TITLE: Ipu Waiora
MATERIAL: Stoneware clay, Ash, Celadon glazes
SIZE: 245mm(h) x 350mm(w)

Amorangi Hikuroa
Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Toro and Te Popoto

In 2017 was the 30th birthday of our movement, clay is now and forever a media used by Māori. How long does an art form have to be practiced before it is called a tradition. We have avenues where uku can now be utilised within our culture, as ritual ware to mahi kai. Made relevant by our mentors and founders of Ngā Kaihanga Uku. So I pay homage to them for giving Māori a pathway back to our ancestral links within the Pacific and reconnecting Māori back to the most ancient of human art forms. I am a practitioner of cultural expression making objects that are part of my story. What I create will be left as evidence that I was. I believe the work I do and the journey I'm on is now of the story of clay. I pay homage to my ancestors, the greatest of navigators, and the first clay workers of the pacific. They left a map, a guide for us to follow, so we will always know where we're from, where we are and where we're going. We are all clay, the body of the mother.

Ritual ware, vessel for holding sacred water. Water is used in ceremony for cleansing oneself after leaving a sacred space. Emerging back into the light.