Imperial

From the "Tauhuna 3.0" collection, "Imperial" is an imperial guard from the popular Star Wars franchise, recreated through a Māori lens. The guard's mask is "carved" with toi Māori, commonly seen within moko, whakairo and kowhaiwhai. The back story of Star Wars sees the "rebel forces" protecting planets and their valuable resources from the Empire... of which who are influenced by the dark side of the force... This back story draws parallels to colonizing Europeans and the subsequent formation of the New Zealand government within Aotearoa - whilst the indigenous Māori were fighting for their mana, mauri, whenua and taonga - most of which was destroyed or appropriated.