārama: dusk/dawn (Tauranga Moana)
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Still from Whakamārama: dusk/dawn (Tauranga Moana) (June 2021). HD video, 1 min.
Whakamārama: dusk/dawn (Tauranga Moana) was made for Whānau Mārama, a Matariki project led by Jade Townsend in 2021. The work observes the setting and rising of the sun, acknowledging the cyclical rhythms of Matariki and te taiao. The two moving-images layered through tāniko patterns were filmed on the same stretch of beach in Tauranga Moana at both dusk and dawn. The tāniko patterns — waharua kōpito, aronui and whetū — reference the artist’s reconnection with whakapapa, her ancestors’ migration across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, and the Matariki cluster. The work honours Hine-te-iwaiwa, atua wahine of both fertility and weaving, and the artist’s tūpuna wāhine.