(“The Pūriri trees (of the Bay of Islands) are laughing with joy” )

In the face of adversity, this whakataukī is a noble sentiment that speaks to a profound mana present only in the righteous.

My design attempts to counter the oppressive stances asserted in the original poster, and aims to hearten viewers with a peaceful protest against colonisation that celebrates the position of Māori in Aotearoa’s history. The titled whakataukī which guided my process encapsulates the spirit of my intentions to evoke a sense of joy, kaitiakitanga, and mana for a whakapapa Campbell & Ehrenfried actively worked to erase.

Read the full historical analysis that informed my design here.​​​​​​​

With Sir Āpirana Ngata as my subject, I attempted to combine place-based symbols of rangatiratanga that locate him as a champion for Pūriri and its people. Adorned with a korowai made of contours and textures extracted from images of Taketakerau, Tanekaha Falls, and the Pūriri moth, I acknowledged Sir Ngata’s unique attributes as a progressive leader and advocate for Māori education with Te Ara Poutama patterns on the trim. 

To further contextualise Sir Ngata as a rangatira, I drew from sacred Northern burial rituals and adorned him with a coronet of Pūriri leaves — embracing him with the contours of both the mighty Pūriri trunk and it’s chiefly leaves. Sitting high up in the composition, the regal Sir Ngata is backdropped by Moehau Maunga. 

Using digital brushes that emulate oil painting, I blended the contextual medium with hand-scripted text that bridge the style of the original poster and the expressive text-based artworks of Māori activists. Using a palette extracted from the original - already derivative of traditional Māori palettes — I believe my design successfully pairs with and responds to its predecessor without perpetuating its colonial aesthetics.