Collection: HE KĀKANO (2025)

This body of work started initially as one idea, and quickly turned into a journey with another. My concept for ‘Above Ground’ was to explore Australian native trees, and the indigenous connection to the land here. The research returned in me a longing I’d been denying for many years, and reignited a connection to my own homeland, and our trees (Rākau) and Mountains (Maunga) and waterways (Awa / Moana). Creating this work has forced me to really face myself, and work through my own sense of not belonging and deep mourning of a place that will always be home. Consideration of what I’ve run from and why, and how we find our way back from some journeys.

Accepting Aotearoa is still so deeply rooted in my heart space seems to have pushed it wide open again, and there’s been a reclamation of self and identity in many different and unexpected ways. One tiny seed planted the thought, but burst the floodgates open. He Kākano – The Seed, is about growth and continuing to grow and stretch and rise, even in the places you were not planted. The works were inspired by a Whakataukī / Proverb to honour the thoughts and the process I was painting through, following a trip to Rangiātea. 

“E kore au e ngaro, he kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea." It translates to "I shall never be lost, for I am a seed sown in Rangiātea".

It addresses topics of growth and of deep healing. It touches on misogyny and feminism. But mostly, it’s been about finding my way back to me after several years of feeling quite lost in the world. It honours what was and what became of it, and what is still yet to become. You could say it’s the becoming, again.

He Kākano, and the timing of it’s creation, may very well be the seed that leads me home again.