Te Kōpua 'the deep'

Te Kōpua 'the deep' refers to a conversation in 1845 prior to the battle of Ruapekapeka between Northern leaders Te Ruki Kawiti of Ngāti Hineamaru and Hone Heke Pōkai of Ngāti Rāhiri and the British and Māori allies. Kawiti tells younger ally that he warned him they would have to go out into the deep to catch their big fish. Now that the water is only ankle deep, he chides Heke, you are saying no more, stop. This piece was created while I was painting in the Royal Picture Theatre studio in Kingsland in 2021. Creative New Zealand provided funding for the Studio, materials and time to prepare for artwork for an upcoming exhibition. I created 35 + works in 2021 for my ĀTĀROA exhibition which showed at the Mahara Gallery, Waikanae outside Wellington, New Zealand. This was the last work I created in the studio and it was completed later in the year. The work is partly based on an illustrative print of a sperm whale by eighteenth century Dutch artist Diederik de Jong for Nieuwe beschryving der walvisvangst en haringvisschery, Amsterdam, 1792. The motifs used are primarily based on the unaunahi 'fish scale pattern' which is common to Te Tai Tokerau carving and the rohe 'region' with which Heke and Kawiti were affiliated.