He taonga tuku iho te rama ataata – A3 Fine Art Print

He taonga tuku iho te rama ataata
The light that reveals our legacies
The artwork for this years festival was created by Lucy de Young Hakaraia. It features a takapū – a gannet – soaring across the moana.
Takapū are remarkable manu, perfectly adapted for soaring and for diving at high speed into the sea to catch fish. Takapū can fly more than 500km in a day, riding the wind on their outstretched two-metre wings. They leave the nest early, travelling as far as Australia and spend their first years of life on the move before returning to their homelands to nest.

One morning last year, I went for a long sunrise walk on Ōtaki Beach. The sky was bright and the wind bitterly cold, stinging tears that turned into an outpouring of hurt and frustration, and eventually, relief. Watching the manu soaring in the blue sky, I was struck by this: even in the hardest of times, the sun will still rise tomorrow. We have to see ourselves as part of something bigger, brighter, and more beautiful, and channel that feeling into building the world we want. We can never accept that this is just how things are.
Madeleine Hakaraia de Young – Festival Director