I am Harete - previously known as Jo, but I changed my name to my middle name given at birth which is also my mother’s name so also in honour of her - Harete Mauao. Up until the recent past I’ve given my experience and all my accolades here and afar but actually what’s important to me right now is growing a native forest! So at the moment, I’m transitioning Wondering Earth into what it originally was for - to share my curiosities and philosophies through rākau and te taiao. My focus very soon will be on growing RĀKAU which will be an online space sharing my growing a forest and all the learning, creativity and kōrero that goes with that. One day I will come back and explain it better, but then the website should already be made by then!

Wondering Earth has been created to share my curiosity of life, my love of nature and my passion for learning through observation. I’ve recently moved into small batch book publishing both print and handmade books to share the many stories of my own I have to tell, but also others’ stories who I feel need to be told. I’m currently still working through how this may look for Wondering Earth and publishing, but I currently have a few books on the way! To stay in touch, connect with me at the contact form above.

Two years ago I created Rākau - a creative conversation with native trees of Aotearoa. This was a pathway for me (and others) to reconnect to the whenua (earth) and taiao (environment) through our native trees. You can check out more on Rākau here and the exhibition that I created as an expression of this work.

Rākau highlights the art that I create from scratch using mainly native trees of Aotearoa and earth pigments. Every day is an exploration and connecting to different landscapes of Aotearoa. I’m incredibly grateful to be able to walk this land and experience the stories of tāngata whenua (people of the land) and the beauty that lives here. My current project and passion is creating photographic images with native trees! A continuation of my Rākau which you can find on this website.

Arohanui,

Harete x

Also, I love a SEARCH space on a website so I’ve put one on the front page, top left. So if you have a kaupapa (topic) you want to search for, type it in the search bar and it will bring all related posts up. Easy.