The two murals painted in conjunction on the campus of Te Kura-ā-Iwi o Whakatupuranga Rua Mano (WRM) during the Māoriland Film Festival. From the grounded visions of the students, the story rendered is about the first indigenous Māori ancestors that arrived on a double hulled waka (canoe). The circular formation has a dual representation of a portal that leads the ancestors of Ōtaki to the heavens, but also shows an eclipse of the sun with the star constellation of Matariki, also known as the Pleiades star cluster, or the Seven Sisters, or Makali‘i in Hawaiian ōlelo.

The portal is also seen in the second wall, but it inside the tree of life. In the first wall, the waka is seen coming out of the portal, but in the second wall, the waka is seen going through the portal. Below the tree a kakano seed is shown representing the beginning of life and todayʻs nex generation of children. In the leaves of the tree, the sprite / spirits are seen in the same Matariki formation, representing the ancestors of the children of Ōtaki.

Mele:
“Ngā Waka herenga tāngata”
Ngā rangatani ō ngāti raukawa
Kā pu te ruha kā hao te rangatahi