Antonia van Sitter

Mānawatia te Whenua, Mānawatia te Tangata (2024)

4 min 19 secSingle channel / Digital Video / Colour / Sound

Mānawatia te Whenua, Mānawatia te Tangata: if the whenua and the surrounding environments flourish, so too will the people. 

E huri ō pūkanohi ki ō tūpareparehua, ki ō wai-kaukau, ki ō whenua tāngaengae hei oranga motuhenga mōu, mō ngā whakareanga ā-haere ake nei: turn your eyes to your mountains, your bathing waters, your land, as sources of sustenance. 

In Mānawatia te Whenua, Mānawatia te Tangata, Antonia van Sitter returns home to Manupirua Bay on the edge of Lake Rotoiti, where her whānau are the kaitiaki of the area’s natural geothermal springs. The springs exist as living entities, belonging to and connecting with both the land and the people, and are the last place mana whenua pass through before their journey to Reinga. Footage shot on the lake is overlaid with drawings that reflect van Sitter’s perception of the intangible qualities of Māoritanga: the embodied experiences of wairua, mauri, whakapapa, tikanga, kawa, tapu, noa, and karakia, as held between Papatūānuku and Ranginui.

These drawings also contain fragments of pūrākau that speak of the formation and spiritual significance of the lakes. In the background, the work incorporates scenes from the short film Ahī Ka (2013), directed by Richard Curtis and filmed on Lake Rotoiti, which extend the ideas of continuous occupation inherent in ahi kā (the burning of fires) to the ongoing presence and importance of wairua, atua, and taniwha in Te Ao Māori.

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