Chanel Duff
...and the ebb but reveals me again
“I am a dark rock surged upon, and overswept, but through it all, I remain myself. When covered by the waters, I am; and the ebb but reveals me again.”
Chanel Duff (b.1989) is a multidisciplinary artist born in Cape Town, South Africa, based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. Her practice spans a range of mediums, including painting, printmaking, weaving, beading, stone and clay. She seeks to find connection to place, exploring notions of identity and belonging through the lens of her Coloured South African identity and Māori whānau.
Through a duo ethnographic approach, and collaboration with whānau and whenua, she combines beading traditions of her South African heritage and traditional Māori weaving practices. Her work embodies intimate engagement with the materials she uses, focusing on a relational care ethic that moves beyond family and community to relate to broader cultural and political stories. Duff's current research aims to establish cross-cultural connections and a sense of place and self through shared knowledge, deconstruction and reformation of self and other.
We finally made it to the island, third time lucky. The first time we tried to go (September 5th) it was just (my husband’s) Nan and I; the weather was foul, too wet to collect clay. I was somewhat relieved because it was important to me to have the whole whānau there; the last time the kids were on the island was four years ago. The second attempt (September 25th), it was Nan, the kids and I. The weather turned overnight, and I was woken up by heavy rain.
Nan called at 5.45am to postpone as she had to travel from Maketu to make the 7.30am barge from Ōmokoroa to Matakana Island. Third attempt (October 2nd), everybody was able to be there: Nan, Gowan, Amelia, Olivia, Ellie and I.
- Excerpt from Duff's workbook
As the ebb of the tide returns to the ocean – so too do I find self through the return home.
A return to the Coloured girl born in apartheid South Africa
A return to ancestral beading traditions of the Khoisan
A return to whenua, Matakana Island, with my husband (Ngāi Te Rangi, Te Arawa, Ngāti Raukawa), his Kuia (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Raukawa) and our daughters (Ngāi Te Rangi, Te Arawa, Ngāti Raukawa).
Memory and time intertwine with whānau and whenua, merging material and familial histories with the present—finding connection through the return.
Connection through whenua
Connection through storytelling
Connection through the collection of uku with whānau
Connection through moulding and shaping the uku beads with my daughters; the beads reflecting cultural complexities, our stories that continue to emerge and reshape themselves.
