te tamaiti, te ao (2022)

In te ao Māori, a newborn child exists between the worlds of Te whare wānanga (the womb) and Te ao marama (the world of light), and time (the past, the present and the future). Lots of kupu (words, phrases) in Te reo rangatira confirms this; for instance, to be hapū is to be pregnant, but it also refers to belonging to the community to which you are related. Babies are intimately connected to tūpuna (ancestors), as the sum of everyone you have ever loved and everyone who has come before you.

Thinking through the poem 'E Tu Papatūānuku' by the late Kāi Tahu writer, Keri Hulme, te tamaiti, te ao considers deep time and the way in which a new child is linked to ancestral knowledge, whenua and pūrakau carried down through generations. Filmed at geological formations across Te Wai Pounamu, the work is a testament to Papatūānuku, childbirth and the persistence of even the smallest moss or lichen—beings who have survived for 350 million years. How do we learn from these teachers and reinscribe the sacred for our children?