[1] Gordon Walters was born and raised in Wellington, where he went to Miramar South School and Rongotai College.

[2] Walters applied to join the army during World War II but was turned down due to medical problems.

[4] In 1950 Walters moved to Europe where he became influenced by Piet Mondrian, Victor Vasarely and Auguste Herbin.

On his return to New Zealand in 1953, Walters began to fuse abstract modernism with traditional Māori art.

In the early fifties Walters' designs progressed and New Zealand shapes and ideas, in particular the Māori koru form, became important themes.

The package included the digital reproduction of the work, Francis Pound's book (a detail from Te Whiti features on the cover) and a small, printed version of the painting.

Koru is a Māori word that has now become part of mainstream New Zealand English, describing the growing tip of a fern frond.

[46] The discussion around Walters' appropriation of Maori forms surfaced again in the early nineties when his work was included in the exhibition Headlands: Thinking Through New Zealand Art in 1992.