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Pare Kawakawa : Navigating Grief

22/5/2020

 
It's 12 months since I finished Pare Kawakawa & as Puanga/Matariki draws near it seems appropriate to reflect & share.
I've never been able to write about this work here & yet I have shared it elsewhere.
It hung in our LTTL exhibition last year & it's in a book ! 
I dunno.
Sometimes these things are just too close. 

Pare Kawakawa is in the studio with me.
It keeps me company.
It sits adjacent to the high south facing window & through the window I can see the sky.
A sky just like any other day. 
Picture

this is what I wrote in May 2019 when I completed Pare Kawakawa & submitted it for consideration for publication.
‘Pare Kawawa: Navigating Grief’ is a kawakawa leaf monoprint which has been appliqued on to a fabric background & embellished with embroidery.
The materials used are cotton fabric, cotton thread & textile paints.
It is a new work which came about because I wanted to articulate the impact that the shootings & subsequent deaths of the 51 people in the mosques in Christchurch has had, & continues to have, on our nation &, of course, it has become a way for me to process my own grief.
New Zealand is a small nation & to lose 51 people in this way is incomprehensible.
When I realised I knew one of the 51 my already broken heart felt like it might explode.

I wanted this work to remember them, to represent the 51 people who have died.

I wanted the work to be quiet, to be gentle but not fragile.
I wanted it to be light; to suggest the time & the light that comes after the heavy darkness of death.
The moment when things shift, spirits lift, time expands, stretches to infinity & the mind can quieten so that the heart can remember.


​And, above all else, I wanted it to be beautiful.

I have found it impossible to write about & very difficult to talk about it. 
There seem to be too many words, too many stories & I find the words & the stories become chaotic when I try to write them down. 
My thoughts become cluttered & disorderly. 
The sheer volume of words becomes as unbearable as the grief.

When I sit & stitch I don’t question. My choices are clear & instinctive.
I simply make one stitch at a time.
I intuitively know what to do.  
I trust the process & my heart guides me. 
My mind is free to wander & when the tears come I pause to let them fall.
It will be nice when I am able to stop crying . . .  but it seems that it won’t be today.

Pare Kawakawa has been included in an anthology 'Grief Become You - a narrative of loss' edited by Maya Stein & published in December 2019

tino nui te mihi o te tau hou - happy new year New Zealand

17/6/2016

 
The old people might wait up several nights before the stars rose. They would make a small hangi. When they saw the stars, they would weep and tell Matariki the names of those who had gone since the stars set, then the oven would be uncovered so the scent of the food would rise and strengthen the stars, for they were weak and cold.

Picture

Puanga & Matariki are once again visible to the east in our pre-dawn skies & the New Year has begun in Aotearoa (New Zealand)

time for reflection, time to remember & time to renew

Nga mihi o te tau hou kia tatau katoa : happy new year everyone
exert from Issue No 61 of 'Te Ao Hou' in December 1967 by Harry Dansey

Matariki & Puanga

25/6/2014

 
Tera a Matariki, ka rewa i te pae. Naumai, haramai te hua o te tau hou.
Matariki is visible above the horizon. Welcome the arrival of the new year.
an image of Matariki & Puanga

a picture showing the stars of Matariki
Tatai whetu ki te rangi, mau tonu mau tonu.
Tatai tangata ki te whenua, ngaro noa ngaro noa.

The abundant stars in our skies shine brightly forever.
People, however, have only their life-time & then they are gone.

Time to pause & remember those who have left us.
Time to consider the part they have played in our lives.
Time to wonder how our lives can & will continue without them.

Now, is our time. 
Let's enjoy it together.

Happy New Year New Zealand
    About
    ​
    Picture
    Hi, I'm Sally
    I'm a fibre artist who loves botanicals - especially NZ native plants
    you can find me on 
    ​instagram & ravelry 

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