NGURU
"Nguru" is the first journey work in a new film series to celebrate Taonga Pūoro Musicians and their traditional instruments, by connecting with dance and new technologies for digital storytelling.
The Nguru is the Māori nose flute which is depicted in a woven basket form in our film, relating to the harakeke whāriki adorned by dance artist Christina Guieb. "Whakatauki Mā te whiritahi, ka whakatutuki ai ngā pūmanawa ā tāngata. Together weaving the realisation of potential"
Ariana Tikao, Ruby Solly and Alistair Fraser have co-created the original music during recording sessions in the presence of Taonga Pūoro composer and New Zealand Arts Icon, kuia Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead. Ariana Tikao's Pahū Pounamu gong (Te Iriraki O Waitaiki carved by Russell Beck) is a significant sonic voice throughout the piece, and appears spatially in our film as an ahurewa or sacred platform. Other instruments played by this renowned Pūoro trio include Nguru, Pūrerehua and Pūtōrino. This is a legacy project through which we acknowledge our friend and mentor, Taonga Pūoro master Dr Richard Nunns.
Hineraukatauri, Māori goddess of traditional musical instruments, is the kaitiaki of all flutes or kōauau from the Taonga Pūoro family. The motif of the Pepe (Case Moth), is evoked through an opening dance with flax-wing mats created by Kahu Collective weavers for the project. In the closing, the dancer is cocooned by harakeke, carried like a pupa within our giant Nguru ship. The visual film frame is inspired by the shape of the Pūtōrino embouchure hole or mangai (resembling a Butterfly or Moth), to encapsulate and shield the art work entity as a kind of living tohu. This film window also reads as a seed (kākano), and a viewfinder. Sound precedes light, aural makes way for the visual.
It is the mystery and delicate strength of the insect world which we allude to in “Nguru”. The premise for our research is bound to the vital custodian responsibility we all carry as stewards for Papatūānuku (Mother Earth). The revered Pounamu greenstone of Aotearoa relates profoundly to the sacred Jade of Asia. For our film, a Taniwha water guardian momentarily appears with large seeing eyes that reference both Koru (spiral) and Yin-Yang symbology. Taniwha are seen as a protective and restorative presence in waterways. This film engenders new opportunities to cultivate collaboration between Asia and the Pacific.
“Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond. Caring is not abstract. The circle of ecological compassion we feel is enlarged by direct experience of the living world, and shrunken by its lack. Plants are also integral to reweaving the connection between land and people. A place becomes a home when it sustains you, when it feeds you in body as well as spirit. To recreate a home, the plants must also return. Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us. There is an ancient conversation going on between mosses and rocks, poetry to be sure. About light and shadow and the drift of continents. This is what has been called the 'dialect of moss on stone' - an interface of immensity and minute ness, of past and present, softness and hardness, stillness and vibrancy, yin and yang"
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.
Best Asia and Pacific Music Video at the International Music Video Awards Budapest* Best Art Music Video at the Rome Music Video Awards* Best Original Score Denver Movie Awards* Best Musical/Dance Film Washington Film Awards*
NGURU (PEPE Project) supported by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture & Heritage, with Ariana Tikao, Al Fraser, Ruby Solly, Gillian Whitehead, Christina Guieb, Kahu Collective, Daniel Belton and the GCA team. Nguru was shared in response as part of the Paemanu: Tauraka Toi - A Landing Place major exhibition celebrating Ngāi Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts at Dunedin Public Art Gallery. NGURU was custom mapped for outdoor projection installation with Auckland Central Library during Matariki 2022. NGURU served as part of GCA’s film showcase with AUTV Video Wall hosted by Auckland University of Technology Matariki season. Official Selection Garifuna International Indigenous Film Festival; 10th Māoriland Film Festival 2023 Aotearoa New Zealand; Quetzalcoatl Indigenous International Film Festival [ Film and World Indigenous cultures ] 2023. Semi-Finalist Selection to New York International Women Festival; Semi-Finalist Dubai Indie Film Festival; Semi-Finalist Rio de Janeiro World Film Festival; Semi-Finalist Atlanta Movie Awards; Semi-Finalist Denver Movie Awards; Semi-Finalist Berlin Shorts Award; Semi-Finalist International Cosmopolitan Film Festival of Tokyo. Finalist Best Art Music Video International Music Video Awards; Finalist Prague International Sound Video Awards 2023; Finalist Athens International Art Film Festival 2023; Finalist International Sound Future Awards 2023; Finalist Best Original Score Athens International Art Film Festival 2024; Nominee Hawaii International Film Awards. Winner Best Art Music Video at the Rome Music Video Awards 2022; Winner Best Asia and Pacific Music Video International Music Video Awards 2022; Winner Best Original Score Denver Movie Awards 2023; Winner Best Musical/Dance Film Washington Film Awards 2023.