Ngahuia Te Awekotuku
Writer

Taia o moko, hai hoa matenga mou...

Adorn your skin, my koroua said, and it will be your companion until death. Although it contains your self, your soul, it effectively projects who and what you are. Through its sheer elegance of design and deliberation, moko conveys a thousand years and more of voyages, endings, heartbreaks, triumphs, sacrifice, joys, and beginnings. It is about mourning and celebration. Memories and power, moving in the blood. For Maori, for Pacific peoples, the body's surface has once again become the place where dreams are coloured and drawn, and where desires are textured into the flesh. And realised. Moko, tatau, kakau, tattoo, inspire the young, and encourage the old; by chisel or machine, it forms an eloquent narrative, a potent visual record. Carried on the outside, it reflects the pride within. And its resurgence has only just begun...