New comic, Ōtea Rock of Ages: Part 2, launched at the Tairāwhiti Arts Festival

I am very pleased to say that Ōtea: Rock of Ages 2 has been completed and published! Order here (or schools and libraries can order from Wheelers). 

It was launched at the Tairāwhiti Arts Festival (Oct 2-12, 2020) in Turanga (Gisborne), as part of a pop-up exhibition at the Tairāwhiti Museum and Art Gallery. 

Image copyright Zak Waipara, 2020

This exhibition, Pepeha: Words and Pictures, was a chance for me to explore indigenous storytelling through comics, and showcase a variety of comic work.

Image copyright Zak Waipara, 2020

For the exhibition, I prepared comic panels from various stories, including Ōtea, to be projected in animated form inside the Tairāwhiti Museum, and this was coupled with a display of three publications: Ōtea: Rock of Ages 1, Ōtea: Rock of Ages 2, and Pepeha - a comic-zine of short pieces related to whakapapa and identity in the Turanganui-a-Kiwa rohe. 

Image copyright Zak Waipara, 2020

Another part of the Festival that I participated in was Te Ara Whiti - the Light Trail. This was an outdoor exhibition, running every night of the Festival, featuring a number of artists working with light in many innovative ways. My contribution was animated versions of comics from the Pepeha comic-zine, projected at a large scale on the side of the Museum. One thing I really liked was that the shadows of trees in the park overlaid the image and became part of the scene. 

Image copyright Zak Waipara, 2020