Feminine Spirit · Sun

Where the light begins

The world waking

Before dawn, the world is grey and waiting. The mountains are only outlines. The river is a dark ribbon. Nothing has colour yet.

Then the sun lifts above the ridge, and everything changes.

Light pours down the valley. The river turns to silver as it winds toward the sea. Ferns uncurl into the warmth. Waves along the shore catch fire. And at the edge of it all, a woman’s face appears in profile, eyes closed, turned toward the light as if she has been waiting for it all night.

Her body and the land have become one. Spirals flow through her like water, like wind, like growth. Is she watching the dawn, or is she the dawn? The artwork lets you decide.

Out of darkness, into light

Te Ara’s account of Māori creation traditions describes a great movement from Te Pō, darkness and night, to Te Ao Mārama, the world of light. It notes that in some tribal versions it is the sun that prompts the children of Ranginui and Papatūānuku to separate their parents and let light into the world. The same account explains that carved meeting houses are opened at dawn, because the arrival of the sun symbolises the creation of the world of light.

We find that idea beautiful: every sunrise is a small re-enactment of the world coming into being. Our artwork doesn’t depict a specific tradition or figure. It is our own response to that feeling of light arriving.

The artwork

This is a landscape and a portrait at once. On the left, a full sun glows in a soft halo above a ring of mountains. A river winds from the foreground into the distance, through a lake or valley, past trees and ferns. In the lower left, a second, rising sun spreads its rays over the water.

On the right, the woman’s face appears in quiet profile, eyes closed, her hair and body dissolving into a cascade of spirals, waves, leaves and patterned forms that fill the right half of the coaster. Small birds rest among the swirls. The spirals echo the koru, which Te Ara describes as an unfurling-fern form often used in Māori art to suggest creation, continual movement and a return to origins. In our artwork they are a visual language of growth and energy; we do not assign them customary meaning.

The silvery tones of the slate suit the subject perfectly. The whole piece seems to glow from within, like early light on stone.

Tribute

A tribute made with respect Our work is a contemporary artistic response to Māori storytelling and its deep connections with land, sea and ancestry. The visual interpretation offered here is Aroha Artisan’s. The traditions themselves belong to the communities who hold and pass them on, and the published accounts below offer a starting point for further learning.

Published accounts:

Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, “Māori creation traditions”, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. https://teara.govt.nz/en/maori-creation-traditions “The koru”, Te Ara. https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/2422/the-koru