A land perhaps, or maybe just a motu

Perhaps a glimpse over the shoulder, 

  If you squint you’ll see it, the lands of our tūpuna

Is Hawaiki where we came from,

or where we’re headed?

~ Mā te Moana ~ holds multiple narratives concurrently. As a descendant of Te Arawa waka, Kahurangiariki has spent months learning the many intersecting genealogical connections to the outer islands of Kuki ‘Āirani. Living within swimming distance of where many ancestral waka departed for Aotearoa, she has been researching these connections while living in Rarotonga. Gazing upon the very same horizon and swimming in the same waters as her ancestors once would have done. This narrative is held alongside the words of Buntheun Oung, who speaks to his returning to the homeland of Cambodia. 

~ Mā te Moana ~ begins with the story of Te Arawa waka nearly being lost in the great calamity of Te Korokoro o te Parata, whereby the canoe was nearly swallowed in the throat of a summoned sea monster (also described as a great whirlpool). Te korokoro o te parata is also used as a metaphor for extreme duress. In this instance, Kahurangiariki equips this ancient event as a framing lens for personal tragedy. 

Film photographs documenting this journey are held alongside phone footage, and accompanied by chrome kaperua and takarangi. Sounds of waves crashing and karaoke nights with the aunties track the shifting of geography between Rarotonga and Cambodia. Where the tides push and pull, Buntheun and Kahurangiariki similarly respond to the push and pull of journeying to respective homelands. 

~ Mā te Moana ~ examines how the ocean spans the distances of space, of time, and of relationships. From the rice paddies behind Buntheun’s village, to the lulling tides of the lagoon in Muri, the moana has served as a facilitator of connection across time, across generations and genealogies, since time immemorial (mai rā anō). Between here and there - then and now - ancient and future. In the instance of Buntheun returning to his village, this is Kahurangiariki’s return to self, and to the moana <3

Read more here:

ArtReview