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Detail showing stills
from the inside cover
The five videos on the Kāinga a roto DVD are a little shorter or longer with credits and titles added, while the videos in the installations are looped seamlessly without any titles or credits.
>> For photos and more background information about this suite of five videos in the context of the canoe-home installation shown in 2010 - 2011 in Museum Beelden aan Zee
>> For photos and more background information of a differing form of this installation shown in 2011 in the Cumhuriyet Municipal Gallery, Istanbul
This suite of videos weaves between various worlds - the world of Tāne (the forest and the land), the world of Tāwhirimātea (the winds) represented by sounds of breathing and signs of the wind (such as in the flags filmed at the Parihaka Peace Festival), patterns on the surface of water, and a storm. In "The Tears of Rangi," storm clouds only fill half the sky. In "The Moving Heart", the world of Rangi (the heavens) is referenced in Toroa Pohatu's lyrics about the celestial inspiring and providing illumination. In the Maori language, Whānau Mārama means both family of the stars and family which inspires. The imagery of gliding albatross, manaia (bird-human figures) and taniwha (water-spirits) and Sonja's koru-filled sculpture harmonise with this gliding between realms: the familial and the celestial.
A similar switching between the personal and the external occurs in "The Dark Valley" in the use of text, while in "The Two Lands" the timing and visuals is what gives distance to a personal narrative. Birds appear in four of the videos, beings which live on the land, in the air and on the water. In "The dark Valley" the rooster on the beach seems out of place, an import, while in "The Tears of Rangi" the Pukeko (native hen) steps with care, and in "The two lands" crows scatter outwards. Birds are heard sometimes as part of the natural world and at other times as part of a soundscape.
However the world which dominates in all the videos is that of Tangaroa (the seas and rivers). Because water doesn't stand still, we are carried along, by the flow, the sounds, and by a narrative that is sometimes personal and traumatic - at other times juxtaposed against theoretical text. In "The Dark Valley" and "The tears of Rangi," memory and theory function like the Maori forces of tapu and noa. Memory creates a potential for pain and feeling which is then balanced by theory.
Childhood is a recurrent theme in these videos. It is associated with inner or metaphysical movement, detachment and change.
Locations
These videos contain footage made by Sonja while in Aotearoa/New Zealand in January-February 2009 and December 2009-Janaury 2010.
Locations which appear in these videos are: On a waka (canoe) as participant in the Te Ia Korero (Slow Flow) project organized by Julian Priest + Mike Poa, along the Whanganui river between Whakahoro and Hiruharama/Jerusalem, Te Waikoropupu Springs, Collingwood, beaches and inlets in the Golden Bay area, Kaupokonui beach, Mt Dampner Falls, Moeraki, Muriwai beach, Otakou, Otago Peninsula, Parihaka, Rotorua, Patea beach, Sumner, Tahora, Mount Taranaki, Taranaki farmland, as well as some footage made in Leiden and Urmond in the Netherlands, and in the U.K. in 2009 and 2010.
Video credits:
Thanks to: Jim, Johnny, Carol, Jeremy, Marion, Linda, Carl, Ans, Julian, Sophie, Mike, Jeff + Shona, Karen + Ursula for helping us to get to these locations. To Toroa for her music and words.
Kete harakeke (flax baskets) by Robyn Webster + Debbie Gillanders
Piupiu courtesy of Ngā Iwi o Ngati Hinemanu / Ngāti Paki + Jerome Kavanagh.
Sound engineering of all voice: Sandy Hoover, U.S.A.
Another way of saying it is raining in Maori is "Ranginui (the skyfather) is crying for Papatuanuku." Personifying the natural world and hence showing our human dependence on and relationship with nature, also gives the falling rain an emotional association.
The main theme of the video is about having 'feeling,' being able to feel despite traumatic childhood events. Tears are signs of emotion, a sign of being able to feel, to listen, to learn from and to relate to the environment.
Half-filled screens with changing accents relate to the texts in relation to feeling, and being as subjective as it is, you never know whether the glass is half full.
Credits
Texts: Three lines of lyrics from "Four Seasons in One Day" by Neil + Tim Finn,
Sociology by Anthony Giddens,
Paraphrases from the article The Scapegoat Complex: Archetypal Reflections on a Culture of Severance by George McGrath Callan.
A few lines from The Four Quartets
by T.S. Elliot
Sounds: recordings from the Whanganui river, Whakahoro, Taranaki, Albatross Colony Taiaroa Heads, Otago Peninsula, Aotearoa | New Zealand all reworked in Audacity by Sonja.
Voice: Sonja van Kerkhoff
Sound engineering of the voice: Sandy Hoover
Locations:
Leiden, The Netherlands, Otago Peninsula, Moeraki, Kaupokonui beach, Whanganui River, Muriwai, Helensville, Mt Dampner Falls, Parihaka, Aotearoa | New Zealand, Barnard Castle, U.K.
Song: Whānau Mārama by Toroa Pohatu, Aotearoa | New Zealand
Carving: Whaikairo Maihi (bargeboard carvings for the boathouse) made for the Volkenkunde Museum whare waka (boathouse) in Leiden, The Netherlands, August 2010 by carvers: Takirirangi Smith, Brett Rollo, Sam Hauwaho + Hingangaroa Smith.
Sculpture: Ngā hau e whā (The 4 winds), Molenpark, sculpture park, Urmond, The Netherlands by Sonja van Kerkhoff
The constant shifting between the natural and cultural, dominated by the footage of gliding albatrosses, suggest the other-worldly. As spiritual beings, we gain meaning from associations and from change, from 'a moving heart' affected by our environment, whether land, water or sky.
Sounds: recordings from the Whanganui river, Whakahoro, Taranaki, Tahora, Aotearoa | New Zealand all reworked in Audacity by Sonja.
Voice: Sonja van Kerkhoff
Sound engineering of the voice: Sandy Hoover
Locations:
Golden bay coastline, Taranaki farmland, Mount Taranaki, Kaupokonui beach, Tahora, Otago Peninsula, Moeraki, Summer, Rotorua, Kaupokonui beach, Whanganui River, Muriwai, Helensville, Mt Dampner Falls, Parihaka, Aotearoa | New Zealand
Some of Sonja's experiences from 11 to 16 years, which led her to separate two worlds, that of her family, the unwanted, and the world outside of this, the wanted.
Sounds: Pūherehua (bull roarer) jam at the 2009 Tahora folk festival, Jerome Kavanagh playing the poi āwhiowhio, pūtātara, pūtōrino + nguru; jam with Taonga Pūoro at a marae along the Whanganui River, various sounds courtesy of Luftrum, yewbic, greyseraphim, plagasul & children at Te Papa museum by jmfh from The Freesound Project (freesound.org) birds, sea, river, rain, forest, wind recorded on location.
Sound engineering of the voice: Sandy Hoover
Text: Text: Paraphrases from the essay, "This is not a game: testimony and the making and unmaking of the child as a political subject" by Julia Emberley in Australian Humanities Research. Special Issue. Testimony and Trauma: New Directions. 15.3 (2009): 48-64.
Locations:
Whakahoro, The Whanganui River, Taranaki, Aotearoa | New Zealand
A soundscape of Maori traditional instruments, children and the natural world complements the images of misty hills and valleys which dominate a story about childhood and trauma, fantasy, projection and memory.
Music: Stilte na de storm | Peace after the storm by Tama McGlinn
The Whanganui river is like a continuous vein through the heart of the land.
The Tears of Rangi - Ngā Roimata o Rangi >> vimeo.com/sonjavank
>> A page of Stills
Te Ngākau Nekeneke - The Moving Heart >> vimeo.com/sonjavank
>> A page of Stills
The two lands >> vimeo.com/sonjavank
>> A page of Stills
The dark valley >> vimeo.com/sonjavank
>> A page of Stills
Heart of the Land - Te Ngākau o te whenua >> vimeo.com/sonjavank
>> A page of Stills
Five minute overview of the "Kainga" installation in Museum Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen >> youtube.com/sonjavank