Making Angela's Taonga

Angela and I had a number of discussions about the dimensions and look of the memorial. I imagined depth and large flowing designs.

It started off weighing close to 400 kgs, It was simpy too heavy and set about removing as much stone as possible so I could simply move it.

I managed to remove about 150kgs while it was lying down. But was wet and that added weight. It took me all day to stand it up (by myself), using car jacks, bricks, ropes tied to the garage, and crowbars. It was still far too heavy so I removed about 3 inches off the body, another 50 kgs. Time was against me in the end – the poor weather hampered my progress, even with a gazebo over my head it was miserable conditions to work in

I managed to move it into the Garage to finish it, I had heaters on it for a week , before I could sand it, applied the finishing touches and sealed it.

The dove was a simple design in the end after considering full bodied doves, stylised doves, doves in flight, doves at rest. In the end a childlike depiction was the perfect design, and effortless to create.

I finished it in time for the whanau’s arrival from Invercargill - it was quite emotional.

Brett Keno

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