Ming Ranginui, crown under

Artist: Ming Ranginui
Title: crown under
Year: 2025
Material: Muka dyed with raurēkau, possum fur, rhinestones, metal cross
Size: 120mm x 100mm x 100mm

"i make things pretty n impractical but always impactful <3"

Ming Ranginui holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) degree from Massey University, Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She continued her studies at Te Wānanga o Raukawa, specialising in raranga (weaving). 

Her works focus on the themes of tino rangatiratanga (Māori sovereignty), spirituality, and survival. The pūrākau (stories) speak to her personal experiences but also reach out to the collective experiences of Indigenous people grappling with the generational impacts of colonisation.

Neighbours, Ming’s first solo exhibition in Australia, playfully interrogates ongoing issues between the neighbouring colonised countries Aotearoa and Australia. 

Neighbours includes five sculptures that are expertly hand crafted in Ming’s distinctive visual and material style, incorporating whatu or tāniko (Māori weaving techniques) and satin smocking. 

The body of the crown under is woven with Muka dyed with raurēkau. 

Muka, the fibre extracted from harakeke (New Zealand flax), forms the base of most kākahu (cloaks). It is also a powerful symbol of connection. Māori see muka as more than a mere material. This inner fibre symbolises the unseen and connects the physical and spiritual realms – te ira tangata (the realm of people) with te ira atua (the realm of the gods). The language of weaving reflects this belief. ‘Aho’ refers to connections. ’Whenu’ may represent the womb or whenua (land). An older name for ‘whenu’ was ‘Io’ – the supreme being. Muka creates other connections too, in this way, muka links the ancestors who made or owned them with their descendants today, drawing together the past, present, and future. Muka represents these historical threads of connection. https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/topic/3626

The body of the crown sits on a bed of possum fur and atop of the crown is a metal cross embellished with rhinestones. The distinctly oppositional symbolism of both  emphasises the fact that the struggle for Māori to inhabit positions of power equal to those of tangata tiriti is never-ending. crown under references the colonisers of both Aotearoa and Australia, and the rightful place that the colonial rule belongs, under and abolished.