Muriwai (Figure 3 from Tangata~Whenua series)

Waiotahe beach stream, Ōpōtiki, Aotearoa New Zealand (37°59′29.3″S 177°14′14.7″E). Long-exposure photograph of a small creek flowing persistently through sand to reach the ocean.

Whakatauākī: Ko te puna i rukuhia, ko terere o Muriwai, tere maiaia o Whiro, ki Mutuwhenua rā anō. Te tapu o Muriwai e — These sacred springs we all bathe in, flow from Muriwai herself, with a determined current unyielding, from Whiro to Mutuwhenua. Such was the ordained authority of Muriwai.

Part of the Tangata~Whenua collaborative photopoetic project examining negotiated authorship and cross-cultural photographic practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. The project pairs long-exposure landscape photographs of Te Whakatōhea whenua with whakatauākī (ancestral proverbs) and audio purākau (narrative voice-overs in te reo Māori and English).

Cultural authority: Toiroa Williams (Te Whakatōhea).
Photograph: Marcos Mortensen Steagall.
Purākau and whakatauākī: Toiroa Arapeta Williams.