Ngata Memorial College kaimahi Sam Tangaere (right) assists Ngati Porou Oranga and Te Oranga Hinegaro kaimahi Hone McCluthie slice Waiapu stone during a He Wa Haumahi Toi initiative in Ruatoria. The Mahi Toi trailor design has won a gold medal for vehicle signage.
Ngata Memorial College kaimahi Sam Tangaere (right) assists Ngati Porou Oranga and Te Oranga Hinegaro kaimahi Hone McCluthie slice Waiapu stone during a He Wa Haumahi Toi initiative in Ruatoria. The Mahi Toi trailor design has won a gold medal for vehicle signage.
A vividly adorned trailer serving communities along the East Coast has earned national recognition for its striking artwork.
The award-winning He Wa Haumaru Mahi Toi maxi trailer was born from a creative collaboration between Gisborne print company Live Creative, artist Mel Tahata, and the trailer’s owner, Ngāti Porou Oranga.
Thetrailer’s symbolic and contemporary imagery recently earned Live Creative a gold medal in the Vehicle Signage (Digital) category at the New Zealand Sign and Display Association Awards.
He Wa Haumaru, funded by Te Whatu Ora and delivered by Ngāti Porou Oranga, uses Mahi Toi and other Māori frameworks to find local health solutions.
Live Creative owner Matt Skuse says the job was one of its largest and most complex vehicle wraps.
“We regularly create trailer wraps, but this one let us flex our strengths across design, print, and installation. From consultation to delivery, everyone had a hand in it.”
The artist, Mel Tahata (Ngāti Uepohatu, Ngāti Rangiwaho, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti), is also Live Creative’s studio manager.
With 30 years’ experience in graphic design, degrees in fine arts and Māori visual art, and an artist’s toolkit spanning sculpture, printmaking, film, and textiles, Tahata was perfectly placed to meet the Māori urban street art brief.
“When they described what they wanted, I thought this is how I draw, this is right up my alley,” she said.
“It’s not every day someone wants my drawings large and plastered all over a vehicle. That’s a first.”
Tahata began with pencil sketches at home, often late at night, before converting them into digital form.
Out of her lines emerged a visual narrative of her own, and East Coast, life.
Hunters and weavers, whānau fishing, a woman painting with a taiaha-like brush, phases of the moon, native flora and fauna, and echoes of traditional carving styles.
Twice a week, the Ngāti Porou Oranga He Wa Haumaru Mahi Toi trailer travels between East Cape and Gisborne. It is a moving gallery on wheels, carrying the tools of creativity and the colours of the Coast. The trailer design recently won local print company Live Creative a gold medal for Vehicle Signage (Digital) at the New Zealand Sign and Display Association Awards.
The programme, led by master carver Hone McClutchie, is a mobile wānanga and safe space that can be set up on a marae, in the bush, on a beach, or anywhere the community wants.
From the trailer, McClutchie can unload diamond grinders, fishing rods, native timber, and carving tools.
Whānau gather and learn skills such as greenstone grinding, wood carving, weaving, and fishing.
“Participants are reconnecting with the feeling of productivity while enjoying pride in their mahi and ancestral revitalisation,” says McClutchie.
“It’s aimed at inspiring and encouraging whānau to maintain whakapapa which leads to wellness.”
