He tuna ora, he wai ora

Me he noke rau e kokikoki ana i te oneone, e whākai ana i te taiora ki kā tipu, e mahi kātahi ana ki te rā me te ua hai whākai i te oraka o te katoa.

I 2021, i noho a Taarn rāua ko Hana ki kā tahataha o te awa o Ōtākaro, ā, i whākai rāua i kā tuna. I tīmata tā rāua aro ki kā hītori nekeneke ā-rohe o te awa o Ōtākaro, ki te āheinga o te tuna ki te kauhoe i waenga i te wai māori me te wai tai, me kā wāhi e noho ana rāua i Tāmaki Makaurau me Kawerau. Rongo ai te tokorua nei i te tōia ki te āheinga o te tuna ki te urutau (me ōna porehutaka anō hoki), hai ara e mārama ai ki te honoka o te Tuna ki Te Taiao, ā, nā konā ka mārama hoki rāua ki ō rāua ake here ki te ao whānui.

‘He tuna ora, he wai ora’ considers how human and nonhuman organisms and ecosystems co-exist and are entangled in a greater network of life forms, like a series of worms wriggling through the soil nourishing the plants in collaboration with the sun and rain.

In 2021 we sat on the banks of the Ōtākaro awa and fed tuna. We became interested in the shifting geographic histories of the Ōtākaro awa, the ability of tuna to move through fresh and salt waters, but also the places in which we live in Tāmaki Makaurau and Kawerau. We are drawn to the adaptability (and mystery) of the life cycle of Tuna (eels), as a way of understanding their connection to Te Taiao, so we in turn think of our own entanglement to the world.