Erua tells the story of an intriguing friendship between artist Toss Woollaston and a young Māori boy Erua who modelled for him each Wednesday evening in Greymouth, in the early 60s. Woollaston had seen the boy playing "like one dark bead shaken in a tray of pale ones". The image made him curious to find what Erua was like, and to try to draw "that".
