Artist Kulimoe’anga (Stone) Maka (pictured) is using his creation Dawn's Web to help him and his Kainga move from a place of hurt to healing.
Stone is a recipient of the Teu Le Va - Dawn Raids History Community Fund, established following the Dawn Raids Apology, issued by New Zealand Prime Minister Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern in August 2021.
The fund is part of a reconciliation process to capture a historical account of the Dawn Raids.
For the Tongan creative, based in Ōtautahi Christchurch, the fund has provided resources to complete Dawn's Web.
“It captures the historical traumatic experiences of a family member during the Dawn Raids and connects it to how I view the Ifoga process carried out by Prime Minister Ardern, in a smoke and spider painting,” Stone explains.
Although the Dawn Raids have not directly affected Stone, he sees its perpetuating impact on family members.
Dawn's Web is based on the story of his aunty and her three young children being chased and going undercover to avoid detection during the Raids, carried out at random by the New Zealand Police during the mid-1970s against Pacific immigrants.
Stone says his goal is to use mediums of smoke and spider web as analogies to connect the past with the present, and to move from a place of hurt to healing.
“It was under the cover of night these stealth-like Dawn Raids were carried out, like spiders that stalk their prey, who were immobilised by sleep.
“The spider web also connects our timelines - the people who made decisions in the past, still affect us in the present, hence the need for the apology.”
When Polynesians came to New Zealand, their physical homes were meant to be their place of refuge, but sadly they became a place of entrapment, he continues.
“Nowadays, the younger generation still feel the impact of the past through their grandparents' stories, and like when something hits a spider web, it vibrates and everything connected to it can feel its impact.
“However, as with the lifting of the mat as an acceptance of the apology, I emerge from the dark past, eagerly looking to a freshly created spider web glistening with the dawn's dew - where we look to the past to learn from, but not to live in, and continue to move forward together in acceptance, tolerance and love.”
Once completed, Stone will donate his artwork to the Canterbury Museum, Pacific Collection.
All of Stone’s work offers a unique perspective of experiences which have meaning for him, including creating works for a future show, and a fundraising project for his village in Tonga, which was devastated by the recent tsunami.
Visit the MPP website for information about funding available.