Waka ama koha
Andrea Dixon and Deb Haldane from the Onetahua Waka Ama Club, presented a Robin Slow painting to Eddie Solly of Solly’s Freight.
“Last November we needed to get our newly made waka brought here from Napier and didn’t have much money in the bank,” said Andrea, who is the president of the club. “Merv Solly kindly sponsored the transport of our waka from Napier to Picton. We did most of the organising through Eddie and the truck driver on the day was Michael Baker. The club wanted to say thank you to Merv and Sollys Freight for their generosity. We were thrilled when Robin Slow offered to paint something special representing the waka’s journey as a koha for the club to give to Merv’s company.”
Robin explained that the painting depicts the Mohua bird (Mohua is the name for Golden Bay). There is a red line down the middle of the painting representing the blood shed when Rangi and Papa separated.The red comes from kokowai, the red stone from Parapara. The background spirals depict the travels of the waka. The gold leaf circle at the top is the colour of the name, Golden Bay.
Neil Wilson
