Hopeful and uplifting, the well-known whakatauki ‘E kore au e ngaro, he kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea / I will never be lost, for I am the seed which was sown from Rangiātea’, is used as a compass to orient Māori towards ancient whakapapa connections to our ancestors. Seeds, both metaphoric and actual, are emblematic of the potential for new life. In the face of the devastating impacts of climate-induced environmental changes, seed-collecting of iconic species is an important practice. These works are part of a series that have their genesis in observations of Māori conservation workers seed collecting within Te Tairāwhiti.

 In Aotearoa, Paengawhāwhā / April is a time when many forest trees produce fruits and seeds, an ideal time for collecting. In these photographs, the species is Tōtara (Podocarpus tōtara), found here on the slopes of Tītīraupenga and Pūreora Maunga. In 2016, Ngāti Te Maunga, Tūwharetoa, principal kaitiaki iwi of these maunga, gifted tōtara logs for new whakairo for our whare tīpuna Pōkai at Tīkapa-a-Hinekopeka Marae. These were carved by Lionel Matenga of Te Whānau a Pōkai-Pōhatu. Refurbished, Pōkai reopened in 2018, uplifting the mana of the marae and the people. The carvings include depictions of Tītīraupenga and Pūreora. Collecting tōtara seeds are Lionel and Te Aroha Matenga’s daughters Ngahuia and Pōhatu, connecting the whakapapa of the mature trees to the whakairo, embodied in their lineage of Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Te Maunga, Tūwharetoa. It is hoped that the seeds collected will contribute to regenerating tōtara.