Aroha Pomana
Pop Up Gallery | 6-30 November 2026
In whatu, aho are the threads that bind whenu together, row by row. Aho also means line of descent, the thread of whakapapa that binds us to our tīpuna and whenua. In this exhibition, I’ve brought those two meanings together.
Aho Whenua is a conversation about the intergenerational impacts of disconnection from ancestral whenua through colonisation and urbanisation. That conversation is grounded in my wharenui, Ohinewaiapu, where some pou appear to be missing parts while others are complete. The reason may lie in the whare’s history of two relocations.
One kōrero ties this to making way for a public road, as requested by officials in the early 1900s. Do the pou bear their marks because of those relocations? Is there another reason? Like the pou, some of us bear the marks of separation and displacement from ancestral whenua in our identity and sense of connection: the feeling that ‘something is missing’.
Inspired by those pou, I’ve woven three pou muka using whatu aho pātahi. In Ko wai au? and Nō hea au?, the aho stops before reaching the edge, leaving whenu unbound. In Ko au tēnei, every aho completes its line. Side by side, they represent the different experiences Māori have of connection to whenua, tīpuna and identity, none above another.
As each pou hangs, its whenu reach for the ground. That reach is the pull of tīpuna and whenua. It persists across time and distance, and can heal when answered. That is aho whenua.
