Manatū Taonga commissioned Noelle to create visual elements for the Understanding Dawn Raids project. In response, she developed a bespoke series of 38 linocut prints titled Letters Home, informed by the long history of movement across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa.
The artworks draw inspiration from the popular form of communication in the 1970s—posted letters and their accompanying postage stamps. Working closely with Manatū Taonga’s in-house design team, these hand-carved prints have been digitised, coloured and integrated across the project. In this blog, Noelle shares the artistic journey behind Letters Home and reflects on the inspirations that shaped the series.
Letters Home: Designing the visual language of Understanding Dawn Raids
By Noelle Moa.
Origins: stamps, letters, and memory
My love of postage stamps began in childhood, inspired by my Dad when he worked at NZ Post. He was based at the original NZ Post Mail centre—now Britomart in Auckland—before it moved to Victoria Street. He would bring home envelopes filled with stamps that had fallen off letters, and I would sit for hours sifting through postage stamps from different countries.
Looking back, I think that this is also where my love of art comes from.
Postage stamps are small rectangular pieces of paper, yet many contain extraordinary artworks. Over time, so many incredible and well-known artists have designed stamps, David Gentleman, Arnold Machin, Tracey Irwin and David Hockney among others, that left a lasting impression on me.
In 2017, I took my childhood love of stamps and created a series of linocut prints titled Historical Postage Stamps of the Pacific. The series involves carving the first postage stamps issued by Pacific nations under colonial rule. It remains an ongoing and beloved body of work.
Letters across the Moana
So, when I saw the design brief for Understanding Dawn Raids, all I could really see were letters. Mail being sent back and forth across the ocean, letters travelling between the islands and Aotearoa. This became the foundation of the series I created which I titled Letters Home.
The work reflects the plethora of letters sent home to families across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. Letters were what kept families connected and informed. They carried news of weddings, birthdays, church life and work; they contained gossip, anecdotes and everyday musings. There was great joy in receiving these letters from thousands of miles away—these sheets of paper that carried the scent of ‘home’.
I remember when my grandmother would eagerly await the postie, rushing out to the mailbox as soon as he had left. I can still picture the pure elation on her face when she spotted an envelope with the distinctive blue and red border among the household bills. Unlike emails and text messages of today, there was something special in receiving letters. They were a tangible and physical representation of loved ones.
Mapping Pacific migration histories
The Letters Home series comprises 38 individual stamp-like prints arranged into twelve themed sets. Together, they trace an expansive and empowering Pacific migration history, one that extends far beyond the Dawn Raids alone. Themes include:
- Early Voyagers, referencing seafaring ancestors and deep histories of mobility across the Pacific.
- Across the Moana, exploring journeys undertaken for education, training and study.
- Post-World War II, a reflection on Māori and Pacific involvement in global conflict.
- Visas and Permits, an inclusion of my own parent’s archive of passports and migration documentation.
- Niu Opportunities, referencing the first significant wave of Pacific migration to Aotearoa.
- Remittances, acknowledging money sent home to sustain families and village communities.
- Letters Home, representing the 17-plus recognised ethnic groups that make up Pasifika communities today.
- What’s going on? Remembering the social and political tensions of the early 1970s, leading up to the Dawn Raids.
- Dawn Raids, confronting the events and actions of the period directly.
- Post-Dawn Raids, celebrating the resilience of Pacific communities.
- The Apology, documenting the events at the Auckland Town Hall on Sunday 1 August 2021.
The set titled Voyagers is forward-looking and links back to the opening works and the design brief of Walking Forward to the Past and Backwards to the Future. These ideas feature in the social media handles of this design, while the number of ‘likes’ reflect the date of the formal Dawn Raids apology.
From linocut to digital
Manatū Taonga’s in-house design team worked closely with me to translate the original analogue artworks into a digital format.
Together, we transformed the black-and-white linocuts into a colourful digital format inspired by stamp and primary archival resources from Aotearoa in the 1970s. We worked together to create clear guidance around the respectful and transparent use of these digital assets moving forward.
About the artist and cultural care
Noella Moa is a Samoan printmaker and artist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, now based in Sydney, Australia. Holding a BA (Hons) in Art History, she specialises in hand-carved, handprinted linocut prints and produces a range of products, including greeting cards, hand-bound books, wood jewellery, and textile prints.
Please note that Moa’s artworks have historical and cultural importance to Moa’s family and specific Pacific communities. If you do wish to reproduce or use some of this material, please contact us to discuss how to do this in the most appropriate way.
Email reproduction requests to: [email protected]