#kirituhi

AT LAST. TOOK FOREVER DUE TO IT BEING 50 SOME-ODD DEGREES HERE?? MY HANDS HURT. BUT ITS DONE.

What I understood from the blog post I quoted was that kirituhi COULD be given by a non-Maori artist to a non-Maori person. The blogger, Taryn Beri, is a trained Maori tattoo artist. She states, “Moko is born of Māori culture. If a completed tattoo design is not born of, attached to and expressing that Māori culture, then it can not be correctly termed moko. It can safely be called kirituhi or a Māori style tattoo… There are many non-Māori tattooers around the world that make some lovely tattoo designs (and some not so lovely) inspired by Māori art, and the correct name for such work is kirituhi.” Beri’s big point is not to call a tattoo “moko” when it is really only “kirituhi”, but she uses the term “kirituhi” to include Maori-styled art/tattoos done by non-Maori artists. Make sense?

Kirituhi is a Māori style tattoo either made by a non-Māori tattooer, or made for a non-Māori wearer. Kirituhi has mana of it’s own and is a design telling the unique story of the wearer in the visual language of Māori art and design. Kiri means ‘skin’, and tuhi means ‘to write, draw, record, adorn or decorate with painting’. Kirituhi is not restricted to only Māori people, and it is a way for Māori to share our cultural arts with people from around the world in a respectful manner, and for non-Māori artists to enjoy our beautiful art form as well. I happily do kirituhi for my clients around the world and it is a privilege to do such work for them. Kirituhi is no lesser an artform than moko, however it is different and I believe these differences must be acknowledged and respected, so that the integrity of our taonga Māori – moko, is maintained around the world.

Sadly I haven't used it often lately, since I've gotten some mixed critique on using it (I try and keep accurate, but since I'm white it's... *wobbles hand* for some and I wanna be respectful)? But I did because I wanted to incorporate more of Temuera's culture into the characters! Though more specifically on clones who follow the Resol'nare and consider themselves Mando, since the Mando'ade are supposed to be majority styled after/inspired by Māori culture.