“Te Ara Whero” (the Red Pathway) speaks of many things: of Papatuanuku, the earth mother and Tane her son, god of the forest; of the sinuous trunks and red flowers of rata and pohutukawa; of women, childbirth, blood, pain and umbilical connections; of the path of early Maori settlers arriving in Nelson, of bloodshed on the arrival of later Maori and then of pakeha; of Nelson’s creation, the World of Wearable Art, its models, the weave of fabrics used in costumes, the former Red section of the competition; of the pain to the community when WOW left Nelson to travel north on Te Ara Whero to Wellington; of WOW still being connected to Nelson, its earth mother, through the WOW Museum for several years after the show went north but now, unfortunately, closed; of ongoing growth and flowering of rata and pohutukawa in Nelson Marlborough; and of new births, exciting beginnings and growth in the Te Tau Ihu (Top of the South) art world. For details of this painting, see slide show below.