https://pihirau.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Te-RONGO_Making_1.mp4
Every act of creating and curating Māori art within a public space is an act of translation. One translates the kaupapa ‘the foundational thoughts’ one wishes to communicate to an audience that mostly has very little knowledge of the very areas that drive the artist and make sense of the work: wānanga ‘ancestral narratives’, te reo Māori and ones’ belonging to ngā whānau ‘families’, ngā hapū ‘sub-tribal groups’ me ngā papa kāinga ‘landscapes and settlements’ and ngā hitore ‘histories.’
In attempting to bridge this gap in perception one is repeatedly conscious that ones’ thoughts and inspirations move exponentially and profoundly beyond the local context in which the art is shown. This is to say nothing of the importance of all of the other senses that move beyond kite ‘to see’ and make sense of the content in a much broader, more fitting context. One thing is for sure. The visual is just ONE sense. And it has been well and truly over-emphasised in the way in which audiences have been taught to read art around the world.
The gap then that exists between the Māori artist, the Māori curator, the Māori art historian and his/her audience means that something is necessarily lost or given up in order to effect the creation of the work. Let’s call the work ‘art’. It is this but it is so much more. ‘Te RONGO’ is about how we employ sensory perception to understand the natural and built environments that Māori must operate within if they wish to communicate to their audience. So this entry is about using words to convey meaning in the midst of a cacophony of visual distractions. Look at the image of the letters, for example, and try to make sense of what they might mean in this particular context. A kupu, a Māori noun describing ‘sensory perception,’ replaces a Scottish place-name. A link is provided below to clarify the meaning of the original word.
The Mount Albert Historical Society notes its’ humorous naming by early Pākehā settler Allan Kerr Taylor: ‘…after a mental asylum in the Morningside suburb of Edinburgh’.
The attached video captures me activating the translation I have briefly outlined. The clip shows me installing letters comprising the title of the show TE RONGO. I had to create two new letters. I chose a rustic gold form for ‘T’ and ‘O’, added to the original set which initially was used to spell ‘MORNINGSIDE’ – the name of the suburb in which the show was held. So goodbye ‘M’ ‘I’ ‘I’ ‘N’ ‘S’ ‘D’ ‘E’. The accompanying music ‘Never Leave’ is original and the property of Rangihīroa Panoho.
