the art of adornment
One of my oldest and most beautiful memories is, delicately rummaging through my nan and koro’s boxes of taonga, treasures or special items: a big box full of personal whānau treasures from more than 100 years of whakapapa.
Photos, heirlooms, old gems, op-shop rings, 1930s vintage combs, bone heru, shells, necklaces, jewels, and pounamu from bygone eras that each hold a story. Storytelling is in itself a taonga, and each item in that box holds a whakapapa, a genealogy of its very mystic becoming.
Throughout my life, I've been dressing up and parading in these adornments from this whānau box. Memories of wearing my kuia’s pounamu earrings while dancing to Prince Tui Teka in the marae kitchen have also painted a canvas of who my ancestors were, and the ancestor I want to be.
Link to article: Meet the Māori makers gifted with taonga, the art of adornment | Stuff.co.nz
