Pūrākau 4+

Pūrākau is one part of Kura Moana installations created by Artist in Focus Lisa Reihana, Commissioned by Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of Arts, 2022.

Rerehua ana tāna topaki i runga i te pouwhenua i runga o Taone ki Piriti Moana
He kapo whakaahua tāna mahi, otirā he kōrero mō te whakaatuatanga.

Te Wheke o Muturangi calmly surveys passers-by, sensuously hovering above the City to Sea Bridge navigational pouwhenua. Te Wheke o Muturangi takes selfies and tells us about becoming a deity.

Te Wheke o Muturangi - Jahra Wasasala
Concept - Lisa Reihana
DOP - Gareth Moon
Grip - Fraser McKay
VFX - Assembly Ltd: Clare Bone, Damon Duncan, Rhys Dippie, Matt von Trott, Elliot Stronge, Matt Wilson
Sound Design - James Pinker & Sean Cooper
Costume - Bob Buck
Hair & Makeup: Stefan Knight
Production Coordinator: Ruby Reihana-Wilson
Hair & Makeup Assist - Luana Millar
Costume Standby - Dan Cruden, Ani O'Neil
Costume Makers - Shona Ward, Gillie Coxill, Dan Cruden, Ani O'Neil
Runner: Jaya Beach-Robertson
Thanks to Ana Hiini, TAPAC

Pūrākau

Firstly, find me a witness.
I have decided to peel
the mythology from my body.
Humans, Bodies full of mouths,
Heads full of prophecies,
yet not enough language.
To hold anyone that is more than one, at once
Empty your stomach of rubies, guns and earth.
Remember what the omnipotent tastes like.

I have no room for mercy,
only for beginnings
I know the terrors imagination,
the brilliance of birth
I do not belong to a wounded ocean
And neither did she

She has as many names
as there are days to be born
But look for her, she cannot be found
The god has swallowed the saga whole
The name has climbed back up into the mouth

A voice with so much blood in it
Listen, as it summons the va from
in-between her own legs
her children are marked as medicine, as ancestory.
All of whom have ingested every tired world before
They have spun the old violence
like silk through teeth

A name like hers,
A name like that knows what is needed to build a pantheons body