Tongue of the Dog

Without help, it could be a challenge for a visitor viewing the 2016 Michael Parekowhai sculpture Tongue of the Dog to work out just what is going on and why and how on earth the aqua drenched multicolour monolith came by it’s name. The answer would lie not on earth at all, but in the depths of Tainui oral tradition, the stories of the gods of Maoridom.

The story goes that the defining feature of the Waikato region, the Waikato River, was carved by a servant dog, belonging to the Mountain Tongariro. Tongariro had ordered this to be done to send the healing waters of the mountain plateau to his sister Taupiri, who had moved hundreds of kilometres away to be with her husband and had become unwell.

The mountain Taupiri is the Tainui turangawaewae and lies at Ngaruawahia near Hamilton. Therefore the water flows down.

The other Maori reference in the grand installation is much more contemporary, and explains the construction being comprised of oversized cuisinere rods. The rods are an educational mathematics resource which have been put to a new and successful use by Tainui Maori Language educators, Te Ataarangi. Cuisinere rods come in a bright and essentially primary palette, which Parekowhai clearly revels in.

When Tongue of the Dog was installed, by crane, in April 2016, public opinion and art opinion converged on approval, especially in that Hamilton had beaten Auckland to own a full size outdoors Parekowhai. Another source of pride for the city is that the entire installation has been funded by donations from more than 70 sources to the city’s sculpture organisation, MESH.