The kōrero
This pūtātara speaks with three voices. The shell, the shaft, and the breath of the one who sounds it. Hand-drawn muka binds them into one body, the way those fibres have always bound the old pact: neither sea nor forest stands alone. Blow it, and it does not only carry across distance. It carries across realms. Whoever holds it holds the joined authority of both, sealed by a binding thread.
The piece
The record
The piece and its record are one event.
- Form
- Taonga pūoro: a pūtātara shell fitted with a carved tōtara shaft
- The shell
- From the coast south of Ārai Te Uru, South Head, Hokianga
- The shaft
- Tōtara, Hokianga
- The lashing
- Muka, hand-drawn, from Motutoa, Hokianga
- Adorned with
- A kūkupa feather
- Made
- 2025
- Size
- 520 × 120 × 120 mm
- Care
- Indoors, dry, out of direct sun
- Travel
- Shell and feather: enquiry only outside Aotearoa (CITES / Wildlife Act)
Enquire
Price on enquiry.
Email where the piece would live, and we go from there. Outside Aotearoa the shell and feather need permits, so this piece is enquiry only.
Enquire: [email protected]