Finished Painting: "Mokoia"

Artist Satement
This work explores the beauty of Maori culture. The figures you see are joined together in hongi, the traditional way for tangata whenua (local people) to greet manuhiri (visitors). The hongi is a symbolic reference to the first breath of life that was issued to Hineahuone (the female element who comes from the soil) by the Guardians and shows the coming together of the two groups to be united as one.