Night time wander

 

Installed several months ago, I had not had the opportunity to see the Hemo Gorge sculpture Te Ahi Tupua at night. The sculpture stands about 12m high, and is designed by Stacy Gordine.

Most oral traditions from Te Arawa-Tuwharetoa and Mataatua sources ascribe the origin of Geothermal activity in the Taupo Volcanic Zone to the exploits of Ngātoroirangi, and his sisters Kuiwai and Haungaroa, aided by the Atua (supernatural deity’s) Te Pupu and Te Hoata.

Te Arawa a confederation of tribes “Mai Maketu ki Tongariro” have held firm to their oral traditions passing these from generation to generation in perpetuity ensuring the continuation of their culture, their customs and the practice of ancient traditions through which they maintain a strong sense of spiritual connection to their spiritual homeland of Hawaiki. One such narrative recants the indigenous world view of geothermal origins. A journey of exploration by Te Arawa ancestor Ngātoroirangi who ascended Tongariro, where he almost perished, so intense was the cold on that mountain. Ngātoroirangi called upon his tuahine (sisters) Kuiwai and Haungaroa to send heat and warmth to him, lest he perish. There is a clear correlation made within these traditions between the volcanic mountains and areas of surface geothermal activity, the hot springs, geysers, mud pools, sinter terraces and steam vents.

Te Pupu and Te Hoata, the Atua (supernatural deity’s) of heat and fire, are remembered for creating the geothermal imprint from far off Hawaiiki throughout the subterranean Tongan and Kermidec Trench’s, to the Volcanic landscapes of Whakaari (White Island) Moutohora (Whale Island), just off the East Coast of the North Island near Whakatane through to Mt Tongariro in the Central Plateau, in search of Ngātoroirangi, the great Ariki and tohunga of the Te Arawa Waka (canoe).

Te Ahi Tupua is a contemporary artwork which commemorates this subterranean journey of these Atua and a direct correlation between their journeys throughout the subterranean catacombs and the post eruption surface features. These strands of rising heat and steam symbolically represent the connectedness of the communities who have made these special places their homes among Geothermal fields and the post eruption caldera’s within the Taupo volcanic zone.