Aho Kura Huna

Read about Maureen Lander’s art installation Aho Kura Huna.

Celebrating harakeke and muka

Harakeke (New Zealand flax) is central, conceptually and materially, to the installation Aho Kura Huna by artist Maureen Lander. This work was specially commissioned for Te Papa’s 2012 exhibition Kahu Ora | Living Cloaks.

Made of three primary components, Aho Kura Huna celebrates harakeke and muka, or whītau (flax fibre), as cloak-making materials. The three components carry the titles Huna, Kura, and Aho.

Huna

Huna is the central element of the installation. It pays homage to Huna, the Māori ancestor and kaitiaki (spiritual guardian) of harakeke.

Huna is suggested by a maro (kilt or skirt) of layered pōkinikini (strands) suspended over a floor-work of radiating leaf strands. These strands encircle a nucleus of black flax seeds, symbolising birth and potential new life.

Kura

Kura is the sacred colour of red-ochre. This component is composed of two triangular cloak forms, dyed with tānekaha bark to create shades of orange, red, and brown. The red emphasises the significance of kura in Māori cloak-making and alludes to the mana (prestige) of the wearer and to protected or esoteric knowledge.

The first cloak is a rain cape adorned with split flax-leaf strips. The second is a korowai karure, which features tags that uncoil into spirals.

Aho

Aho means weft (horizontal) threads. This component conveys the importance of muka as a symbolic medium that connects ira tangata, the realm of the living, with ira atua, the spiritual realm.

Aho is made up of two suspended works in which the aho and whenu (weft and warp threads) are braided together to create ethereal forms that float towards the ceiling.

Acknowledgment

Pā te Aroha weavers Mandy Sunlight, Rouati Waata, and Toi te Rito Maihi helped Maureen Lander to prepare the materials for Aho Kura Huna. The wooden suspension hoops were made by Nick Waterson, Elam School of Fine Arts Workshop.

Artist’s statement on making Aho Kura Huna

When I began making Aho Kura Huna, I had recently moved house, so I had no mature flax plants in my garden. I returned instead to the Hokianga. There, I gathered bundles of kōhunga leaves at Pā te Aroha marae in the Whirinaki Valley, where my ancestors had lived. Kōrari, which is what flax is called in the north, has brought me full circle, back to my roots.

The weavers of Pā te Aroha are my weaving whānau (family) now. They have supported and helped me to harvest and prepare all that I need – aho, whenu, kārure (tassels), pōkinikini (strands), tānekaha bark, and ash. It is their energy, and that of the place itself, that has been channelled into this installation.

I would like to dedicate Aho Kura Huna to the memory of my first teacher, Diggeress Te Kanawa, and to my new teachers, the weavers of Pā te Aroha. Together, we have yet more to learn.