FOG & MOON 

An art practitioner for over 20 years, Tanya is a Māori Indigenous artist with a deep connection to indigenous ancestral navigational knowledge systems.

 

‘I nga wā o mua’ from times in front: thinking through Futures design with the ancestral tool for memorising - story. Science fiction/fact, fantasy, and allegory to open pathways of potential located within indigenous futurism, eco futurism and alter-native worlds - the multiverse.

 

The key element of her research is kaitiakitanga or stewardship and the inherent need for humans to have a connection to nature. How do we do this within urban and built environments? 

 

Tanya is exploring this innate relationship through Matauranga Māori ancestral migrational, seasonal & navigational knowledge, cosmology & creation stories.

 

Her multimedia work explores the connection between her tupuna ancestors and nga whenua, the land. The physical and nonphysical multi-dimensional layers of liminal space. An unseen veil that lies between the now and then, deepening her connection through Te Aho Tapu or the thread that binds us all. 

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Tanya has developed a ritual of self-imposed tikanga/ correct procedures and kaupapa/ process methods. A specific rock on the horizon, a cave, a tree, the mouth of a river are significant connections to ancestral stories encoded within the genealogy of the landscape. The point of origin is nga whenua/ the land and her respect and appreciation of Te Taiao, Te Ao Māori, Nga Atua.