Tāne
Standing in the light
A man in the light
A man stands facing you. Behind him, light bursts outward in long rays, as if a door has just been thrown open onto the morning.
He doesn’t move. He doesn’t need to. His shoulders are broad and his gaze is level, steady and serious. Long hair falls behind him. Patterned markings flow across his face, chest and arms, spiralling over his shoulders like currents in water. Everything about him says that he knows exactly who he is and where he stands.
There’s a stillness in this kind of strength. It isn’t the strength of someone about to act; it’s the strength of someone rooted. You get the feeling that whatever storm came through, he would still be standing here when it passed, with the light still behind him.
A name with many layers
In te reo Māori, tāne means man, male or husband. Tāne is also the name of one of the great figures in Māori creation traditions. Te Ara describes how Ranginui, the sky father, and Papatūānuku, the earth mother, were at first joined, with their children living in darkness between them, until the children separated their parents and allowed light to flow into the world. Tāne became the atua of the forests. Te Ara also notes that tribal accounts differ: in some, Tāne raised the sky with a post; in others, he stood on his head and pushed upward with his feet. His ascent through the heavens to bring back the baskets of knowledge is described as a symbol of striving toward insight and understanding.
We don’t identify the figure in our artwork as any particular person or atua. But the light breaking behind him makes it easy to feel why this name was chosen: a man standing tall in a world full of light.
The artwork
The composition is bold and symmetrical. The figure is centred and shown from the waist up, his gaze direct, his arms at his sides. Rays of pale light burst out behind him in a wide fan, framed at the top by an arch of darker, patterned panels. Large spiral motifs sit in the panels on either side, echoing the spirals on his shoulders and chest.
The patterned markings on his face and body are bold, flowing and decorative. We read them as part of the artwork’s visual language of strength and identity; we do not identify them as tā moko or assign them customary meaning. The rendering of the body is detailed and sculptural, with careful shading across the shoulders and torso.
The dark slate, with its rough natural edge, makes the burst of light behind him all the more dramatic.
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 Te Aka Māori Dictionary, “tāne”. https://maoridictionary.co.nz/word/7378 Further reading: Rawinia Higgins, “Tā moko – Māori tattooing”, Te Ara. https://teara.govt.nz/en/ta-moko-maori-tattooing