Connecting with ngā atua:
new work by Māori Mermaid
A whenua-led, series of digital depictions of ngā atua Tūparimaunga, Parawhenuamea and Ukurangi, developed over the summer of 2022/23 by Jessica Hinerangi Thompson Carr for Kauae Raro Research Collective.
The foundation of Jessica Hinerangi Thompson Carr’s practice is an organic layer of lived experience from growing up on Ngāi Tahu lands which lays atop a bedrock of Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Ruanui whakapapa.
Over the summer of 2022-23, Jess aka @Maori_Mermaid developed a whenua-led series of digital depictions of ngā atua Tūparimaunga, Parawhenuamea and Ukurangi. These are three of the many atua we evoke when working with earth pigments.
To create these images, Jess walked, swam, sat, listened, searched, and researched. She spent two days alongside her Waingongoro awa, swam for two weeks in Roto Ruataniwha and revisited her childhood memories of growing up around Aoraki.
Initially, Jess was disappointed with the absence of Tūparimaunga, Parawhenuamea and Ukurangi in the literature she was researching. There is a gap in the historic documentation of Atua Wāhine as Pākeha Male Ethnographers recorded male-centric, patriarchy-affirming narratives from Tāne Māori. These twisted narratives have been cited and recited in a way that obliterates any balance of masculine and feminine, or any glorious merging in between. This was a method of erasing anything other than Mana Tāne, and it can feel unnerving when searching for ngā atua in written form. That’s when we can draw strength from our whānau, community and te taiao for reassurance.
Tūparimaunga by Jessica Hinerangi Thompson Carr (2023)
Parawhenuamea by Jessica Hinerangi Thompson Carr (2023)
Ukurangi by Jessica Hinerangi Thompson Carr (2023)
The bones of these images are created with photos taken at meaningful places to the artist, the sites she spent time with to connect draw inspiration from te taiao. While she was there, she collected ngā tae oneone, workable whenua to turn into paint. These site-specific colours were then digitally colour matched and used to illustrate over the photographic images. Spending time on the whenua, taking photos, gathering art materials from te taiao and spending more time distilling all that information has resulted in a series of three inter-related, multi-dimensional digital works. This process of digital layering is an expression of conceptual and tangible whakapapa.
The same earth-derived colours flow through each of the works. In some whakapapa Tūparimaunga is from one of the oldest generations of atua, Parawhenuamea spawns from Tūparimaunga and flows down the mountainous channels, Ukurangi is in turn carried, supported, and brought to life by Parawhenuamea.
Re-imagining is reconnecting, each art work is a portal to inspire and feel awe, or solidify your own personal connections or disconnections. Upon reflection Jess had these observations to add to the ways we can appreciate these three atua.
· Tūparimaunga, although not by that specific name, we acknowledge our ancestral mountains in every pepeha – they are a site of abundance, whakapapa, shelter and strength.
· Parawhenuamea, earthly water that brings silt down the mountains and pushes through clay to bring us food, hydration, and blessings. Another element acknowledged through pepeha.
· Ukurangi, an atua we can learn to recognise by touch; a shapeshifting material of adornment, ceremony and rongoā.