Wi Taepa

Wi Taepa is known for his organic, hand-built vessels, which are adorned with carved patterns. Taepa is acutely aware of the whakapapa of uku and the cultural and spiritual value of the material. In 2007, he said: [While] my work sustains cultural aspects of Aotearoa, there lies within it an even stronger connect to the female elements in Māori genealogy, where Hineukurangi is a descendant of Parawhenuamea, maiden of the rocks. We are all connected and sustained by Papatūānuku, we thrive off her. She is where we begin and where we end. Ipu 7 is particularly significant to Taepa because it is a memorial to a pulpit carved by his uncle Taunu Tai Taepa in the Rangiātea Church in Ōtaki on the Kāpiti Coast, which was destroyed in a fire in 1995. Taepa incorporated charcoal from the charred pulpit into the clays and slips, and the kōwhaiwhai patterns repeat those he used when contributing to the rebuilding of the church in 2003.

whakapapa ~ genealogy, lineage, ancestry uku ~ clay kōwhaiwhai ~ painted scroll ornamentation

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