Te Matahiapo Collective is a research initiative from Aotearoa New Zealand. Ā-Ē-ĪŌ-Ū: Ko Pari Haruru (2025) is an immersive installation of light and sound that follows the structure of a karanga or call of welcome across a marae ātea (open meeting area), typically performed by Māori women, carrying visitors into the formal environment of an ancestral meeting house. Ā, Ē Ī ,Ō and Ū, the five vowels of the Māori language, each have their own ‘vibrational forces and cosmological contexts’, says Te Matahiapo Collective, situating the language within physical and spiritual worlds. In Ā-Ē-Ī-Ō-Ū: Ko Pari Haruru, inspired by the kīrehu (idiom) ‘I saw with my ears and heard with my eyes’, the vowels are explored through karanga. The installation, commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation, encourages an embodied experience of Māori knowledge traditions by using light, sound and frequency to describe. Their presentation at Sharjah Biennial 16 was led by Kura Puke (Te Atiawa, Ngāti Tawhirikura) and Inahaa Te Urutahi Waikerepuru (Taranaki Tūkau, Tāngahoe, Tuhourangi, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngā Puhi), with Stuart Foster and Mike Bridgman. 

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