Hokianga Whakapau Karakia

Hokianga Whakapau Karakia (Hokianga that exhausts karakia) is part of the Hokianga series,  a group of paintings (acrylic on canvas or woodpanel), created during a 5-week visual art residency at the Rawene Church studio in the Hokianga (April - May, 2023). This painting was inspired by a story that relates the battle of karakia from two Māori rangatira who had each build a whare wānanga on either side of the Hokianga. A whale got caught in this battle with one of the chiefs trying to get the whale to return to sea and the other to entice further land inwards. In the end the whale got fed up, flicked its tail and turned its back on both chiefs.