12A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2015
Maori: They received a traditional welcoming by the Chinook Nation
Continued from Page 1A
Chinook Nation members and
others. “I believe they bring to
our world a real perspective,
an authentic perspective that
they’ve worked on for 10,000
years, or 20,000 years, and the
Maori folks are right in line.”
From Aotearoa
The visiting clay artists, con-
sidered some of the best in New
Zealand, are sponsored by arts
organizations Creative New Zea-
land and Toi Maori Aotearoa to
share their culture. They include
group leader Colleen Waata
Urlich, group elder Baye Riddell
and four younger artists, Doro-
thy Waetford, Rhonda Halliday,
Todd Douglas and Carla Ruka.
All traveled from North Is-
land, New Zealand, also known as
Aotearoa in the Maori language,
and brought their own tribal back-
grounds and artistic focuses:
• Urlich, is with the iwi (tribe)
Te Popoto o Ngapuhi ki Kaipa-
ra and involved in several Mao-
ri art initiatives. She originally
met Rowland at his Dragon
Kiln outside Astoria, sparking
the relationship that led to the
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exchange and exhibit at CCC in
2012. Rowland met most of the
other Maori artists in a visit to an
indigenous arts festival in New
Zealand in 2014.
• Riddell descends from
the iwi of Ngati Porou. He took
up ceramics in the 1970s and
has since tutored and been fea-
tured around the world. He is
D FRIRXQGHU RI 1JƗ .DLKDQJD
Uku, a collective of Maori clay
workers.
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the Nga Puhi, the largest of the
Maori tribes, works in ceramics,
sculpture and wood. Douglas
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tools, featured prominently in his
work. Traveling with him was his
wife and glaze technician, Karu-
na Douglas.
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the Ngapuhi nui tonu tribe, said
much of her work focuses on
metaphors relating to rebirth and
in learning more about her cultur-
al heritage, both Maori and Pake-
ha (New Zealander of European
descent), and integrating the two.
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Nga Puhi and Ngati Whatua iwis,
said that in being a strong Maori
woman, many of her works fo-
cus on the female form.
• Waetford, from the Ngati
Wai, Ngati Hine and Nga Puhi
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Members of the Chinook Nation give gifts to the visiting Maori artists during a public exhibition reception at the Clatsop Community College Arts Center Thursday.
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
The visiting Maori artists travel along the Columbia River
on the Forerunner, Clatsop County Community College’s
training vessel, to ancestral Chinookan fishing grounds
near Pillar Rock Wednesday.
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Visiting Maori artists sing “Nga Iwe e,” meaning “Our Peo-
ple,” during a presentation at Astoria High School Tuesday.
iwis, is a former member of a
Maori dance company who grav-
itated toward ceramics, in which
VKH IRFXVHV RQ ¿JXUDWLYH VFXOS-
ture with strong shape, line and
form. “I come from the coast,”
she said, “and this place reminds
me of home … a lot.”
Urlich, Waetford, Halliday,
Douglas and Ruka came from
Te Tai Tokerau, a peninsular
Maori electorate at the northern-
most tip of the country, north of
the nation’s most populous city
Auckland. Riddell came from
Te Tai Rawhiti, along the east
coast and southeast of Auck-
land.
Joining the Maori artists on
their trip was the towering Eddie
Daughton — described by Urlich
as “one hairy giant Celt from En-
gland” — from Somerset in the
United Kingdom.
A Chinook welcome
The visiting Maoris received
a traditional welcoming by the
Chinook Nation at Chinook Point
(Fort Columbia), Wash., Sunday;
rode in a Chinookan canoe during
the Long Beach, Wash., Loyalty
Days parade; and visited ancestral
forests near Willapa Bay.
On Wednesday, they met with
Chinookan elder Gary Johnson
and hereditary Chief Phil Hawks
at CCC’s Marine and Environ-
mental Research and Training
Station campus.
“It’s always a wonderful ex-
perience,” Johnson said. “We’ve
traveled with many people on the
canoe journey. There are always
Maori people who come and pull
on our canoes, for Grande Ronde
and with Chinook on the inter-
tribal canoe journey.”
The Chinookan emissaries
and Maori artists, along with
Rowland and writing instruc-
tor Nancy Cook, took a cruise
on the college’s training vessel,
Forerunner, upriver to ancestral
grounds near Pillar Rock.
The exchange between the
two indigenous cultures culmi-
nated Thursday as tribal coun-
cilman Tony Johnson and other
Chinookans surrounded the
Maori visitors in the arts gallery
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deep drumming of a traditional
paddle song from Willapa Bay.
“This relationship has been
built, and a lot of it behind the
scenes of this really fantastic exhib-
it and cultural exchange,” Johnson
said. “It’s something that’s really
important and is going to last lon-
ger than all of us, I’m sure.”
COLUMBIA MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION PRESENTS
Center: ‘We’ve waited a
long time to get to this point’
Continued from Page 1A
winter months to solicit bids,
rather than advertising last
The Astoria City Coun- summer during the peak of
cil voted Thursday night at the construction season, when
a special meeting for a re- bids would typically come in
vised $1.7 million price tag, higher.
But the bids the city re-
UHÀHFWLQJ DQ H[WUD
grant from the Oregon Busi- ceived earlier this year ranged
ness Development Depart- from a low of $1.8 million to
ment’s Infrastructure Finance a high of $2 million.
“I thank you for working
Authority.
The city had initially re- with the low bidder to change
ceived a $1.5 million grant the scope of work and work-
ing with our partners at the
from the state.
Al Jaques, the city’s proj- state to come up with these
ect manager, said the city miracle funds to shore the
originally estimated the proj- gap,” City Councilor Zetty
ect would cost about $1.3 mil- Nemlowill told Jaques.
Jaques said the city had
lion, enough to stay within the
wanted to start construction
initial grant.
Jaques had recommend- last year, but the project was
ed that the city wait until the delayed by an extensive envi-
ronmental review that was a
contingent of the grant.
He said construction could
now break ground in July.
Larry Allen, the president
of the Senior Center’s board,
said he hopes the project will
be completed by Christmas.
The Senior Center could seek
grant or other money in the
future to renovate the base-
ment.
For more than a year, se-
niors have had to go to a tem-
porary senior center at the old
Yacht Club on West Marine
Drive, which, for many, is less
convenient than downtown.
“We’ve waited a long time
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