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Eleanor Cooper Bō (fighting staff for working among rāpoka sea lion colonies) Hand-planed and carved white oak, ground charcoal, epoxy resin inlay, made to the dimensions of an Okinawan karate bö staff
The Department of Conservation gives rangers working among räpoka colonies broomsticks, to defend themselves, while undertaking flipper tagging. Curiously, everyone’s intuitive movements with the broomsticks were the same basic movements I learned as a student of Okinawan karate, where one of the traditional weapons is the bö. The ornamentation depicts subantarctic bladder kelp, which forms giant forests around Maungahuka / Auckland Islands and is the immediate habitat for the räpoka.
Esta de Jong
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Figure from Becoming Darkness.
