Ngā Rawa
The Rawa

A person stands indoors looking up at three large, brightly colored vertical digital artworks depicting stylized figures in vibrant reds, purples, and golds. The illuminated panels dominate the space with bold patterns and warm light.

Earth Mothers, located in Ngā Pou Ruahine, Te Papa Tuarua | Level 2

Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui: A living story of nature, told through art, architecture, and ancestral memory.

Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui welcomes visitors into a layered journey through the natural world. Through commissioned artworks, bespoke design, and shifting palettes, the building reveals the vital role of microorganisms, the histories of Taranaki Whānui, and the interconnectedness of all living things.

See Earth Mothers

RAWA

At the heart of Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui is a guiding intention: to bring people toward an understanding of the smallest micro-organisms that give life to the environment around us.

Co-designed with Tihei, the building becomes a window into the natural world, welcoming visitors in to cross into nature’s thresholds.

Each tomokanga offers a unique introduction to this story.

Three of our tomokanga | entrances are lined with hand-notched Southland beech profiling that draws visitors inward. They provide an entry point to commissioned rawa, each of which in turn reflects the mana and significance of fungi, lichen, and native flora and fauna through diverse artistic forms.

Explore all of our rawa below.

The Rawa

Ngā Tai o te Ao Mārama

A Living Tide of Light, Colour, and Movement

Te Ngākau Tomokanga

A Cascade of Lichen and Living Reminder

Earth Mothers

A Matrilineal Line Woven Across Te Matapihi

Ko Rangi, Ko Papa

A Lightbox Journey Through Creation

Brown Optimism

Papuni’s Challenge Carved Into the Wind

Ngā Tai o te Ao Mārama

A Living Tide of Light, Colour, and Movement

Te Ngākau Tomokanga

A Cascade of Lichen and Living Reminder

Earth Mothers

A Matrilineal Line Woven Across Te Matapihi

Ko Rangi, Ko Papa

A Lightbox Journey Through Creation

Brown Optimism

Papuni’s Challenge Carved Into the Wind

Rawa artists

The artists behind the artwork

Lady artist in front of artwork — **Ngahina Hohaia**
*Taranaki iwi, Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāti Moeahu, Ngāti Haupoto, Parihaka*

Ngahina Hohaia is a celebrated contemporary artist whose practice spans multimedia and multisensory installation, sculpture and weaving. Living in her ancestral community of Parihaka at the foot of Taranaki, she anchors her wide-ranging creative work in traditional knowledge and whakapapa, maintaining a deep connection to place.

CB01694-030 — **Tihei**
*Te Āti Awa, Taranaki Whānui*

Rangi Kipa (Tihei) is a renowned artist whose work is highly esteemed across Aotearoa. He is deeply involved in advancing Māori art, helping to revitalise and specialise in several traditional practices, including the unique Taranaki carving style. His deep practise in sculpture, carving and tā moko, but also extends into innovative co-design for public buildings and civic spaces.

**Darcy Nicholas (QSO)**
*Te Āti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Taranaki, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāti Hauā*

Originally from Waitara in Taranaki, Darcy Nicholas has been a central figure in contemporary Māori art since the late 1960s, reshaping the visual language of Māori art for contemporary expression. A highly regarded artist, he has exhibited extensively across Aotearoa and overseas, been the subject of a documentary and published a book, Land of my Ancestors.

Wiremu Barriball is a Māori visual artist and musician from the Kāpiti Coast, known for his skill as a tā moko practitioner and his background in graphic design and illustration. His work seeks to transform the ideas and concepts held in tradition in contemporary expressions of Māori today, and his tā moko expertise can be found on media not traditionally seen – shell, wood, stone and leather.

**Jaqueline Cecilia (J.C.) Sturm 1927 – 2009**
*Taranaki iwi, Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Ruanui, Te Pakakohi, Te Whakatōhea - Ōpōtiki mai Tawhiti*

Sturm - also known as Te Kare Papuni - first joined the Library when it operated from what is now the City Gallery building, later working in Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui. As one of Aotearoa’s earliest Māori librarians, she became Wellington’s principal New Zealand Room librarian in 1972.

This narrative continues on the second floor in Ngā Pou Ruahine, where another commissioned rawa is paired with the same bespoke timber profiling, reinforcing the building’s thematic thread. Nearby, the entrance to the Māori collection is framed by intelligent bookend designs featuring hand-drawn and digital depictions of birds, plants, insects, fungi, forests, and rivers.

Inspired by te taiao, these elements reflect the birds, forests and natural forms that shape the Māori collection.

Artist Rangi Kepa of Tihei shapes the bespoke timber profiling by hand.

The bespoke timber profiling appears throughout the space.

Hand-drawn and digitally crafted bookend illustrations depict birds, plants, insects, fungi, forests and rivers.

The kiwi and other creatures throughout Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui reflects the living presence of te taiao within the space, reminding visitors that the knowledge held here is closely connected to the natural world.

These elements create a heightened sense of arrival and signal the significance of this reference area. Commissioned artists closely connect to the ahi kā of Taranaki Whānui, whose narratives shape the land on which Te Matapihi stands. As visitors move throughout the building, echoes of local history, worldview, and whakapapa accompany them.

Design cues shift subtly as visitors ascend the floors. Carpet and wall palettes transition into vibrant oranges and sky reds, mimicking the forest canopy where light filters through upper branches and mycelial networks to reach the sky.

Externally, the story extends further. Repurposed stone plinths form the trunks of the nīkau trees above them, some etched with sandblasted kōrero or imagery that speaks to what lies within the building. At the Victoria Street entrance, niho tupua designs in the paving act as wayfinding while hinting at a suspended rawa inside.

On the southern façade, a large commissioned rawa explores themes of identity loss. Confronting in its presence, it ‘bites’ at the busy restaurant district opposite, challenging passersby to acknowledge the impacts of colonisation.

Throughout bookable meeting rooms, Autex panels depicting native birds and insects connect each space back to the overarching story of the natural world. These quiet details ensure that every part of the building contributes to the unfolding narrative.

What first appears to be a library reveals itself, with movement, as something richer: a multisensory journey through histories, ecologies, and the unseen forces that sustain life. Each rawa and design element is an elevation carried in from ancient winds - carrying with it the deeper story of Te Matapihi ki Te Ao Nui.