For months I’ve been working on a special collaboration for Salvage Hounds, and I’m finally able to share the details!
As an author, researching cultures other than your own is an important part of the job, especially if you want to create characters that aren’t just carbon copies of yourself. For Salvage Hounds that’s been doubly so.
You see, it’s always struck me that many sci-fi stories seem to take place in a future stuck in the “Space Race of the Past,” where American and Russian White Dudes were the de facto space explorers. Not so with Salvage Hounds. I obviously wanted capable women driving this story, but I also wanted to show a future where space travel is no longer just the domain of old-school astronauts. Rather, it’s become ubiquitous, with people from all over the world stepping into space, whether they’re from giant “superpowers” or the smallest nations.
Salvage Hounds’ core cast represents that future: Captain Olivia Singh is Indian/British, Mi-Cha Kwon is Korean, Fitz Clarke is Jamaican, and Anahera “Ana” Wheeler is from New Zealand.
Specifically, Anahera is Māori on her mother’s side. And one aspect I really wanted to include from her culture was the practice of Tā Moko, the sacred tattoos of the Māori people. In Anahera’s case, it was a Moko Kauae, the chin tattoos of wahine Māori (women).
But as I delved into research I came to understand that these designs are steeped in both meaning and reverence. These sacred markings carry symbolism of not just the bearer’s tribal affiliation (her Iwi) but also tell the story of her life’s journey.
I really wanted to include this element in Anahera’s character. But the more I learned of the Tā Moko art, the more it became clear that portraying it visually with any sense of authenticity would be difficult for me, an outsider with no true understanding of the symbolism. There was also the sacred reverence for this art form—it’s even said that the ta moko artist (Tohunga-tā-moko) doesn’t create something for the bearer so much as reveal what is already spiritually there.
I began to feel quite uneasy about attempting to create a Moko Kauae on my own.
It’s not just that it wouldn’t be authentic. I just felt it wasn’t my place.
Not all Māori women have Moko Kauae. In fact, most do not; the practice fell out of favor under the European colonization, when the Māori were often discouraged (to put it mildly) from their cultural traditions. Anahera could certainly be a modern wahine Māori without one. But in recent years Moko Kauae has made a resurgence, with many Māori women reclaiming the tradition. The more I researched, the more I felt that this sacred rite could become a foundational aspect of Ana’s character.
But, I clearly needed help. Thanks to the modern marvel of the internet I was able to find traditional Tā Moko studios and artists in New Zealand. I decided to reach out to Karanga Ink, a studio in Auckland. Karanga’s website talked abut sharing and promoting the arts of indigenous Aotearoa (New Zealand) cultures to a global audience. Perhaps they could help me.
Still, I was worried that a request for a Moko Kauae for a fictional character would seem strange (or even offensive coming from a cultural outsider!). But I was surprised to learn that Pip Hartley, the founder of the studio, had done something similar for an animated series!
Pip was open to working on Anahera’s Moko Kauae. I think she appreciated how Ana’s Māori background helped define the character, and was very patient and kind in sharing her deep knowledge of the art form and its symbolism.
And I knew Ana would be in good hands—I had seen Pip working and speaking on the subject of Tā Moko in documentaries and TV shows online. I armed her with as much of Ana’s history, life goals, and beliefs as I could and Pip got to work, researching and designing. Part of that was also selecting an Iwi (tribe) for Ana to call home.
Anahera’s moko kauae relfects her past history as well as the person she now strives to be:
Ana has always been something of a “hot head”— her quick temper can often lead her to rash decisions when anger gets the best of her. It’s led her into trouble in the past, making her butt heads with certain people in the criminal underworld. So much so that Ana found herself on the run from very bad people, escaping to the frontier of the solar system.
Ana had always been taught about her Maori heritage as a young girl, but it wasn’t until she was on the run and separated from her family that she truly re-connected with what it meant to be wahine Māori. Receiving her moko kauae was a big decision that took many years of contemplation (and was not easy to do so far from Earth). Traditionally done as a rite of passage when a girl becomes a woman, Ana was already in her 40s—but she too was moving into a new stage of life, not just a renewed commitment to her lineage, but a new search for the balance she needed, an equilibrium between the temper that so often got her into trouble, and the peace she wanted in her heart.
Her moko is a spiritual connection to the physical and family roots she had to leave behind when she ran. Even though she’s never set foot on Earth, let alone the lands of her Iwi, her moko is a reminder of not just her heritage but the person she strives to be, both in her own mirror and to those she meets. And it goes wherever she goes, even if that’s millions of miles from her true Māori home.
To create a moko kauae that represented Ana’s journey, Pip chose the Ngāti Tūwharetoa Iwi for Ana (Tūwharetoa translates as “house of warriors.”)
The “X” markings in the design are called purapura whetū—they represent the stars for navigation, and also represent Ana’s Tapuna (ancestors). The triangular markings at the bottom form Ana’s ancestral mountain, her place of belonging. The line down the middle is called the manawa line, a sort of genealogy or connection between the ira atua (gods), and the ira tangata, (the living). The markings on the side are called the paepaeroa, representing the support of her Whānau Hapū and Iwi (family and tribes). In Ana’s case, this is the support of her community.
Ana’s moko represents her values: true home and community coupled with the guidance she needs to steer away from her temper and towards peace. With this wonderful collaboration her character finally felt complete, and I was able to go back into the pages and truly finish the art by adding her moko kauae!
Thanks to Pip and Karanga Ink for sharing their time, expertise, knowledge, and above all, their culture with me, and ultimately my readers. I can’t wait to get the book out there for people to read!