Pania of the Reef Original Painting

Original Painting

Pania of the Reef ✨️

By daylight Pania swam about with creatures of her reef world, but after sunset would go to a stream that ran into the bay. She would swim upstream to repose close to flax bushes. 

Karitoki, the son of a māori chief, would quench his thirst every evening at the stream where Pania rested because it had the sweetest water.

He was unaware Pania was silently watching him with admiration for many weeks. Until one night she whispered a faint and yet intoxicating refrain. It carried on the wind to Karitoki who turned around to see Pania emerged from her hiding place.

Pania and Karitoki went to his whare by the shadows of the eventide and so nobody but the moreporks saw them. At sunrise when Pania prepared to leave Karitoki begged her to stay a while longer.

Pania explained that as a creature of the ocean, when the sirens of the sea called her each morning, she could not survive if she didn’t return to them. She promised to return every evening and so their marriage of nocturnal passion and moving between worlds continued.

Karitoki soon boasted to his friends about his beautiful wife, but no one believed him because she appeared as an apparition and stayed only when the shadows lay thick on the land. Frustrated by this, Karitoki consulted a kaumatua of the iwi about how to harness and ensnare the intoxicating ocean maiden named Pania. The kaumatua advised Karitoki that being a sea creature, Pania would be cursed to never return to the ocean if she swallowed cooked food.

That night, as Pania slept, Karitoki took the cooked food and put it in Pania’s mouth. As he did so, Ruru the morepork called a loud warning and Pania was startled from her sleep.

Horrified that Karitoki had put her life in jeopardy, Pania fled and ran to the sea. Her people came to the surface and drew her down into the depths as Karitoki swam frantically about the ocean looking for her. He never saw her again.

Artist Vendela Patrick

A3 300GSM Art Paper A2 Framed

Mixed Medium

Signed and Dated