Te Tuinga Whanau approached me to help design the welcoming to a fundraising event held in Tauranga Moana. The even was about bringing people together and helping the homeless of Tauranga through koha and donations. My creative idea was to base the welcoming on the Māori proverb - 'Nāku te rourou nāu te rourou ka ora ai te iwi'. Which translates to 'With your kete and my kete the people will thrive'. As a creative story to bring it to life I was influenced by the story of how Paua got it's shell, I saw a lot of similarities between the story and the work that TTW do in the community. You can read the story below.

This project was a finalist at the 2021 New Zealand Best Awards for the use of colour.

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According to Māori legend Tangaroa, God of the Sea, Son of Ranginui (the sky father) and Papatūānuku (the earth mother) noticed that paua was sad and lonely and that the other sea creatures mocked his slowness and unattractiveness. Tangaroa takes pity on him and gives paua a dazzling shell of freshest forest greens from his brother Tane. However, the sea creatures are jealous of his beautiful shell, smashing it to pieces, and the paua remains miserable. Tangaroa decides to strengthen his shell with the ocean’s colours and hides its beauty where only he can see it. Tangaroa then charged paua with the life-long task of adding layer upon delicate layer to keep the shell protected, each layer a different hue than the previous.

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