• Pania was a beautiful maiden who lived in the sea on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. By daylight she swam about with creatures of her reef world but after sunset would go to a stream that ran into the bay where the city of Napier now exists. She would travel up the stream to an area where she could rest among the flax bushes.*

Read a version of the full story of Pania and her husband, Karitoki here and about their son Moremore, a Taniwha, on Warren Pohatu’s blog

I have chosen the colourway of magenta & purple to represent red & black - magenta being in the red family and red mixed with black becomes purple (taking a little artistic licence here).

The colours red and black are significant in Māori mythology:
Red = Nobility, divinity, power
Black represents Te Korekore the realm of Potential Being. The long darkness from whence the world emerged.

I will start with magenta, being sunset when Pania emerges from her reef and moves into the dark purple of night to be with her earthly husband, Karitoki, when we go back to magenta, it is sunrise and Pania must return to the sea to spend her days amongst her own people.

The pattern is also symbolic:
Crossover and Triple Twist represents a bonding of friendship, two lives becoming one for all eternity.