Description:

Nau mai Urupukapuka, ancestral home to Ngati Kuta and Patukeha ki Te Rawhiti and a unique ecology found nowhere else in the world.
Te Ao Māori, or the Māori world view, has a direct link to whenua, the land. We are its descendants, and the gods are our ancestors. Whakapapa, or genealogy, connects celestial beings with all living things. Storytelling, mythologies, legends, knowledge, tikanga (custom), and philosophies passed from generation to generation, helps Māori understand their place in the world and their relationship with nature. As such, Māori view people as part of the environment, not masters of it.

This project encourages visitors to explore and experience the island through a Māori lens. A sense of tūrangawaewae (belonging/connectedness to a particular place physically and spiritually) is created through a journey between three pouwhenua (markers of significance). The pouwhenua act as thresholds into the spiritual realm of Urupukapuka Island and help connect visitors with the Māori spirits of Papatūānuku (earth), Tāne Mahuta (forest) and Ranginui (sky). As visitors engage more deeply with the island they gain a greater appreciation of the work of Project Island Song and the importance of the island to local hapū.

Designing from a place of tension ⁠— wanting to steer clear of tokenism and the risk of appropriation ⁠— meant to draw upon Te Ao Māori, its storytelling, mythology and relationship with the land ecology; to inspire architectural interventions or gestures that focus on narrative and experience. The ten metre tall markers are visible across the island and from the sea, and encourage a sense of pilgrimage and pause. Papatūānuku/the earth structure, speaks to the notion of motherly protection and the island being protected from predators. Tāne Mahuta/the ponga structure, speaks to revegetation and weeding. And Ranginui/the mirror structure, speaks to the reintroduction of native species. This information is embedded in the materials of the structures.

Papatūānuku/Earth Mother- A rammed earth structure leads visitors into the belly of Papatūānuku, accentuating the depth between the earth and the sky. The form denotes the separation of Papatūānuku and Ranginui and the emerging out of the darkness into the light.

Tāne Mahuta/God of the Forest - “Tane lay down on his mother, facing up to his father. He braced, and with his feet gave a strong kick. His father spiralled so high that he could not return.” A stacked ponga log spiral sitting in a gentle scoop in the land reflects Tane’s arched back in the earth as he kicked his father away.

Ranginui/Sky Father - Once separated from Papatūānuku, “The world began to flood as Ranginui began to weep, their mother lying on her back and looking up at her husband would only cause their father never ending sorrow.” Ranginui's desire to be reunited with Papatūānuku informed the use of mirrored panels, and a mirrored bowl in the centre to catch the tears of Ranginui and bring the sky down to the earth in its reflection.*

*Quotes are from Navigating the Stars. Māori Creation Myths. By Witi Ihiimaera.