About

Te Ara Minhinnick is based in Waiuku, her ancestral home located on the southern side of the Manukau Harbour, which can be seen from the windows of galleries 4 and 5 here at Te Uru. Making work for Te Uru has offered Minhinnick a new perspective on her whenua, viewing her whakapapa from Waitākere over the water.

 The place name wai (water) uku (mud) stems from the story of Tamakae and Tamakou, two brothers who vied for a beautiful Waikato chieftainess. In the end she chose Tamakou, who was working in the kumara gardens. The kumara had to be washed in wai and uku in the Waiuku stream where it flows into the Manukau Harbour.

Since the 1960s, Waiuku has hosted the country’s first steel plant which converts ironsand from the nearby Waikato Heads into steel. Steam from the plant can often be viewed rising into the sky from Te Uru, landmarking Waiuku from a distance.

From afar, the mill is just one of many industries settled on the surrounds Harbour. But for Ngāti Te Ata, it is a painful reminder of their sacred burial ground, Maioro, sitting under the mill.

 As Minhinnick stands in the muddy whenua she collects a handful, moves position, and collects more. While she works through this process, she consciously locates herself within a nexus of histories, her whanau’s included, that filter through the waters between Waiuku and Te Uru.