You may have seen this beautiful picture circulating today as a Mother's Day graphic.
This artwork was commisioned by me from an artist named Melle Haimona. It is of me and my two oldest children. It is a taonga, it is of us and for us.
Someone has found the image online somewhere. Removed Melle's logo and placed text at the top and shared it. The more it was shared the more my heart sank.
I know its been shared widely because it speaks to people.
We want to see OURSELVES reflected in media designed, drawn, painted and sculpted by our OWN people and this is a beautiful representation of that.
But it has been done without Melle's permission or mine.
If you love a piece of art don't steal it (even as a meme/mother's day graphic or the like). Share it from the artists page and credit them so they can be recognized and benefit from their mahi.
Find Melle and her work at
EDIT: This work was used with permission by a Māori theatre company who produced a fully reo production call Hine Kihāwai.
The person who created the Mother's Day graphic has reached out to Melle to aplologise and has taken the graphic down. To her credit she contacted Melle and never intended harm. She too was captivated by the piece. Her own profile it was shared on is private and she herself is not sure how it reached so far.
