Waikura, My Shed in Taumarunui

Project: Aoteatea Whakairo

This project represents a spiritual reflection of my world, I decided to carve the front of my shed to give it the prestige it deserves after completing the 'Te Maunga Kura Toi' degree program.

The Koruru (front mask) represents Rua-te-pupuke (the personification of knowledge) and the manaia at the raparapa represent Tumatauenga (contextual) and Rongo (conceptual) all these elements are essential for carving. The puhoro kowhaiwhai design represents a tohu, an acomplishment, also speed and agility in all these elements above.

I based the koruru on a wheku mask, Tane in his propped up position and a cows pelvis, a mnemonic to the Taurus star constellation and connectivity to the earth element. The Taurus constellation is one of the key 4 zodiac markers, marking summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and the Maori New year (matariki) in May/June time. 
The koruru faces exactly north which aligns with England's Stonehenge monument, I was bought up 28km away in a small town called Andover so this is rather significant to me. 

Westward my Rongo manaia faces the Great pyramids of Giza, as the opposing  side Tu faces Tongariro. On an Egyptian level I have designed these manaia in a subtle adapted form of the Ankh symbol, these symbols represent the keys to the golden gate (gate of the gods), [Scopio] -on Rongo's side and silver gate (the gate of man), [Taurus] -on Tu's side. They depict the journey of the soul and birth and death of the Sun every twelve hours.

The Milky way bisects the ecliptic along the zodiac cycle through the two points of Taurus and Scorpio, hence on rare occasions the event of galactic alignment conjunction happens where earth aligns with the galactic center.