Introduction to our characters!

Whakawhanaungatanga ki ōu ake kiripuaki

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, tēnā koutou katoa.

Kei te mihi atu ki a koutou mō tō koutou tautoko, mō tō koutou pānui i ngā kōrero kua whakaritea mō tēnei wiki. Ko te tūmanako ka whāngaia te wairua me te hinengaro i roto i ngā kaupapa kei mua i te aroaro. Mā te mahi tahi, ka taea e tātou te whakatutuki i ngā whāinga katoa.

To all esteemed voices and communities, greetings to you all.

I extend my appreciation for your support and for reading the insights prepared for this week. It is hoped the content ahead will nourish both spirit and mind. Through working together, we can achieve our goals.

Last time I left you off with a brief introduction to the graphic novel and some sketches I had done in preparation for character design. This week I will like to introduce some of the characters to you and show some more concepts and insights to their development.

Meet our protagonist, Ariki, 14.

Abandoned at birth, Ariki has bounced between foster homes all his life. With no real home, no whanau or whakapapa, he has become self destructive and protective of his personal space. With the stress of new foster parents and integrating into a new community and a new school, Ariki will also find he has powers he will have to master which will make everything even more complicated.

Designing Ariki, I know he would want as much protection from the outside world as possible, something he never got from any parents. This is why I went with the hoodie and puffer jacket. This gives him a shell to confine to and protect him from having to be too exposed to the world. Last newsletter you saw I had studied James Rolleston for a start point with his look. You can see now I have stylised and modified that look, as well as giving him that mullet fade nearly every rugby player has these days. I want him to have a bit of style as he is 14 and his looks is all he has.

Wairere, 14.

She’s of high-ranking lineage, and her extended family resides in a group of houses surrounding the local Māori village. 

Wairere has been delving into the Māori spiritual world and is secretly experimenting with other forms of spiritual practice. She is naturally gifted in this space and wants to continue developing her psychic abilities to their ultimate potential. There is noble intention in her ambition, but like all humans, power tends to corrupt, and Wairere is not immune from this vice. 

In her righteous view, Ariki has not done the work in the spiritual space, and not knowing his heritage suggests he’s of a lower class. 

Designing Wairere I started with studies of Moerangi Tihore who played Dynasty in the movie Boy. From there I changed her hair style to one of which I think would suit her background. Being of high-ranking lineage, I am sure kapa haka would be of high regard to her whanau, at least to some extent. Therefore I gave her a style which would suit the stage along with a mau taringa(earing) The tracksuit jacket and jeans just seemed to work for her but I am sure she will have many outfits throughout the story.

Kahu, an old war vet and possible mentor for Ariki.

Kahu is a learned man, one of the last students of the sacred indigenous knowledge schools. Kahu joined the army and was a brilliant soldier, but war makes you do things that haunt you for life. For years he continued to do work for the tribe but unable to settle on his return from war, he chose a more reclusive lifestyle. 

Living next door to Janet and Bruce, the foster parents of Ariki, the two characters meet early in the story, but do not bond instantly. Ariki has no real interest in learning ‘Māori’ ways, but an incident inevitably brings these two together.

Designing Kahu, I start with the same process, studying a real person to get a ‘look’ I want to go for. In this case it was our favourite galactic Māori and Guatemalan doctor, Temuera Morrison. I was able to gather a good amount of expressions due to his role as Boba Fett, add some hair and a beard and we have our guy. The long hair and beard are a reflection of Kahu discarding his military ways and becoming reclusive.

Māwhero, our Antagonist.

He was a student of the same school of learning that Kahu attended, but was banished for transgressions that caused a man to lose his mind, and be institutionalised.

This was a fun development. Starting with Uncle Bully, Cliff Curtis(actually older Curtis as Bully is too young) I went on to develop Māwhero. In the script, Māwhero is the CEO of a Māori Consulting agency with a mega corporation as his client. Due to his business environment, he likes to wear dapper suits. He also has a moko kanohi(face tattoo) and after a few attempts I felt the moko kiore( a style of face moko) suited him a lot, mainly as it is the most fearsome looking moko.

Those are our main characters, but we also have Janet and Bruce, Ariki’s foster parents, Sina, Brandon and Sammy, who are the rest of Wairere’s clique, as well as Vanessa Guathier, the mega corp antagonist and her henchman Ernie, all of whom I’ll introduce you to next time.

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou.

Thank you for taking the time to read and share in this journey. I appreciate your support and look forward to bringing you more insights next time. Until then, take care and keep inspired.

Nāku iti nei, nā

Daniel Dean Allen