Koha Tū - A Special Gift

On Dec 31st 2010, I decided that I would paint a rock every day for 2011. If I did this, I would be nurturing my creativity and I would be able to share these special gifts, every day, with the world. What seemed like a simple exercise became so much more. The rocks and their stories connected me to people and places, they have been the inspiration for the sharing of more stories by those who connected with them and many of the rocks are spread all around the world.

In 2012, I decided to make a book about the project, many people asked for it but it just didn’t come to fruition back then. Fast forward to 2025, and we are nearly at the first draft. It has taken a while! 365 days is a lot of images, (it was a lot of painting and sourcing rocks!) and a lot of writing to work through and edit down to meaningful words. That was a task in itself.

The Māori word for rock is kohatu. But these are not just any rocks and our conceptual Māori language gives real meaning to the word. The word ‘koha’ means ‘gift’ or ‘to gift’ and the word ‘tū’ gives emphasis or importance to the gift. So for me, they are special gifts. The rocks that I paint are gathered from Taranaki, Aotearoa NZ and are volcanic. They carry the energy or mauri of the land from which they come and have their own stories as well as the stories in the designs that I place upon them.

I also mention that the many people who followed the project on my Facebook page, gave such meaning, everyday to the works that I created. they added their own dialogue and meaning to the. The kohatu (rocks) weren’t the only thing that they connected with - the words and images were inspiration too.

I think back to 2011 and as I follow every rock today, their meaning and inspiration they provide become even more profound as the years go by. This is why, I have decided to stick to my wish and print it as a book. All the words, images and stones are still relevant today. When I put out the book, I will also map where the stones are, something I started back then too!

So stay tuned for this pukapuka (book) it is a special one, one that I hold dear to my heart, as do many others. I also acknowledge the number of people that followed who are no longer with us. Some like Mere, whose contribution in the comments, inspired me to keep going when things got tough (as they did), their words will live on through the stories with the rocks.