Grey Lynn

Raukura Turei was happy to leave the design of her new apartment to other architects: and she loves living back where she grew up.

It’s also a space to connect to other Māori artists and to our cultural practice of making earth pigments, where I harvest clays and sands to use in my painting. It’s a constant journey to keep learning and upskilling and try our hardest to be speaking as much as possible. And then I have a painting studio at the train station in Te Tuhi outpost at Parnell Train Station. I’m no longer attached to a single gallery, but I have recently shown with Bartley and Co in Te Whanga-nui-a-tara, and have a show on now in Sydney at Day01 Gallery. My painting practice is my space of immediate creative expression where I don’t have to answer to anybody else. She’s a fluent Māori speaker who’s immersed in it. We chose tiles, cabinetry, and added little bits like a skylight in the living room. I’d owned a house in New Lynn with my ex-partner and I wanted to put that equity into something. There’s a flourishing productive māra kai (food garden) and those who are interested in gardening put in as much time as they have. We were informed all the way through, and it always felt like we were in good hands. Like a modern papakāinga (ancestral home), it’s a model that so many would benefit from. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki [konei](http://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/te-reo-maori/300759368/m-te-nhanga-tahitanga-e-whaiwhi-ai-te-kaiwhakahoahoa-kia-hoki-ki-tnei-takiw-whai-rawa-ki-tmaki).