He wears hand-woven flax sandals, has a poem on his skirt and his mere contains the pictures of Portobello School's 86 pupils, who are telling his story to the nation.
The pupils' 4m x 5m artwork, which tells the legend of Tarewai, a chief of the Ngai Tahu people, was blessed by local runanga representative Doug Ditford, before it was packed up and sent to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa yesterday.
It will be on display in the national museum until August next year.
Every year, Te Papa invites three schools to participate in the Iwi Art in Schools project.
Portobello, Karitane and Tainui primary schools are taking part in the project this year.
The selection of schools is dependent on which iwi is in residence at the time and is often selected by members of that particular iwi.
Ngai Tahu is the current one in residence at Te Papa, with its exhibition "Mo Tatou" showing until mid-2009.
Portobello Primary School principal Dorothy Butterfield said the project had been a wonderful way for the school and the local Maori community to work together.
"It has been amazing," she said.
The pupils learned flax weaving at Otakou marae and gained permits allowing them to use historical weka bones and feathers from Otago Museum in the artwork.
They also visited sites described in the legend, such as Okia, or Papanui Inlet, and Hereweka, or Harbour Cone, and Pukekura, now known as Taiaroa Head, where they re-enacted and photographed scenes from the story for inclusion in the artwork.
Although there were many versions of the legend, the school pupils learned a simple rendering of the story which told of battles against the Kati Mamoe, who were already living on the Otakou Peninsula, and Tarewai being cut open with his own mere before he managed to escape and eventually reclaim it and drive the Kati Mamoe away.
Descendants of both Ngai Tahu and Kati Mamoe still live on the peninsula today.
