Robin Slow’s Te Ao Marama: a koha to the Golden Bay community
Robin Slow with his painting Te Ao Marama which he has donated to the community. Photo: Neil Wilson.
Robin Slow’s dramatic painting Te Ao Marama was blessed at a recent ceremony in the TDC Service centre. The painting was commissioned by the community board, but the artist has decided to gift the painting to the community rather than accept payment.
“It’s a koha from Rose and me to our community, the Bay,” explained Robin. “The community board as a group does what it can to support the arts as well as the community. I was in a position to be able to give something back as a gift, so I did.”
The painting’s name translates as “the world of light” and it signifies the space between Rangi, the sky father, and Papatuanuku, the earth mother. Te Ao Marama is also the name of the wharenui (meeting house) at Onetahua Marae. An important element in the work is the putatara or conch shell.
“When Abel Tasman first came here, his warriors took to sea in their waka and blew on the conch shell to announce themselves,” explained Robin. “Tasman told his trumpeter to reply. To the tangata whenua that was a sign that the visitors had come for warlike purposes so it was all on. I’m using the conch shell as a symbol for communication of various kinds.”
Birds are an important element in much of Robin’s work. Te Ao Marama incorporates the mohua (yellowhead), which gives its name to this region, and the kawau (shag), which Robin uses as a symbol for chiefly virtues.
“The waka is there to symbolise our individual life journeys,” said Robin “and the three seeds stand for whakapapa (genealogy).”
Robin used kokowai, the local pigment, to paint the work. He also used gold leaf as a reference to Golden Bay’s English name.
“It worked out well,” he said. “The painting’s hanging in the meeting room next to the Abel Tasman quilt, so in some ways it’s like another aspect to the story the quilt tells. The painting is about different kinds of stories—individual stories and area stories—so it relates directly to here.”
Neil Wilson
