He kaupapa mahi toi tūmatanui a Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans, e kawe nei i ngā kōrero mō te atawhai i te moana ki rō taone, puta noa i te ao whānui. Ināianei, kei te kapi katoa i a ia ngā huarahi o Tūranganui a Kiwa.
Ko tā te ringa toi koi tā Erana Koopu o Ngāti Awa me Te Whānau a Apanui he whakaatu i a Paikea te tipua, Paikea te taniwha, Paikea te tawhito i ū mai ki Tūranganui a Kiwa ki Whāngārā mā runga tohorā. “Me āhua ohooho ake ki ngā āhuatanga o te taiao, ngā mea e tūkino ana i ō tātau moana, i te mea tangata moana tātau te iwi Māori, nō reira ae me oho tātau ki ērā āhuatanga o te whakaora o te whakapai ake i tātau moana,” te kī a Koopu.
Contemporary artist Erana Koopu of Ngāti Awa me Te Whānau a Apanui is depicting the ancestor Paikea who arrived to the region on the back of a whale. “We need to be aware of what's happening in the environment and what's destroying our ocean, because we as Māori are ocean people so we need to be wake up to those issues of reviving and improving our ocean,” says Koopu.
Neke atu i te rua rau ngā ringa toi i te ao whānui e mahi ana i maru o Sea Walls, arā, neke atu i te 300 ngā pakitara kua whakapaiapaitia e rātau.
He uri a Poihākena Ngawati o Ngāti Hine, o Ngāpuhi me Tainui waka anō hoki. Ko tāna pikitia he whakanui i a Mau Piailug, he tohunga whakatere waka hou rua, he tohunga tātai arorangi anō hoki. E mōhiotia whānauitia e tōna ingoa karanga o Pāpā Mau, koia pū te puna mātauranga i puawai mai anō ai ngā mahi whakatere waka puta noa i tēnā, i tēnā o ngā moutere o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa.
“It’s a way of teaching us to observe our surroundings to observe the ocean and the changes that’s happening and the effects that we have on the ocean,” says Ngawati.
Hei tā te kaitohutohu hei tā Tre Packard, e ai ki ngā whakapae pūtaiao, hei ngā tau e heke mai nei ka maha ake ngā kirihou i ngā ika, ko te āhuarangi, te kaha hī ika, te kirihou me te para, katoa e tūkino ana i te moana.
“In the end people protect what they love and it’s critical that we’re protecting our oceans they supply 70% of the oxygen we breathe. Oceans are the most important ecosystems on the planet, with no healthy oceans, life on land is impossible so we gotta do whatever we can to work together to collaborate to give our oceans a voice,” says Packard.
Kei te tuitui ngā ringa toi o tēnei moka i ngā kōrero tuku iho e tūhono atu ana i a rātau ki te moana.
Nick Tupara from Ngāti Oneone tribe is depicting a guardian shark that is “I wanted to remind people of the impact that we have on our whenua, much of what makes us rich as a people in Te Tairāwhiti on land, comes from what makes us rich in the moana.”
Hei tā Tre Packard he akiaki i te katoa kia mahi ngātahi te, kia tieki i ngā wai e ora tonu ai.