A certain family likeness
So special is a portrait of Cannons Creek boy Logan Tangaroa and his great-grandfather Epu Tararo, their extended family are already squabbling over who will keep it once it comes off Pataka’s gallery walls.
Logan, 12, and Epu, 82, feature in Pataka’s Same Difference exhibition with 12 other Porirua families.
Large black and white photos highlight family resemblances four generations apart.
To qualify for the exhibition great-grandparents and children needed to be the same gender and the child aged 6 to 12.
Photographer Warwick Smith staged a similar exhibition in Palmerston North in 2010.
The photos are a precious keepsake, especially as greatgrandparents do not always live to see the exhibition, Pataka’s senior curator Bob Maysmor says.
Two great- grandparents featured in the Pataka exhibition have died.
Logan says he and Epu had their photo taken two years ago and it is a thrill to finally see it hanging in the gallery.
The Rangikura School year 8 pupil doesn’t know anybody else with such a tall family tree.
‘‘It’s just cool because not many people have a great-grandparent,’’ he says. ‘‘It’s just great that we were actually able to do it.’’
Epu and Logan live together with Logan’s mum, Lhina Tararo. Lhina’s father is Frank Tararo, Epu’s son.
The pair don’t think they look much alike, but Epu’s daughter Rata says they share a certain stubbornness.
Epu, who is quarter Chinese, migrated from the Cook Islands in 1961 to work at a Ngauranga meatworks, but drove buses and trucks for most of his working life. He moved to Porirua in 1966 and has seven children.
Logan is quarter Italian from his maternal grandmother, loves maths, plays hockey and tag, and does taekwondo. His link with Epu is particularly special – he is an only child, and was Epu’s first great-grandchild.
Same Difference runs at Pataka until June 23.