WHERE WATER AND UKU MEET
Julia Kate Mack on uku practice and connection - Dec 2022
ON CONNECTION:
Fifteen years ago whilst walking home from work around Te Huruhi Bay, on Waiheke Island, I had what can best be described as an epiphany. I saw a blind woman on the foreshore looking out over the bay. At the time I was listening to music through my headphones. I decided to take out my headphones and be truly present in this space. What followed was a profound re-connection to a place I had frequented as a new born baby and left when I was around 1 year old. On my walk I discovered a natural spring trickling from a cliff that I hadn’t ever noticed on my many walks around the bay. That day spurred a re-vitalised experience of Te Huruhi Bay for me. It was my deep appreciation, love and awe with this place which would years later guide me into the realm of earth pigments.
High Tide at Te Huruhi Bay, Waiheke Island. Masses of sea grass wash up here and the water meets with clay banks.
It is fitting that my Earth pigment practice starts with water. I grew up on Waiheke and the ocean and streams here were my first love. This year I have spent time studying the whakapapa of uku in order to deepen my understanding of the rocks and resources that I encounter on Waiheke. Uku is personified as the female atua Hineukurangi and her mother is Parawhenuamea, the female Atua of ‘water which springs forth from the earth’ . This water exists in relation to sedimentary rock which flows with the assistance, or rather, on the back of, Rakahore, an atua who personifies rock. The water moves sediment and silt across rock and from this process Uku comes into being and with it other significant rocks and resources.
Localities where water and uku meet are my favourite places to search for pigments. Uku made soft and malleable by water is a great starting point for outdoor exploration. It was the ocean water which showed me Kōkōwai, a rock laiden with a red-brown Iron Oxide. Having explored the uku and ochres of Te Huruhi in depth I had turned my attention towards finding colour/pigment from rocks. One day a red rock that I found ‘bled’ out into my wet hand…This was my first encounter with kōkōwai.
Kōkōwai and red stain on hands.
A selection of wet rocks at Te Huruhi Bay. Spot the red kōkōwai and golden kerewhenua (yellow) in the middle.
I already had an affinity with oxides, coloured plaster and uku before finding my way to Kōkōwai; my father and sister both work with coloured oxide plaster and I work as a ceramic technician at Thea Ceramics. I knew from the moment I first found it that Kōkōwai had the kind of potency I was looking for in my uku and pigment practice. From this point I found ways to familiarise myself more with it. This has involved many different stages of familiarisation from grinding, sieving, levigating, mulling, body painting, paint making, painting on paper, wood, fabric, plaster, painting on uku and firing, dying clothes, staining uku bodies and much more.
BELOW: Levigating Kōkōwai in water. Even though this kōkowai has been sieved finely it can be refined even more by mixing it with water. After leaving it to sit for a few hours the coarser grains will drop to the bottom and water will settle on the top. In between a layer of pigmented water can be poured carefully into a jar lid (my preference) and left to dry into a fine powder ready for mulling.
When I paint and work with earth pigments much of my work has been a space for me to explore my Samoan and Cook Island heritage. My earth pigment practice has taken place alongside an in-depth study of my Pasifika ancestral lineage. As much as I love my birth place and home Aotearoa I also feel a strong desire to return home to the Islands of my ancestors. I believe that the more time you can spend with pigments and the whenua the more your practice will grow and the more you will learn about yourself and what is valuable in the process. Whether I am grinding pigments, processing wild uku or painting with earth pigments I feel privileged and grateful to be working with these resources and want to use them in meaningful ways.
LEFT: The Water Tank. ABOVE: Turtles: A connection to my Pasifika lineage.
ON UKU PRACTICE:
The time I’ve been able to devote to my practice has always varied. In my last home my shower was located right next to the partial exterior of an indoor water tank (all homes on Waiheke collect rainwater). Often, whilst showering, I would draw with rocks and clay on this tank and apply water to the colours and my hands. I would watch the colours flow down the tank and stream across the floor. Now I have moved on from this wonderful space but recently I took some kōkōwai and a black rock with me into a bath tub. I drew on the rock and then burnt the drawing with fire from a nearby candle. When the rock dried up the Kōkōwai was adhered to the rock alongside a patch of charcoal. Making time for my practice, even if just while washing myself, can be useful and precious time which can advance me further along my pigment journey.
If you find uku or pigments in nature the best place to do initial tests for workability is on location. I prefer to procure clay when it is soft and wet (but not too wet). I will roll it into a ball or small bowl to get a feel for its stretch. I will test its colour by wetting my hands and making hand prints on trees. Rocks and ochres containing pigment are tested by drawing with them on black rock. I am always looking for new material to inform my understanding and add to the story of a place. Over time the colours in this story will expand along with my genealogical/geological and historical knowledge of the place.
My journey with kōkōwai takes place alongside understanding the relationship it has with other materials and with fire. As you progress along stages in your learning more about pigments, and once you have taken them home, my advice would be to test them and keep testing. My early tests for water colour paints were focused around paint binders and refinement of grit. Later on I tested the blending of different pigments and shimmers sourced from shells.
Currently I am testing my light coloured paints on the surface of darker colours. As I have progressed in my paint-making journey I also find myself drawn back to the grittier, thicker and more textural medium that I produced in earlier stages of my journey. I spend a lot of time mulling over how much mulling (glass on glass mixing/grinding and merging) each paint needs. It can be frustrating for new paint- makers when they hear that this process is guided mostly by intuition but it is true. I mull my paints in a high speed circular motion until it looks and feels right (under my glass muller).
ABOVE: Powdered Pigments. RIGHT: Test strips from Te Huruhi Bay.
A basic recipe is helpful to set you on your way but time and experience is key to understanding when your paint is ready to use. My favourite water- colour binder is Gum Arabic which I do not source from Waiheke. I have a huge collection of Waiheke-sourced tree gums but haven’t mastered my use of these yet. I also use local honey as a humectant, clove oil for smell and preservation and rainwater as my base ingredients.
Having more experience with paint-making and testing has also enabled me to produce high quality pigment and kōkowai paints which can be used to decorate uku vessels at either greenware (unfired) or bisqueware stage. When I test my paints in the kiln I test for colour, coverage and grit versus no grit. The paints I make for decorating greenware and bisque-fired uku are currently mulled with water only but have been, and will continue to, be tested with other local materials no doubt. Most uku can be used as a paint/slip on greenware uku. I have found that the higher concentration of iron oxide in rocks makes for a far more superior paint in terms of its application and how it fires. Opening a kiln after firing can be equally exciting and nerve-wracking. Even with thorough testing failures and succusses are inevitable. It’s a humbling process and gives you a deep appreciation of a well finished product.
Ceramic ‘Test Tiles’ of Waiheke and NZ uku with Te Huruhi pigment paints applied and sgraffito tests. These paints have been applied to Greenware (unfired) uku.
Fired uku tiles.
A selection of fired Test tiles using a purple- Brown uku from Te Huruhi Bay with uku slip, Yellow iron oxide and Kōkōwai paints.
Complete set of Test tiles of local uku and Te Huruhi pigments made for use at a recent Thea Ceramics Wānanga.
Julia Kate Mack was raised and lives on Waiheke Island. Her hakapapa (Tongarevan) is Cook Island, Samoan, Irish and English. She has an Arts degree in Anthropology and Sociology from The University of Auckland. She is a mother to Alastair and Briseis. She works as a ceramic technician at Thea Ceramics and is an artist who works with Waiheke uku and earth pigments.
Julia, wearing yellow iron oxide eye shadow from Te Huruhi Bay