Toni MacKinnon: Art form celebrates a connection to nature, ancestors

Lei, Mau. 1998 by Urai'i Ruatoe. Photo Collection of Hawke's Bay Museums Trust, Ruawharo Tā-ū-rangi.

Kia orana! It is wonderful to celebrate Epetoma ō te reo Māori Kūki Āirani (Cook Islands Language Week) by sharing Urai'i Ruatoe's work Lei, Mau which is held in Hawke's Bay Museum's Trust Collection.

This contemporary artwork riffs off the Cook Islands customary practice of 'ei kaki, adornment made in the Cook Islands and worn around the neck. Usually made from flowers, this beautiful art form celebrates a connection to nature, often also acknowledging the maker's ancestors.

Travellers to the Cook Islands will be familiar with 'ei kaki made with flowers and given on arrival at the Rarotonga International Airport. A symbol of love and respect, in older times 'ei might have been fashioned from bone or shell or even whale teeth. 'Ei made from these longer lasting materials became treasured family taonga passed down through the generations as heirlooms.

The practice of 'ei is customary and in this work we can see Urai'i innovate the tradition. Imaginative and experimental in its use of materials, Urai'i uses processes that stretch the tradition beyond its customary method. At the same time, she honours the practice by acknowledging family in her 'ei.

This 'ei was one of a series acquired into the collection when it was shown at MTG Hawke's Bay as a part of an Eastern Institute of Technology exhibition.

When it was displayed here in 1998 it was one of a series of ten, exhibited as an installation. Each 'ei was suspended in the space as if adorning a person and, given each is named after an important woman in Urai'i's life they must have communicated a real sense of presence and connection with loved ones.

As a student at EIT, Urai'i found printmaking her favoured medium and her tutors encouraged her to study in Otago.

Her final two years of study at Otago were spent under master printmaker Marilyn Webb, where she mastered processes such as wood blocking, screenprinting and lithography, which she used in the making of these works.

She continued to hand make her papers as she had at EIT, printing these papers and forming the petal shapes, which are threaded into the 'ei. Urai'i also included recycled seeds and shells in the work.

The museum team were fortunate to meet Urai'i again just last month and the real joy of the meeting was that Urai'i brought her young daughter along to see the works.

Able to understand the importance of the work in the Trust Collection and the care the collection team took with the work, Urai'i's daughter could also see the personalities of her aunties, grandmother and cousins expressed in the 'ei. I imagine she'd have been proud to see her family represented in the museum's Trust Collection.

This is a lovely example of how the Trust Collection tells the stories of the community it represents and it goes to show how art can give intimate personal stories big space through exhibition.

The Pacific Islands are well represented in the Trust Collection, most significantly in arts.

Recently the museum has taken the opportunity to consider our place in the world, particularly our location in Moananui-a Kiwa. In response, the museum has developed new displays in its gorgeous stairwell cabinets.

At this stage these displays are photographic. Soon, however, these will be replaced with actual objects, reinforcing the commitment that the museum has to its community and that community's place in the world.