"An important experience for Nin was the period from 1976-1977 when he and his students helped restore the historic Rongopai marae near Gisborne, renowned for its characteristic mixture of postcolonial motifs and painted designs. Nin responded with his Triptych series, totalling 20 panels of metaphysical landscapes, seething with fluorescent renditions of traditional motifs, layered like the carvings on a canoe prow and thrusting through the land.

'Rangitoto', the work Nin was commissioned by Pat Hanly to produce for the then new Commerce C building at The University of Auckland, clearly follows in this tradition with its weaving of ancestral roots that energise and anchor Auckland’s hilly, volcanic terrain, much like the rocks he had to continually remove from his parents’ Northland market garden."

~ quoted from Andrew Clifford, 'Rangitoto - triptych: about this work' University of Auckland Art Collection.