Meet the Maker
Keil Caskey is a Toi Māori artist, educator, researcher, taonga pūoro practitioner, and rongoā practitioner based in Whangārei, NZ.
Born in Te Waipounamu and raised in Te Tai Tokerau, Keil is of Celtic/Māori descent. As Ngatiwai, his pepeha acknowledges Manaia te maunga, Whangārei Terenga Paraoa te moana, reflecting a deep connection to the landscapes, histories, and knowledge systems that continue to inform his work.
His practice has been shaped through years of study and apprenticeship across multiple disciplines. These experiences continue to inform an approach to making taonga that values both technical excellence and the transmission of knowledge across generations.
Keil holds a Master of Applied Indigenous Knowledge, where his research focused on the revival of taonga pūoro uku as a living practice for contemporary communities. His work explored how ancestral sound technologies might continue to evolve while remaining grounded in tikanga, whakapapa, and mātauranga Māori.
As the creator of Ukuhiko, Keil works at the intersection of ancestral knowledge and emerging technology. Through digital modelling, contemporary fabrication processes, and hand-finished techniques, Ukuhiko explores a meeting place between traditional forms and future possibilities.
About Ukuhiko™
Ukuhiko is the exploration of ‘Digital Clays’
Combining uku (clay) and hiko (electricity, energy, the digital realm), Ukuhiko occupies a meeting place between ancestral knowledge and emerging technologies. It is an approach to making that uses digital tools to explore, preserve, and re-imagine traditional forms.
At its heart, Ukuhiko is driven by a desire to make taonga / taonga pūoro more accessible to communities while honouring the tikanga, whakapapa, and stories carried within these taonga.
Using contemporary methods of design and creation, Ukuhiko seeks to bring forward old technologies through new ones. Ancient instruments, narratives, and forms are explored through organic digital sculpture and transformed into physical contemporary taonga that can be held, played, or experienced.
The work does not seek to replace tradition, but to create new pathways into it.
Through this meeting of innovation and tradition, Ukuhiko explores how Indigenous knowledge can continue to evolve while remaining connected to its origins.
Whangārei, Te Tai Tokerau
Aotearoa / New Zealand
Contact us
I'd love to hear from you. Whether you have questions about a taonga, the Ukuhiko™ kaupapa,bulk orders or educational enquirys please feel free to get in touch.
New Zealand based
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