Maania Tealei: Whakahōnore i tō tātou taonga tuku iho: Honouring Our Legacy

29 August 2025 in t114


Maania Tealei’s exhibition Whakahōnore i tō tātou taonga tuku iho: Honouring Our Legacy exhibited at the Aigantighe Art Gallery in Timaru, 14th June–10th August 2025.

  • Maania Tealei, ‘Ngā Tapuwae ki te Pā Tawhito: Footsteps to the Ancient Pā.’ Lavinia Reihana—Moemate (Kai Tahu). Waia Te Ruati (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘He Pā, He Wairua, He Whenua: A Pā, A Spirit, A Land.’ Lavinia Reihana—Moemate (Kai Tahu). Waia Te Ruati (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Te Hau o Ōku Tūpuna: The Breath of My Ancestors.’ Lavinia Reihana—Moemate (Kai Tahu). Waia Te Ruati (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Ko au i konei, nō rātou: I Am Here, Because of Them.’ Lavinia Reihana—Moemate (Kai Tahu). Waia Te Ruati (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘He Kaitiaki nō te Mahinga Kai: A Guardian of the Food—Gathering Grounds.’ Francine Spencer (Taranaki Tuturu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Rapuwai, Ngāi Tahu). Waitarakao—Washdyke Lagoon (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Ka Raranga te Ao i aku Ringa: The World is Woven by My Hands.’ Francine Spencer (Taranaki Tuturu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Rapuwai, Ngāi Tahu), (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Tōku Marae, Tōku Ngākau: My Marae, My Heart.’ Suzy Waaka (Kāi Tahu). Arowhenua Marae: Te Hapa o Niu Tireni (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Te Kanohi Ora o Kāi Tahu: The Living Face of Kāi Tahu.’ Suzy Waaka (Kāi Tahu). Arowhenua Marae—Te Hapa o Niu Tireni (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘He Whare Pūkōrero, He Whare Pūkenga: A House Full of Stories, A House Full of Knowledge.’ Ani Haua (Ngā Ruahine). A cozy chair in her whare in Te tihi o maru (2025).

Māui and Muriranga-whenua. Whaitiri and Tāwhaki. These pūrākau—ancestral stories—are reminders of the enduring influence of Māori kaumātua (elders), who appear within them as guides, guardians, and teachers. These stories live on around us, interwoven into the fabric of our hāpori (community); just as our living kaumātua shape, strengthen, and uphold us today. 

Across the Waitaha region, from Temuka to Waimate, the presence of our kaumātua endures; steady, nurturing, and deeply rooted. In this evocative photographic series, Timaru artist Maania Tealei (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha), turns her lens toward this generation with reverence and intimacy, honouring both whakapapa and aroha.  

Raised by her grandparents, Tealei approaches this kaupapa as both an artist and a mokopuna (grandchild). Each portrait is an act of recognition, shaped by shared lives: long conversations, quiet routines, and the deep intergenerational care passed down like taonga. 

  • Maania Tealei, ‘He Kaiako nō ngā Whakatupuranga: A Teacher of Generations.’ Ani Haua (Ngā Ruahine). Arowhenua Marae—Te Hapa o Niu Tireni (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Te Kāinga o taku Karanga: The Home of My Call.’ Huriata Weeks (Ngāi Tūhoe, Whakatōhea). Te Aitarakihi Marae a iwi (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Te Aka Roa o te Wāhine Toa: The Enduring Vine of a Strong Woman.’ Huriata Weeks (Ngāi Tūhoe, Whakatōhea). Te Aitarakihi Marae a iwi (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘I Roto i te Whare, Ka Titiro ki te Ao: Within the House, Gazing at the World.’ Hohepa Holland (Ngāti Maniapoto). His favourite chair at his whare in Te tihi o Maru (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Ngā Pou o te Kāinga, o te Marae: The Pillars of the Home and the Marae.’ Hohepa Holland (Ngāti Maniapoto), Patricia Holland. Arowhenua Marae—Te Hapa o Niu Tireni (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘He Haerenga Māku Anō: A Journey of My Own.’ Patricia Holland. At home with her bike (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Ko te Kainga, Ko te Kōrero, Ko au: The Home, The Stories, That is Me.’ David Ormsby (Ngāti Maniapoto). Comfy chair in his home in Te tihi o Maru (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘He Hoa Rakatira, He Tūāpapa Aroha: Esteemed Companions, a Foundation of Love.’ David Ormsby (Ngāti Maniapoto), Marie Ormsby. Arowhenua Marae—Te Hapa o Niu Tireni (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘I runga i te Aroha, e Tū Ana te Manawanui: Upon Love, Stands Endurance.’ Marie Ormsby. Comfy chair across from her husband in their home in Te tihi o Maru (2025).

Each kaumātua is photographed in two ways: first, within a landscape of ancestral or personal significance; spaces steeped in memory, layered with connection to whenua (land). Then, in kākahu (Māori garments); conveying culture, pride, and resilience. These dual portraits do not contrast but complete one another. They are not performances. They are affirmations of identity, sovereignty, and self. 

These images are taonga (treasures). Held close by whānau, mokopuna, and those yet to come, they transcend documentation. They are acts of reclamation. In a region where Māori presence has too often been overlooked, this series stands as a quiet yet resolute assertion of existence—of story, image, and space. 

The kaumātua in these portraits are not echoes of the past. They are here. Grounded. Proud. They do not ask to be remembered—they ask to be seen. 

Whakahōnore i tō tātou taonga tuku iho calls us to reflect on legacy not as history, but as a living force. Through these portraits, Tealei affirms that our stories, our mana, and our connection to whenua endure—toitū, intact and unbroken.

  • Maania Tealei, ‘He Wahine Toa, He Taonga Tuku Iho: A Woman of Strength, A Treasured Legacy.’ Hush Akurangi (Te Whakatōhe a, Te whānau ā Apanui). Arowhenua Marae—Te Hapa o Niu Tireni (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Te Pou Whakarae o Arowhenua: The Chiefly Pillar of Arowhenua.’ Tewera King (Kāi Tahu). Arowhenua Marae—Te Hapa o Niu Tireni (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Te Whatukura o te Mahinga Kai: The Chiefly Elder of Traditional Food Practices.’ Karl Russell (Rapuwai, Hawea, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu). Arowhenua Marae—Te Hapa o Niu Tireni (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Pakeke i te Aroha: Matured in Love.’ Tumanako Te Toko Wha Reihana (Kāi Tahu), Susan Reihana (Pare Hauraki, Pare Waikato). On their couch together at their home in Te tihi o Maru (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘He Katakata Taketake: Enduring Laughter.’ Tumanako Te Toko Wha Reihana (Kāi Tahu), Susan Reihana (Pare Hauraki, Pare Waikato). On their couch together at their home in Te tihi o Maru (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Ko Taku Hoa Rangatira: My Esteemed Companion / My Rangatira Partner.’ Tumanako Te Toko Wha Reihana (Kāi Tahu), Susan Reihana (Pare Hauraki, Pare Waikato). Arowhenua Marae—Te Hapa o Niu Tireni (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘Ngā Ringa e Tūhono Ana: The Hands That Connect.’ Tu Kapua Benjamin Hipango (Ngāti Rangi Muaūpoko), Sheralyn Hipango. Sitting together in the sun on the porch outside the whare in Te tihi o Maru (2025).
  • Maania Tealei, ‘He Hononga Kore Whakarere: An Unbroken Bond.’ Tu Kapua Benjamin Hipango (Ngāti Rangi Muaūpoko), Sheralyn Hipango (2025).

Maania Tealei (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) is a freelance self-taught photographer with a studio located in the centre of Timaru. She photographs whānau, children, maternity, events and specialises in a unique experience of Māori and Pasifika portraits. She loves capturing natural candid moments in life and has been nurturing a passion for photography as she captures the lives of her two children around beautiful locations in the South Canterbury region. Alongside her photography, Maania is passionate about helping her community and works on various creative projects with Māori and Pasifika. She lives in rural on the outskirts of Timaru with her husband, Seete, their daughter, Leilani and son, Iosefa.

Izzy Hillman is the Exhibitions Curator for the Aigantighe Art Gallery. Text courtesy of Aigantighe Art Gallery.

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