This painting was created for the Pirianga Toto – Blood Ties exhibition, which brought together a group of Cook Island artists at Fresh Gallery, Ōtara, in 2015. Marumaru Atua is a traditional vaka built in 2009 for the Cook Islands Voyaging Society. I was lucky enough to sail across the Pacific on this vaka as a part of Te Mana o te Moana voyage in 2012. This allowed me to experience the Pacific as few people have been able to.

This model vaka from Manihiki has design elements that I had not seen before visiting the Auckland Museum recently. This vaka is an important talisman of the history that can be shared with the voyaging community, reminding us of how much more we have yet to learn.

Little is known today about Tangaroa and his significance in ancient Cook Islands society, but he has become a ‘mascot’ of sorts for the Cook Islands tourist industry. I found this carving in a Salvation Army store and re-carved his face as he was cross-eyed. I then applied tattoo designs to him based on images from the Tangaroa figure in the British Museum. I did this to in a sense reinstate some of his mana and afford Tangaroa the respect he was once shown as god of the sea.

This rei is based on rei necklaces like the one displayed alongside, which is in the Auckland Museum’s Pacific Collection. Both show their value in the materials used to make them. The symbols of wealth and mana in the original include prestige materials such as whale ivory and human hair, which are contrasted with the use of Cook Island coins and plaited waxed cord in the contemporary piece. The rei asks the question, has mana been eclipsed by a monetary system?

Numangatini Fraser Mackenzie is an artist of Cook Islands (Mangaia, Palmerston) and European (English, Scottish) descent, born and raised in Canada, and now living in Aotearoa. Numa draws inspiration for his work from ancient forms and motifs, and also by retracing the paths of his ancestors through voyaging on a vaka, and by receiving tātatau, Cook Islands tattoo. These particular works were influenced by treasures held in museum collections and are imbued with his own unique contemporary urban Polynesian narratives.