A ‘rite of passage’ and beauty
One woman who carries a moko kauae tells Deena Coster she has never "felt more beautiful".
Before getting her moko kauae, Rawinia Leatherby says she felt incomplete.
But every day she has looked in the mirror in the 13 years since she received the traditional tattoo, it affirmed who she was and where she belonged. ‘‘I look absolutely like a Ma¯ ori woman.’’
After learning her whakapapa in her 20s, the Taranaki woman was inspired to join the growing number of wa¯hine Ma¯ori who carry the moko kauae.
A 2013 survey by Statistics New Zealand found 15 per cent of tangata whenua had some form of ta¯ moko or traditional Ma¯ ori tattoo.
The increased visibility of moko kauae, and ta¯ moko generally, was highlighted last month after TVNZ broadcaster Oriini Kaipara became the first Ma¯ ori woman to wear the traditional markings while fronting a mainstream news bulletin.
It follows a decision in September by Air New Zealand, which reversed its policy previously disallowing its employees from showing their ta¯ moko while at work.
Another Taranaki woman to carry the moko kauae is Jean Hikaka, although she did worry about the expectations it might place on her.
But when it was done she says she never ‘‘felt more beautiful’’.
‘‘Every morning when you look in the mirror you are reminded that you have a pathway.’’
It was a photograph on the wall of the family home featuring her great, great grandmother that provided Puna Wano-Bryant with her own direction. ‘‘That was always a normal and visual symbol of our identity in our family.’’
By the late 1990s, WanoBryant’s grandmother received her moko kauae with a wave of other wa¯ hine during a revival of the art form in Taranaki at the time.
After her mother died of breast cancer at 50, she said the expectation fell on her and she was encouraged by other wa¯ hine to ‘‘get on the table’’ and have her moko kauae done.
‘‘Kauae is like that – it’s definitely a female rite of passage.’’
Because she felt she had to wait until she became a mother before she could get it done, it was only when she and husband Karlos found themselves preparing for the arrival of their wha¯ ngai baby this year that she had her ‘‘epiphany’’.
She had her moko kauae etched onto her chin on the day of the baby shower for daughter Hinemaiora.
Without colonisation and the total disruption this caused to Ma¯ori culture, Wano-Bryant believed the moko kauae would be commonplace.
‘‘It would be natural, it would be automatic and it would not be questioned.’’
The Human Rights Commission has fielded complaints from people who have been denied service because they had traditional Ma¯ori tattoos. However, Wano-Bryant, Leatherby and Hikaka said they only received positive comments about their moko kauae, at home and abroad.
For Hikaka, she got a ‘‘surge of energy’’ when she saw other Ma¯ori women proudly wearing the markings of their ancestors. ‘‘When I see people with moko kauae it’s a real visual sign that we are reconnecting.’’
Leatherby is one of 17 wa¯ hine Ma¯ori who feature in Tania Niwa’s Pu¯ kauae exhibition at New Plymouth’s Puke Ariki Museum.