Esme – {Held in esteem}
I hold my posey of flowers like a bride on her wedding day. My dress is a patchwork of ancestry and community. I take it with me. I carry their legacy, not just on my body.
I am the sum of my parts. I am shells and worms, weka feathers and baby bird skull. I am made pretty with flowers and feathers.
Ceildh – {Gathering or party – wild dancing}
I bend to no will but my own and yet I bend. This is the shape of my vessel. I curve in the most fabulous way. My form is natural perfection. I am the sum of my parts. I am driftwood and faded plastic flowers from an unsold tchotchke.
Delores {Sorrow or Pain}
I throw my legs back in dismay. If I could run away I would. Instead I fall down and here I shall remain.I am the sum of my parts, I am mussel shells – large and small, feathers, bird skeleton. I am shells and kina and treasure.
Victoria – {Victory}
I gesture to you, as if palm out and offer you the world. Will you take it? Will you care for it if you do? I am the sum of my parts, a smooshing of sticks, stones and shells with a sandpiper skull. My butt made fluffy by feather and hydroids.
Te Potiki-Tautahi – {Unique child}
She’s giving labrador energy. Bones for days and a belly full of harakeke para. We don’t waste in this house
Kimberly – {From the wood from the royal forest}
Whakarongomai – {To listen and receive}
We speak in the rustle of the wind through the leaves of the trees. We speak through the crashing of the waves. We speak in bird-song. We speak in the low rumble of earthquakes. We speak in the deafening cracks of lightening strike. We speak. We don’t need words to be ignored.
Mabel – {Lovable or dear}
As my name suggests, I am treasure. I am to be adored.
Phoebe – {Pure, bright, radiant}
It is the history, carried on my body, that makes me beautiful. It is the stories of each of my elements that render me rich beyond measure. My ears have grown large so that I may listen to all their stories. It is neither too large or too small, heavy or light, bright or dull, too complex nor too simple.
Jesse – {Becoming Unravelled}
I am all dressed up and ready for the party. I am chaos and I am entropy. I am coming apart at the seams but a core of memory and habit holds me together.I am the sum of my parts. I am the gnarled roots of a long dead tree. I am a possum skull and feathers from a weka – killed by a dog on the Hokitika beach. I am gold guild. I am discarded brake pad and metal rod, glass millefiori and adhesive. I am the discards of humans – the jetsam of life.
Hinepara – {Crowned woman}
I am as beautiful as I am unique. The ravages of time and trauma evident on my gaunt form. But I stand proud and true. My light shines. Always.I am the sum of my parts. A glass crown frames my flowing curled harakeke locks. The tendrils accentuate my eyelashes of shell, rocks, crystals and kina. My driftwood legs and feetsies are pretty with leaves, pebbles, seeds, seaweed, shells and feathers
Bertha – {Bright one, famous}
I am the sum of my parts. I am the discarded pistachio shells of many a delicious snack. I am driftwood sticks – edges worn by time and misadventure. I am an eternity of rocks and glass. I am the skull of a long dead bull and the shells of briefly lived crustaceans. I am the seed pods dispersed on the wind. I am the harakeke that sprouts from the ground. I am lead and nails holding together that which has no business being one
Hinerauwharangi – {Guardian of the Elements}
I am fire – glass and lead and metal. I am water – shells and seaweed. I am earth – harakeke, bone, wood. I am air – feathers and wings. I am that of which I am guardian. I am the sum of my parts. My elements include driftwood, bone, shells, glass, adhesive, harakeke, millefiore, seaweed, gold guild, metal, lead came, quartz.
Te Rongopai – {Message of peace and good news}
I am of the land, the sea and the sky – too which I will return. Minute and fleeting as I am expansive and eternal.I am the sum of my parts. I am bone and glass, shells and glue. I am wood and korari and kina. And that says nothing of my insides.
Te Atawhai – {Kind, benevolent one}
I am the sum of my parts. And, boy – what great parts! I self-love so that you can too. I am the sum of my parts: Muka and marbles, kina and kauri, feathers and flotsam, stones and steel
Matilda – {Mighty in battle “Battle maiden”}
The ribs of my sisters, long lost, adorn my muka dreadlocks. I stand tall as my grief is part of me now. There is freedom in knowing your strength. I am the sum of my parts.
Penelope – {Weaver of thread}
I stand balanced on legs of driftwood, precarious, but resolute. My underbelly of woven harekeke curves to my plume of shells, muka and pine leaves. My neck stretches long and speckled with treasure.The weavers know. Look to the weavers.
Aramoana – {Way to the sea}
I sparkle like the suns rays on the surface of the ocean on a calm day.
I am the sum of my parts. I have shells for fins on a driftwood body, The glitz and glamour of my spectacular tail is from the glass, shells and Swarovski crystal. My adorable little fish face is an adorable little fishes face, gaps filled in with shell and feathers, pebbles and gold.
Anahera – {Angel}
Beryl – {Bright power or great ruler}
I am the sum of my parts – I am an assemblage of naturally occurring and man-made items. It is my diversity of origin that makes me unique, strong and beautiful.
My body is constructed using bones and shells – built of the lives of those who have gone before me. My elements include driftwood, harakeke, seaweed, barnacles, gold guild, korari, quartz, shells, pounamu, animal skull, glass and adhesive.
Artists Statement
The initial inspiration for Kaiwawao [Advocate] began with a walk on the Hokitika beach. In the flotsam of the high tide line lay a dishevelled Barbie doll head. With appropriate disposal in mind, I removed the plastic refuse from the beach. Instead I left it, forgotten on the back step. Later, on another walk, I found a stick. A fabulous, glorious, driftwood stick. One of such perfect form and size, that I knew its’ purpose in one thrilling instant. This stick had two long arms, joined in the middle and then separated again into what was clearly, two long legs. I swooped it up and raced home to my husband Denis. I thrust the stick victoriously in the air and exclaimed ‘Look, look, its Driftwood Barbie!’ And the first Kaiwawao was created.
The concept of the exhibition rose from a feeling of anger at my own inadequacy. I raged at the futility of my own meagre efforts to ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ in the face of capitalisms’ world-gobblinging consumption of resources. I was irate at the corruption and fraud evident at every level of bureaucracy and business that failed to factor in the environmental cost to the price point.
I wondered, what would make a difference? What would turn the tide of human apathy to environmental crisis? Would it take an army? Would an army of fighters be enough to stem destruction being wrecked on our biodiversity?
So I set out to build a squadron from nature to defend nature.
The exhibition Kaiwawao [Advocates] began with three goals; to be a fierce squadron of female warriors ready to defend nature to the end; to be wholly made of natural items and; I would only use resources I already had, or could find.
But a good adventure rarely goes to plan.
Instead of being fierce and terrifying warriors they wanted to be whimsical, joyous and ethereal. Rather than puritanical adherence to natural materials, it made more sense to- environmentally and visually – to incorporate any and all material that came to hand. They say ‘Use what you have’ and I have a lot of glass. The final remit was adhered to however and only things such as metal for armatures and adhesive were bought. Each Kaiwawao started with a stick, and evolved from there.
The unexpected gifts of creating this exhibition have been many. Using nature to advocate for nature – our one life-giving planet – has gifted me more than I could ever have hoped to achieve for its’ benefit. Foraging and collecting with my family has extended our time spent together outside. We have explored and marvelled at exciting new discoveries and created treasured memories. I have learned about my country – discovering the names and characteristics of our native plants and animals, including what grows where and when. I have acquired carving and weaving skills. I have accessed my cultural heritage. I have spent most days in awe of the intricate beauty of every piece of tesserae. I have seen the evidence that death is as much a beginning as an end and it is nothing to fear. It has brought me back from the brink of burn-out. Mostly I have experienced the pure joy of play and creation – allowing each piece to grow as felt natural.
I hope that this joie-de-vivre is transferred to the viewer through the work and you leave here having felt the whimsy and wonder of the Kaiwawao.