E Nekeneke Ki Tōu Ake Ao

E nekeneke ki tou ake ao - meaning move into your own world - is a gentle and colourful reminder that the binary coding, which has notably infiltrated our gender identity within Aotearoa, has lead to more subtle conditioning beyond gender, where many of us are left to consider ourselves, and indeed the world around us, as a series of polarities. 

In Takatāpuitanga, we know it is true to be many things at one. As Te Ao Māori grounds and informs our identity, our hospitality (represented in the work by the rainbow Pātiki) is unwavering. The black grid symbolises a Hinaki (net/imprisonment), noting how settler colonial influence and gaze obstructs the reception and bounty of our Manaakitanga.

E nekeneke ki tou ake ao reminds us that moving away from our conditioning, can be a thing of curiosity and grace. We should allow ourselves and indeed our whānau, to move with us into our new world manoeuvring through the seabed & mud, like the Pātiki who we look to as exemplars of hospitality.