He Toka Tū Moana: She's a Rock

He Toka Tū Moana: She’s a Rock features heavy duty tie down webbing woven between two columns, recognising Barangaroo as a place where fresh and salt water meet through the use of woven text on the webbing, and the directional flow of the straps around the columns.

The work is influenced by a whakataukī (proverb) which draws on imagery of a rock standing firm in the ocean current. Much in the same way that Barangaroo is the name of a strong and staunch Cameraygal woman who lived in the area in the early days of the colony, for the artists, this concept “relates to the resilience of Indigenous knowledge systems carried by women.” Existing on a monumental scale that eclipses the size and reach of an individual body, the work holds a physical space for Indigenous women.

'In researching this project we visited taonga Māori [cultural treasures] in museums in Aotearoa [New Zealand]. We were drawn to customary strapping systems called Kawe […] These woven straps enabled Māori to carry heavy loads, long distances by strapping them to their bodies. We are employing a contemporary counterpart material, heavy duty tie down webbing, to replicate the concept of a kawe.'—Mata Aho Collective