Olivia Asher (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Moon Water ~ Wai Marama, explores the idea of 'moon charged water' - sacred water embodied; a transference of energy; of wairua. It speaks to the innate connection and relationship of moon & water, entailing that neither can exist without the other. 

Wai Marama

I fell in love with the moon,
she waxes and wanes
and I feel it all.
I fell in love with the moon,
like the water did –
but maybe I’m in love with them both.

Floating in her body,
I tilt my head back,
ears filling with water
I steady myself and stare at the stars
wondering how I can be made of nothing
and everything
all at once.

I feel her ebb,
deep in my bones and wonder
if I was more water than anything else,
I was born wet,
but maybe
that’s why we crave touch,
why we ache for connection –
because we’re all just trying to return
to the place where we were nothing
but water and light,
before the moon started whispering
our secrets
into the waves.

I bathe in the moon
like I bathe in the water,
skin too tight,
so cold it burns.

It feels like drowning,
but in the best way,
the kind of drowning
where you surrender to the waves.

I try to live with it –
the constant yearning
for something I can never quite hold.
I whisper ‘love me quietly’
as she loves me from afar.

- Olivia Asher