Nature was an important inspiration for Valerie Heinz. She painted driftwood on windswept beaches and wild ocean swells, but was especially drawn to the beech forests of Te Tai Poutini West Coast. Heinz frequently tramped in alpine areas near Arthur's Pass, making many paintings in response. “I have never wanted to paint the forest from a distance”, she said, “but as though the mud was beneath my boots and the foliage was dripping from above.” The steep, tree-clad hills in this work are near the Taramakau River, which extends from Nōti Taramakau Harper Pass down to Te Tai-o-Rehua Tasman Sea. Its upper reaches were renowned by Kāi Tahu as both a source of pounamu and an accessible travel route through Kā Tiritiri-o-te-moana Southern Alps.

Kāi Tahu ~ tribal group of much of Te Waipounamu South Island

pounamu ~ greenstone

(He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil, 2025)

E kore a Parawhenuamea e haere ki te kore a Rakahore ~ Freshwater does not go without rocks.

Sarah Hudson spent several years immersing herself in the practices of her tūpuna Māori, researching the way rocks, clay and soils have been used as a material for personal adornment, art-making, ceremony and medicine. In this work she explores the relationship between land, water and body through ritual. As she applies grey uku to her body, face and hair, water and earth come together to make rich new textures and colours. Clay objects, returned to the river, bear the marks of these rituals. The relationship between earth and water is established with whakapapa and communicated through te reo Māori, as evident in the above whakataukī.

Parawhenuamea ~ the personification of freshwater

Rakahore ~ the personification of rock

tūpuna Māori ~ Māori ancestors

uku ~ clay

whakapapa ~ genealogy, lineage

te reo Māori ~ the Māori language

whakataukī ~ proverb

He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)