Pōneke
Image credit: Sebastian J Lowe
Today we have a video premier from Ruby Solly ( Kai Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe) in collaboration with Sebastian J Lowe and Victoria Baskin Coffey from Otis (@otis_makers). The video is being released as part of the album ‘Pōneke’ which is also being released today and can be found at rubysolly.bandcamp.com
Pōneke is a modern love letter to place, space and time within a post second-migration world. When I first moved to Wellington in my late teens, I felt a deep connection with this place. I believe deeply that one can feel a history before it is known, that one can sense that they are walking backwards into the future, looking into the places of their ancestors. It was years later that I delved back into taonga puoro, a connection with our ancestors that had been present during my childhood.
I realised that these feelings I had in spaces, these messages from my tūpuna that were stored within my DNA could be played as rangi; as tunes of place and the events and feelings that had occurred within them. Pōneke is an album that allows the listener to hear and experience the histories of a place, allowing us to journey together. This video is a collection of three of the locations within Pōneke that exist within both te ao Pākeha and te ao Māori.
Karaka – Wana
Our tupuna Ruawharo, tōhunga of the Takitimu waka, is associated with bringing the karaka seed to Aotearoa. Karaka bay was once a thriving metropolis for Māori including Kāti Māmoe, and was a part of māhika kai practices. The bay has been referred to as “whale bay” at different points throughout its history. During the 1800s, one settler complained that the whales “cavorting” kept him awake all night. Now we see a very different landscape, though the wairua of these whales and tūpuna can still be felt.
Pōneke is a koha to all those who call Wellington home, a koha to the hau kāika, and to all people of Wellington; past, present and future. I hope it inspires you to connect with whatever place you are privileged enough to call home, and those who care for the spaces we inhabit both within te ao tāwhito and te ao hou.
All illustrations by Ruby Solly