Inanga, Heitiki , North Island (Toru Tekau ma Rua) Okains Bay...

Inanga, Heitiki , North Island (Toru Tekau ma Rua) Okains Bay Maori and Colonial Museum

"Kei a te pō te timatatanga mai o te waiatatanga mai o te atua."
— Matiaha Tiramōrehu, Te Waiatatanga Mai o Te Atua, South Island Traditions, 1987

Ka timata tā Matiaha Tiramōrehu taki i te ōrokohanga o Kāi Tahu mai i te pō. Mai i te pō uriuri ki te ao mārama, ko te ao tūroa, te taiao, te whenua, nāwai rā ka hua mai te tākata whenua. I konei whakatōkia ai te mouri, ā, ka taiāwhio i ngā mea katoa.

I ngā tau 1990 ka tupu te māramatanga o Fiona Pardington ki tōna whakapapa, ā, ka hohonu ake tāna ruku ki te tikanga o te oho, arā ko te ngao e pupuru ana i ngā mea katoa, e ai ki a Pardington, “ka whakatinanahia e ngā mea ora, e ngā kaupapa, e ngā hanganga me ngā mea e taupori ana i te ao tūroa.” Ko hāna mahi kapo whakaahua e whakaatu ana i te mouri me tōna kupenga – kua tina, kua whena, kua toka, kua poutāiki ki roto ki a ia.

Ahakoa te rehurehu o te āhuahanga o te hei tiki, nō mai anō tōna āhua ā-tangata – nō ngā tūpuna, nō ngā atua tonu. Ka whakairohia ki te kowhatu kia āhua mai te mauri o te hei tiki, ka puta rawa mai ki te whei ao, ki te ao mārama.

Nō ngā waihōpuapua pōuriuri a Inanga, Hei Tiki, me te aha he tohu whare pupuru taonga noa iho hei hoa haere mōna. He māramatanga hōu e huna mai ana.

I māwhitiwhiti ngā kowhatu pērā i te pounamu inanga, nō Te Waipounamu, i ngā kātū punaha tauhokohoko maha. E tohu ana te takiwā o tēnei hei tiki i te hītori o te taoka. I hoki kē te taoka nei ki mātongatonga i te wā i toro mai a Pardington, me tōna hanga mōrearea hoki – e whakatika ana tōna mauri hōu hei whakaahua.


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Matiaha Tiramōrehu begins his telling of Kāi Tahu creation in darkness, te pō. From deep night into day, the universe, natural phenomena, whenua, and eventually tākata whenua spring forth. Through this inception, the life force of mauri is held fluidly within and between all.

Since the 1990s, a growing understanding of her whakapapa has led Fiona Pardington deeper into the concept of immanence, an energetic plane that holds everything yet is only, as Pardington states, “expressed through the beings, events, objects and things that populate our universe.” Her photographic work recognises mauri as an immanent web—binding, stored, and reflected by her subject matter.

While the exact subject of individual hei tiki may be uncertain, their human shape extends deep into time—towards tīpuna and atua. Nested within stone, carving reveals the mauri of a hei tiki, pulling it into the light of day.

Inanga, Hei Tiki is pooled in archival darkness, with only museum labels for company. A fresh revelation of form lies in wait.

Born out of Te Waipounamu, the South Island, stones like inanga pounamu travelled via extensive trade systems. The provenance of this hei tiki, “North Island,” offers only a glint of the taoka’s history. Returned to the south by the time of Pardington’s visit, the hei tiki is embedded in an emergent state—its mauri ready to manifest in a new form, the photograph.

— Madison Kelly (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Pākehā), 2024