Was, are, will be _{by Alessia Belsito-Riera}

“Tiaki is a manaia, a bearer who connects the worldly and spiritual realms”, creative Shannon Te Rangihaeata Clamp (Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Koata, and Ngāti Tama) says of his exhibition running as part of the Courtenay Place light boxes series until the 5^th of October. “Tiaki acknowledges Te Aro pā and its people, the original kaitiaki of this whenua, as well as those who have come to be here since. Tiaki is borne from the tension and duality of a place that wears the scars of a displaced people and a seemingly alienated reality carried by passersby through to all the peoples that walk, talk, party, meet, eat, and bring to life Courtenay Place”.

Reflecting the human and spiritual lives that pass through this part of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, the exhibition recognises Courtenay Place as a space where the tangible and intangible converge. It acknowledges the layered whakapapa (history) in the hopes of offering a moment of reflection amid the noise and movement of modern urban life.

“Tiaki acknowledges the space between and overlapping people, atua, this place, its histories, and its presence,” Te Rangihaeata Clamp continues. “Tiaki enacts a movement through different times and spaces and embodies the heightened state one might hold when carrying the stories of those who are no longer here, those that are always here, and those in between”.

Proud to see his work in the heart of Pōneke, Te Rangihaeata Clamp says his practice is a reflection of the visual language of his iwi and hapū and inspired by his whakapapa, tūpuna, and pūrākau. He hopes Tiaki will serve as a reminder of the hisotry of this whenua to those passing through.

“The many tiki faces with their glistening eyes are watching and looking over their whenua and tūpuna”.