• Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
• Location: Central Auckland, NZ, 1010
• Company: Auckland Council
• aucklandartgallery.com

Composed of hundreds of shimmering crystals, Guide Kaiārahi is a ten-metre-high waka that rises vertically from the Gallery’s forecourt pool. It was commissioned by the Gallery and the Edmiston Trust in 2021 and was temporarily removed for protection during the Gallery’s Kia Whakahou, Kia Whakaora Heritage Restoration Project in 2023.

Drawing on Māori cosmology and creation narratives, Guide Kaiārahi invites viewers to imagine a celestial waka that guides us through time and space, linking past, present and future. The sculpture journeys from Papatūānuku into the embrace of Ranginui, casting a galaxy of stars over the Gallery pool.

The inspiration for the crystalline sculpture originated in the well-known legend of a phantom waka that appeared at Lake Tarawera ten days before the eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886.

Hovering above the Gallery’s forecourt pool like a compass needle in vertical orientation, the magnificent waka suggests navigation to worlds beyond our own. It also refers to navigators’ use of stars to traverse the vast Pacific Ocean to Aotearoa.

Combining references to natural and supernatural realms, the sculpture draws upon Māori cosmology and creation narratives. It also has as a personal resonance for Paterson as his Ngāti Rangithi kaumātua describe their iwi, who descend from the Te Arawa waka of the Bay of Plenty, as ‘Te Heketanga-a-rangi’, those who descend from the celestial heavens, in reference to their tūpuna, Ohomairangi.