Te Whakatipuranga
Te whakatipuranga i roto te ao whakaakoranga which represents growth from learning. Standing over three and a half metres high the stainless steel sculpture was created by long time University of Waikato educator Donn Ratana.
The School commissioned Ratana to create something representative of their masters paper for management. With this in mind Ratana researched the site and discovered the computer rooms sat just underneath. From this he wove the narrative of the three shoots climbing up from the technology below into the outside world. Reminiscent of te aka matua, the parent vine in Māori legend that gave mankind access to knowledge, the three pītau embody the concept of growth through learning. The largest represents the School of Management studies and the knowledge that is shared with the students who are represented by the second largest pītau. The smallest pītau is the community, into which the students will return. The three pītau offer support to each other, existing in a balance that allows them all to continue their upward trajectory.
The interdependence of the pītau is a conscious nod to the masters students themselves. Ratana wanted to recognise the knowledge the students bring in with them, creating an atmosphere of mutual learning and knowledge exchange rather than a one way teaching experience. It also considers the community’s role as the environment in which the students gather their experience and later return to as learned practitioners.
As a whole the stance of the piece represents a figure with a taiaha performing Te Wero, the challenge offered up to all that approach. Initially the site was more open and the piece faced an entrance way that once stood to the south. Mirroring the steel and reflective surfaces of MSB block the use of the stainless steel is both artistic and practical. The pītau were created in a factory which manufactures farm dairy pipes, echoing the farming community that modern Hamilton grew from. The more pragmatic side is that stainless steel is relatively low maintenance and hard wearing.
Consistent throughout his work Ratana again presents his unique style of Māori art, meshing traditional concepts with modern materials to form a narrative of numerous interwoven threads. The whole is that any individual is not finding knowledge alone, it is a journey that is shared.