He kopu puta tahi, he taura whiri tātou; whiringa a nuku, whiringa a rangi, te whatia e Issue of one womb, we are a rope woven of many strands; woven on earth, woven in heaven, it will not break (Rev Māori Marsden, 1992) Ngati Te Takinga is a hapū (sub-tribe) belonging to the Iwi (tribe) Ngati Pikiao. An affiliated member of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes, Ngati Pikiao occupies the Okere and Rotoiti Lakes district of Rotorua in the central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. This thesis seeks to acknowledge and address the concerns that Ngati Te Takinga has regarding impending cultural discontinuity. The concerns arise due to the hapū's limited human capability and capacity being the result of three things. Firstly, the ongoing demise of tribal elders (and leaders) and the subsequent loss to the hapū of cultural knowledge, skills, leadership and expertise. Secondly, the low numbers of adept, culturally proficient successors 'coming through' (to replace the elders) and finally, the detribalised and diasporic (dispersed) nature of our people. The hapū and the marae Te Takinga (a last outwardly discernible bastion of Ngati Te Takinga cultural identity and distinction) are jeopardised as a result of these phenomenon. This thesis is part of a hapū strategy that attempts to address these problems. Positing the reconnection of our dispersed Ngati Te Takinga 'away-dwellers' as a beginning solution, the central questions raised by this thesis are how [does] Ngati Te Takinga 'home-dweller' discourse impact on the 'coming home' experiences and 'reconnection' of Ngati Te Takinga away-dwellers? and what are the [are there] implications for Ngati Te Takinga cultural continuity? The maintenance of Ngati Te Takinga cultural continuity forms the aho mātua or main thread of this work. Using narrative enquiry as a broad methodological framework,stories were gathered from four different groups of Ngati Te Takinga peoples. The groups were home-dwellers (mana whenua or ahi kaa), te ahi tere (away-dwellers who have returned home to live); te ahi tere (away-dwellers who intend returning in the future) and te ahi tere (away-dwellers who have no intention of returning home to live). The stories (narratives) investigated notions of home, belongingness and Māori identity in relation to the trichotomy of the connection, disconnection and the reconnection of Ngati Te Takinga peoples; the stories were analysed and co-constructed with participants for meaning. The stories showed that while the hapū aspires to gather up the strengths of a dispersed people to reinvigorate our culture and the marae, existing and competing discourses around authenticity, authority and Ngati Te Takinga identity create a tension between the home (mana whenua/ahi kaa) and away-dwelling Ngati Te Takinga people; including those away-dwellers who have returned. As a basic requirement, this tension must be diminished in order to build the relationships necessary to improve hapū allegiance (whānaungatanga), to build hapū strength and to maintain hapū culture and identity. As a priority, decolonising strategies that facilitate an understanding of diversity, promote participation, maintain tikanga and include our away-dwellers, our 'returnees' and/or our disconnected people in our hapū-marae interactions, must be considered, developed, promoted and practiced.

Ngaromoana Raureti Tomoana is a painter from the East Coast of the North Island. In more than 30 years she has produced and shown a large body of work, like many other women artists concurrently juggling motherhood and artistic performance. Over approximately the last 10 years, she has formalized her education completing the Advanced Diploma for Maori Visual Arts at Toihoukura in Gisborne as well as a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Maori Visual Arts at Massey University. The artist, who identifies as an Indigenous Village Artist, is hardly known outside her local area of Northern Hawkes Bay, and, apart from a short feature in Mataora , a picture in Te Ata , and various catalogue entries, little has been written about her work. This thesis introduces Ngaromoana Raureti Tomoana and explores the notion of an indigenous village art. I incorporate feminist and postcolonial discourses into a political and critical engagement with her art, which addresses issues of village and land based cultural identity as well as race and gender. I argue that her work is politically motivated and important in the context of contemporary Maori art. Furthermore, based on a holistic world view, it simultaneously reaches out into the wider, global community. Intertwining local and personal history, her oeuvre is the manifestation of a female path and a female perspective, of identification with her village and beyond.