The work of Reuben Paterson (Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāi Tūhoe, Tūhourangi, Scotland) looks up to the stars, to the celestial formations that have guided Māori ancestors through the Pacific for generations. In Māori astronomy, constellations come together in the form of Te Waka o Rangi, of which Matariki sits at the bow. In the Northen Hemisphere, Matariki is the shoulder of constellation Taurus. Having recently moved to New York, Paterson looks to the skies as a physical and spiritual anchor. His work embraces the idea of home extending across vast, celestial timeframes, as curator Dina Jezdić describes, blending ‘the vibrant, the sacred, and the ancestral.’ Each star is mapped directly from Hubble Telescope imagery, so that constellations are carefully scaled, honouring, in Paterson’s words, “the integrity of navigational stars and their meanings, but also my connection to home, from and within whakapapa.” Paterson’s crystal waka Guide Kaiārahi (2021), a 10-metre transparent waka pītau / carved war canoe has recently been reinstated in the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki’s forecourt pool, where it will spark curiosity and imagination over coming years.