Cape Reinga by Yvonne Rust, QSM

 

Yvonne Rust, QSM, was raised in the 1920s as the only white child in Te Hapua, New Zealand’s northern most community. As a result she spent a great deal of time with Maori and absorbed the Maori way of seeing things and of understanding the natural world. Te Hapua is only 12 miles distant from Spirits Bay which extends in a huge arc out towards Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Reinga), New Zealand’s northernmost tip. Yvonne’s father, Gordon Rust, surveyed the road to Spirits Bay, which is still in use today.

Yvonne developed an intense affinity for New Zealand’s northern areas and in particular for the Maori spiritual places of which Cape Reinga is one. She painted it many times over. This painting was completed in 1987.