Hākuturi- Forest folk Already Ancient Aotearoa

We made this piece for the old ones. The forest people. Those who stand small but staunch, those who do their work quietly.

These were the folk who make dead trees alive again, the folk who care and protect the vulnerable, the ones who remember truth. This is the story of Rātā

As we sat amongst the drift wood on the beach on Te Tai Poutini/ West Coast, we reflected on the journey of a tree. From its life, to its death and resurrection by parasitic plants and myscillia. We reflect on the fallen tree being washed out to sea and cleaned only to be returned again as a long log for the fire. As so is the path of the forest. A perpetual process of life and death and resurrection.

Rātā searches for his father's bones so that he can afford them the proper respect. He learns that the sea goblins have the bones in their village. He must build a canoe to get there. He goes into the forest, and fells a tree, and cuts off the top. His day's work over, he g...