#oketoipa25

[kararua]

Inktober prompts for Aotearoa!

October is such a fun time to make art alongside each other, so I thought why not make some prompts that are a bit closer to home for us. Keen to see what everyone makes from them, so please tag us @kararua

Kia pārekareka te hanga! Have fun creating!

[kararua]

Day 21 ~ Hikoi

With the mega strike on Thursday it felt appropriate. Especially with all the government seems to be doing to minimize and demonize unions.

We stand with you - nurses, doctors, dentists, social workers, teachers, acc workers, healthcare workers, education workers, and public servants.

[kararua]

Day 2 - Raranga

(weaving)

I thought it'd be fun to do some raranga harakeke for this. My first idea was to make something that I could use for a later prompt, which was this manawa (heart):

I wasn't happy with how it turned out, though. It was small and a bit messy looking. I thought about trying a second one, but even the one in the tutorial I was following, while much better, didn't look too great.

So I tried something else, that I had done once before:

The wristband turned out beautifully. The last one I'd made was at a wānanga, so it was a little rushed. This time though, I took much more care to make sure the weaving was as tight and even as I could make it as a beginner.

While looking up the wristband pattern to remind myself, I spotted an alternate pattern. It looked more complicated, so I didn't want to attempt it at first.

But once I finished, I still had a decent piece of harekeke left over. Not enough for another wristband, but I thought, why not try the pattern anyway?

So I did.

I set it up the way the pattern said to, but without the wristband piece to wrap around. It was harder, because I wasn't wrapping around anything solid. However, it was working!

Three iterations were all my length would allow, so then came the part I had no pattern for. How to "tie off" the ends and keep this length together?

I keep weaving I guess. Using what I'd seen from the other two patterns, I folded the ends back and wove them through the pattern on the underside. Wasn't sure If it'd really work, and it was quite a struggle to keep the whole thing folding in on itself, or coming loose.

But it worked. It worked really nicely. Even though I'd only dipped in to this briefly, I had seen the principles I needed to make it work.

Here's what makes this so significant to me.

It is hard to be Māori. It's hard to not have the reo. To live so far away from my Marae. To feel so disconnected. It all makes it so, so hard to actually engage with my culture, because there's this heavy weight that follows me around whenever I try.

And that's what happened here too. I had this idea for weeks. I wanted to get it done early so it was ready for Toi Oketopa. But I couldn't, it was too much. Even today, I thought I might just do something else instead.

What I did here may not seem like much. But I made a thing. A thing that looks cool. I looked at how to, took those things and applied them to do what I wanted. I took possession of a small part of this taonga.

Let me try rephrase that sentence in a Māori way. I belong to a small part of taonga raranga. It's part of me now.

This is what it means for me to be Māori. Little by little, claiming what is mine by birthright, by whakapapa. Losing that weight of shame and fear.

And then making cool art.

[kararua]

Day 22 - Tuhituhi

(to write or draw)

I chose write.

An Open Letter to Judith Collins

To the politician affected by this week's strike,

I regret to inform you, that as a member of the government, you are the Employer of at least 100,000 public servants. Your employees serve the children and families of New Zealand each and every day, looking after them, teaching them, supporting their growth and their wellbeing.

I further regret to inform you that your career as a politician is politically motivated.

What else could possibly explain how you "value all public sector employees" while cutting 9,520 public sector jobs?

As a politically motivated Employer, who better to address the issues of Palestine secondary teachers wished to raise with you?

I emphasise, wished to raise. The meeting never took place.

Palestine. One item on the agenda appears to have stopped all discussion between you and your employees. You lost the opportunity to discuss terms and conditions. You didn't discuss student achievement or the new curriculum. That's not what students or parents expect from their leaders.

So, to you, as a politician. You say this strike is politically motivated, so what are you going to do about it? Do you understand that teachers are concerned about the world their students are growing up in? Will you help them create a stable, peaceful environment where money can be invested in education, not warfare? So far, your answers to this have been nothing, no and who cares.

And to you, as an Employer. You have a responsibility to take care of your employees. This extends further than financial remuneration, further than health & safety. It extends to the workload of every one of your employees. You are failing in this responsibility.

The Government has ignored and exacerbated the understaffing and poor conditions teachers, nurses and doctors face every day. You are risking ordinary New Zealander's lives, health and education every day.

Yet your only concern is 6000 patients out of the 30,000 who will use our hospitals this week.

To the estimated 68 politicians in government, why do you think making teachers give up their contractually-mandated free time to do more work is acceptable? I know some of you are living lives where you can holiday at any time, but teachers cannot. And if you think teachers spend the entirety of school holiday time on holiday, you are unfit to be the employer of teachers.

Health Minister Simeon Brown thought binding arbitration would be the "circuit breaker" needed to stop doctors from striking. You seem to think this was a better idea than presenting doctors with a contract that addressed their clear concerns.

This strike is necessary due to the incompetence of the boss of our teachers, nurses, and doctors. You.

The Government does not value nurses, doctors, other health workers, teachers, principals or teacher aides. If you did, we wouldn't have to suffer the disruption of a strike. Let's be clear: This strike is happening because of you.

You have a responsibility to the people of New Zealand. A responsibility for their care and wellbeing. You are failing.

From re-establishing tax breaks for landlords, to disability funding cuts, your financial priorities are clear. David Seymour's Ministry for Regulation gets 18 million a year, while he takes 107 million away from feeding children. The IRD has 10 billion in tax debt to collect, but you scrapped its powers to gather information from millionaires.

Debt is a reality we all face. Most of us strive to be in debt, because it means the safety and security of owning a home. We take on debt because we care for our children and families. If the choice is debt or homelessness, we choose debt. Why should our country not do the same?

Reality is, there's other options. The wealthiest New Zealanders (50 million plus) pay an effective tax rate of 9.4 percent.

You have made the same offer to unions repeatedly: A small pay rise, barely enough to cover inflation. Whinging about "politicising". Claiming that you're broke. This is your leadership. Strikes are the consequence of your choices.

The unions don't want strikes. We don't want strikes. Our children and families don't want strikes. We want you to do your job, as a politician, employer, and leader. Give an offer that actually addresses the needs of your workers. Show us that you're capable of caring.

New Zealanders deserve better. We wouldn't stand for this kind of behaviour from our bosses, and we won't stand for it from you. We want certainty that our hospitals and schools won't collapse from underfunding, that our doctors, nurses and teachers won't quit from being overworked, and that our leaders actually care about us.

[kararua]

Day 6 - Tiaki

(look after, guard, care, safeguard...)

my cat sits on the bed's edge. who, i wonder, is watching out for who?

[kararua]

Day 4 - Kararua

(Janthina janthina)

wat?

Kararua are purple sea snails that use the wind to move around. The whole "drifting on the wind" thing really appealed to us as creators, which is why it's our name. It'd also be a real handy way of leaving conversations!

[kararua]

Day 23 ~ Pūrātoke

I almost forgot to make this one. Hope everyone had a great strike day!

Also I learned recently that people used to be able to solidarity strike. If any union was striking any other one was allowed to just say yup I agree with those guys you should listen to them and strike too.

[kararua]

Day 9 ~ Whetū

I saw this post by @writing-prompt-s and just had to draw it. I did a new way of colouring in the background which would leave obvious sharpie lines and it worked great but it was also way harder. It takes way more work to actively make boring and repetitive tasks not have uniformity.