Matariki exhibition brings Māori pūrākau and bioluminescent science to life

Hīnātore, a collaboration between scientists and engineering researchers at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, uses living bioluminescent bacteria and contemporary Māori art forms to bring to life Tāne's journey to adorn Ranginui with Te Whānau Mārama – the stars and celestial bodies of the night sky – following the separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku in the Māori creation story.

The exhibition follows Tāne as he approaches Wainui and Tangotango, the parents of Te Whānau Mārama, and asks for their children to bring light into the world.

The story unfolds through five pou kapokapo, or glimmering pillars, featuring designs inspired by whakairo (carving), tukutuku and raranga (both forms of weaving).

The pou represent Hīnātore, the faint phosphorescent and luminescent light; Ngā Whetū, the stars; Hina-marama, the Moon; and Tama-nui-te-rā, the Sun.

Bringing the pūrakau to life are PhD students Paraone Luiten-Apirana (Engineering) and Aymee Lewis (Medical and Health Science), alongside Associate Professors Dan Hikuroa (Arts and Education), and Siouxsie Wiles MNZM (Medical and Health Science).

“Viewers will be taken into Te Pō to experience and aid in Tāne lighting the cosmos,” Luiten-Apirana says. “With Tāne being our ancestor and a representation of humanity, the exhibition hopes to remind us of our potential and agency.”

Each pou is filled with Photobacterium, living bacteria that produce a blue-green glow through a natural chemical reaction involving the protein luciferase, an aldehyde substrate, and oxygen.

The organisms glow only during a particular stage of their growth, creating a limited “glow window” in which the designs become visible before the bacteria die.

“We often forget that our taonga toi have life cycles too,” Luiten-Apirana says. “A part of their beauty is in the fact that at some point they need to be retired and replaced. These pou are alive and over the course of the day we will witness their mauri surge and dwindle."

Lewis says the exhibition also draws attention to the many bioluminescent organisms found throughout te wao and te moana – the forest and the ocean - in Aotearoa, including tītīwai (glow worms), noke waiū (earth worms), harore (fungi), freshwater limpets, deep-sea fish and sharks.

“Hīnātore is about showing what can happen when mātauranga Māori, pūrākau, mahi toi and Western science come together, rather than keeping them separate,” Lewis says.

“This exhibition weaves them together to offer a richer way of understanding bioluminescence: how it happens, why it happens and how we connect to it,” Lewis says.

“The mātauranga around Hīnātore was shared through wānanga with my whānau and community in Te Wairoa, and this exhibition is a way to giving back to them.”

Hīnātore will be open to the public at Elam Projectspace Gallery, 20 Whitaker Place, Grafton, on Saturday 18 July, from 10.30am-4pm.