Māreikura (Matriarch)

This photographic series honours my matriarchal line. My mother, my aunty, and my kuia. I capture the mana held within our female line, whose existence, strength and lived experiences form an enduring part of who we are as wāhine.

This series brings together photographs of my mother, aunty and kuia (grandmother), tracing the women at the centre of my matriarchal line. Through their portraits, I explore the relationships that shape my sense of self, and the ways our identities are carried through whakapapa (genealogy). Made using both 35mm film and digital photography, the images sit between the personal and the collective, reflecting on what it means to inherit a lineage and to see yourself within it. The colour and vibrancy within these images celebrate the women who came before us - the bright colours they wore in celebration of the beauty in life throughout Polynesia. In this way, the photographs honour not only the women in my own whānau (family), but the wider generations of wāhine (women) whose identity and expression continue to shape us.

Our tūpuna (ancestors) are present in the lives we lead, the knowledge we carry and the women we become. Together, the photographs honour our whakapapa not as something distant or lost to time, but as something living, held and carried forward.