NZ Post’s Matariki stamp issue this year tells the Māori creation narrative through the work of six New Zealand artists, in six very different ways. Two of these artists we claim as our own, here in Russell – Cliff Whiting and Pauline Kahurangi Yearbury. This Pauline Yearbury image features on the $2.50 stamp and is also in her 1976 book, The Children of Rangi and Papa: The Maori Story of Creation. NZ Post describes the image: “In this frame, Papa is clutching Rangi in a supportive embrace with the umbilical cord of her last child still present. This work by Yearbury is indicative of her visceral style and her clever use of line to project movement in her visual exploration of Māori narratives. Yearbury was lost to the Māori art world well before her contribution had been fully recognised“. Pauline Kahurangi Yearbury was not only an artist. She was also a poet. She left us two interpretations of the great creation narrative, of Ranginui, the Great-Heaven-which-stands-above, and Papa-tu-a-nuku, the Great-Earth-which-lies-below. One is in words. One is in images. They lie together in one book.
Source: http://stamps.nzpost.co.nz/new-zealand/2014/matariki-paptuanuku-and-ranginui#issue-section-500
