'I want to be that bird': The magic dance of pīwakawaka with Shannon Te Ao 

They flit around you in the back garden at the compost, or dive at your feet in the bush. The pīwakawaka or fantail is a special bird: so common, yet so magic.  There's a lightness, a joy to this small bird, but while they perform a cheeky acrobatic dance closer to us than any other, they are also known as harbingers of death. For Māori, to have the ability to cross from our physical world  into other realms.  The pīwakawkaka - or tīwakawaka to use the artist’s chosen dialect - is central to a major artwork by renowned Aotearoa New Zealand artist Shannon Te Ao, Ia rā, ia rā (rere runga, rere raro). It is representing Aotearoa New Zealand from next month at one of the world’s most significant arts events the Gwanju Biennale in South Korea. 

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