Created across several weeks in late March and early April, as a celebration of Pride Month, Te Pūrakau ā Tiki rāua ko Tūtānekai – The Story of Tiki and Tūtānekai was designed and conceived by artist River Jayden (Ngāti Tahu – Ngāti Whaoa, Ngāti Maniapoto), and executed by Jayden with support from a small group of local takatāpui rangatahi.
The work forms part of the existing collection of artworks enlivening the hoardings along Worcester Bouvelard that frame Te Matatiki Toi Ora – The Arts Centre – joining murals by Mr G, Monti Masiu and Kophie Su’a-Hulsbosch that provide a spectrum of narratives around culture and identity.
Jayden’s work features sprawling multi-coloured kōwhaiwhai on either side of a lively manaia character and hand-painted text reading Te pūrākau ā Tiki rāua ko Tūtanekai (The story of Tiki and Tūtānekai) to the left, and “Ka mate ahau I te aroha ki toku hoa, ki a Tiki” – Tūtānekai’s declaration that “I am stricken with love for my friend, for Tiki” to the right.
The work illuminates the often-obscured narrative of the love between Tūtānekai and his male companion Tiki. A celebration of rainbow and takatāpui identity, and a challenge to “colonial narratives from the 1800s—a time when missionaries and settlers tried to strip us of our mātauranga, our ways of being, and our expressions of love and identity.” Jayden explains that the work centres Māori identity and “our diverse expressions of sexuality—something that was once natural and visible within our communities.”
Jayden reasons that this story has been overshadowed by the relationship between Tūtānekai and Hinemoa: “this part of the story was silenced under the pressures of Christian missionary influence and colonisation. Yet takatāpui identities have always existed in te ao Māori. They live in our whakapapa, our whakairo, our mōteatea—woven into the fabric of who we are.”
Jayden’s work is an act of reclaiming stories and space, and in Te pūrākau ā Tiki rāua ko Tūtanekai, the narrative is reinforced by the juxtaposition against the neo-gothic architecture, a reminder of Ōtautahi’s ongoing reconciliation of its bi-cultural identity and history post-quake.
Te pūrākau ā Tiki rāua ko Tūtanekai was made possible with support from Te Matatiki Toi Ora – The Arts Centre, Watch This Space, Flare Ōtautahi Street Art Festival, the Christchurch City Council, Dulux Paints, Moana Vā, Qtopia, and InsideOut.
Photo Credits: River Jayden