Rukuwai shares about her journey to getting her moko kauae, her experience with Christianity as a Māori, and the reclamation of Māori culture in Aotearoa.

“Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!”.

It’s time to listen.

I’ve been really feeling the distance from others over these past few weeks of our COVID-19 “lockdown”, and part of my way of processing that has been to relive recent memories from before these physically distanced times.

Recently I got out under the stars with my good friend Larryn (Shadow & Shade). He helped me guess some settings on my Hasselblad; we had chippies, ginger beer, and good chats; and in the dead of the night we sat in deep, reverent silence while looking up at the stars.

I have the honour of being involved with Te Pātukituki o Wairarapa who are doing inspiring and important work in our community, which encompasses a lot and is hard to sum up.

It’s been over 3 weeks since I visited Ihumātao and my stomach is still churning every day, my mind trying to hold steady as the waves of love, pride, grief, and anger crash into each other and threaten to tip me off balance - as I sit in my office chair and attempt to write emails and answer phone calls.

My photo lab, The Black & White Box, have started a great little series on their blog called “Artist Interviews”. I was surprised and honoured to be asked a few questions for it recently.

Being in a small town means a lot of what I learn about film photography comes either from trial-and-error or the internet, so I end up trying different films and various experiments to see how I like the results for myself.