September 20, 2023
Kuaka story shared with Saami
Kuaka or godwits are starting to arrive back at harbours and estuaries from their breeding grounds in the Arctic, and their epic journeys are inspiring a Woodville-based fabric artist doing a residency in Norway.
Ron Maungārongo Te Kawa from Ngāti Porou is celebrated for his whakapapa quilts.
He’s staying in a chalet just out of Oslo in a Norwegian Craft residency working on the story of kuaka, as told by the late Saana Waitai-Murray of Ngāti Kurī and shared by her granddaughter Sheridan Waitai.
“It’s just a beautiful story, so I’m making this story in four small quilts. I’ve nearly done two, and I’ll gift her the images of the quilts to help promote the story of kuaka, because I think kuaka was 80 percent down on last year. Only 20 percent turned up in New Zealand in the last flock,” he says.
Ron Te Kawa says the quilts will be shown at the Sámi Museum in Karasjok in Norway’s far north, where he’s looking forward to hearing their own stories of the kuaka which fly there every year from southern Africa.