During Labour Weekend (26 – 28 October 2002) in Tauranga, a celebration called
the Tauranga Moana, Tauranga Tangata Festival was held. The festival
represented the artists, kapa haka, lectures, sports, and personalities of Tauranga
Moana. It was during this festival that a ta moko survey was conducted, with the
support of the lead ta moko artist there, with the aim to canvass opinions and
attitudes towards ta moko. The basis of the survey was to broadly examine the
extent to which ta moko has become a form of inscribed identity for Māori. This is
a first stage in a wider research project to examine Māori attitudes towards ta
moko, but it happens that this initial step was taken in the author’s own rohe.