Rationale

My chosen Maori myth for this fold-in image brief is the tale of Whaitere. Whaitere tells the story of an enchanted stingray, whose role is to maintain peace between humans and sea creatures. She gained this responsibility because humans were poaching and over fishing, leaving little to no sea creatures left in her harbor. Whenever peace was disrupted, Whaitere would appear asking them to stop.

With this in mind, I decided to have my unfolded image display human hands reaching into a rock pool taking paua from their home. The unfolded image forms Whaitere, who has come to keep the peace and stop them from taking too much and prevent greed. This encapsulates the overall moral of the story which is ‘not to be greedy, and only take what you need’ which is relevant to the demographic of 7-10 year old children.

I included important elements in the centre of the composition, to draw the viewers’ eye away from the stingray features strewn about the sides of the image.

Paua is mentioned a lot throughout the myth, as it represents Whaiteres’ holiness and journey she experienced visiting Rarohenga (ocean underworld). It embodies a sense of magic, spirituality and importance throughout the story.

Overall, I feel my image engages the viewer and provides a pleasant surprise when they fold the image together, and also evokes a feeling of fantasy and magic.