Skye Lunson-Storey

Wai acts as rongoā, a vessel of emotion and remedy

Ngā Wai o Rongo, Kei te Heke ngā Roimata o Ranginui, and Te Mauri o te Wai form a trilogy exploring wai as a site of grief, memory, and healing. Across these works, wai acts as both subject and collaborator, holding stories of loss while guiding pathways toward renewal.

Created in collaboration with Māia, Ngā Wai o Rongo reflects the passage of the wairua from te ao Mārama toward Hawaiki, a space of transition where grief and healing move together like tide and current.

Kei te heke ngā roimata o Ranginui extends this reflection into the urban landscapes of Tāmaki Makaurau, responding to flood-prone sites and the legacy of drained wetlands. Guided by te ao Māori and the insights of Troy Brockbank’s Just Add Mauri: Water-sensitive Design Meets Tikanga Māori (2017), the work asks how we might live with this living element?

Te Mauri o te Wai, titled after Auckland Council’s freshwater vision strategy, continues a dialogue with wai through material and process. Concrete weeps, steel remembers, and water carries what has been buried. Together, these works trace cycles of loss and renewal: through wai, memory flows; through grief, healing begins.