Thies Vaihū on Atarangi Anderson’s Ngā Mata Aute

    As Atarangi Anderson’s teina (apprentice) and friend, I (Thies Vaihū, (Ngati Whatua, Ngāpuhi, Tainui, Tonga) have had the pleasure of exploring with Anderson the ways aute (Māori barkcloth) interact with time and space. As such a tactile and taiao-centric practice, where each step must be deeply relational, slow, bespoke and deliberate, the very act of making aute makes us interrogate notions of linear time. While we see the beauty in a work on its face, peering deeper into the works unravels the ever-expanding layers of process, philosophy and whakapapa that sit behind each work (which in turn informs future works). I am always left with a sense of awe of the expansive nature of aute, how these works exist as a reminder of (but also transcend) a particular space or time and help connect Moana Māori communities to this practice. 

    Ngā Mata Aute centres around the presence of mata (eyes), embodying non-linear notions of time present in concepts of onamata (the past) and anamata (the future). Closely attuned to the writings of Hana Burgess (Ngāpuhi, Te Roroa, Te Ātihaunui a Pāpārangi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa), Anderson's aute speaks to "the eyes of those who have come before us, the eyes of those who have come after us”.

    Anderson received a Masters in Creative Practice from Unitec in 2023, where she exhibited her aute in He Wāhine, He Aute. Anderson's relationship with aute, however, started long before this.  Anderson was introduced to aute by her tuakana, Nikau Hindin (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngai Tupoto), and also credits her time in Samoa with master Siapo makers as influential in her learning. The practice of aute is inherently relational and inextricably linked to the sharing of mātauranga (to be good tīpuna, we must ensure that the practice flourishes past our lifetimes). Accordingly, I am now fortunate enough to receive Anderson’s mātauranga in this practice. Through the tuakana teina relationship, the knowledge of aute is able to expand and grow through the unfolding generations of aute practitioners. This whakapapa ensures the practice will continue to build and flourish into the future.

    Aute is an ancient  Māori  practice,  brought  to Aotearoa on our ancestral  waka. Care of and relation with her māra aute (aute garden) is the first and most crucial step in Anderson's practice. Anderson processes her aute (the name given to the tree, the peeled bark and the finished cloth) by harvesting suitable aute trees (paper mulberry), peeling the bark off those rakau and separating the outer bark from the inner bast.  Anderson then uses patu aute (beaters) and papa aute (anvil) to beat the inner bast, transforming the material into a wider, supple, durable textile. This processed aute is then embossed and painted to reflect Anderson's vision.

    Burgess' ideology of onamata anamata runs through Anderson's practice as a guiding principle in both the processing of aute and as a visual motif.  The eyes of our tipuna and mokopuna sit within Anderson's works to remind us that we are a product of our whakapapa (ancestry) and are future tīpuna (ancestors). Anderson’s embossed mata echo the iconography of whakairo, while also paying homage to the wider Moana use of kupesi boards. Hindin notes “Aute retains memory within its fibres. She is reinforcing familiar tauira in a new form”. In Ngā Mata Aute, the whorls of the mata speak to Burgess' words: "We are at once the past and future, our mokopuna and tūpuna, existing in the present”.

    The mata present in the aute fibre itself (seen through the pores in the aute) look forward into the past and backward into the present, communicating the non-linear and everpresent nature of Māori conceptions of vision, space, time and the self.  These multiple layers of mata in Anderson's works invite us to see our futures through the eyes of the generations that precede and proceed us, positioning the self through whakapapa's many infinitely sprawling layers.

    Anderson entwines past, present and future in her command of colours. While traditional ngatu, tapa and aute are typically marked in shades of browns, blacks and reds, Anderson incorporates novel colours within her works, while still using the natural environment to build this palate.  In particular, purple and blue clays are used alongside paua shell to subvert traditional colourways and communicate expansive understandings of what our tīpuna and mokopuna observe.

    Anderson has a deep understanding of whakapapa, community and practice. These ideas converge in Anderson's works in a way that transcends the linear notions of past and future, and filters laterally into the present into our Moana Māori communities.