While Kohe has had a range of jobs in his career, art has been a consistent passion throughout his life, he explains.
“I don’t have any formal training and joined the Air Force instead of going to university, so I’ve always learnt about art in the background. I have been scribbling and drawing for a really long time now and still aim to do more with design in the future.
“I have always just been inspired by other artists, and they’ve helped me develop my own trademark designs. I really enjoy pixel art, which I create digitally.”
Kohe has been at the Council for 16 years now, starting his journey working across our community pools, before landing in his role as Totoru a-whare, a coordinator in the Pare Māori team of Mataaho Aronui, Wellington City Council's strategic Māori partnership team. His talent and eye for drawing is a skill noticed by the Council’s Creative and Brand team, who approached him to create on artwork for various projects.
His most recent work was for the Matariki Our Wellington magazine cover, which depicts Puanga, followed by Matariki atop Taranaki Mounga, encircled by Rongomātane, Maru, Tāne Mahuta, and Tangaroa. This represents our gratitude and connection with nature.
To come up with this concept, Kohe turned to his team to learn more about their Matariki Puanga traditions.
“I work with a diverse group of people and when this opportunity came up, I wanted to pull from the resources and experiences they had. We have different traditions and in Ngāti Toa, the emphasis is more on Matariki.
“I spent an entire weekend researching Matariki Puanga because I really wanted to get an outsider’s perspective and to acknowledge the narrative element of the design. Māori artwork often tells stories through the pattern work so I wanted to nail that down.”