By Moana Ellis, Local Democracy Reporting
A Porirua artist and poet who describes her work as highly political is among a group of Māori artists exhibiting on the fringes of Whanganui’s inaugural design festival.
Iwa Holmes’ work has been on display in Ora Te Toi, a fringe exhibition to the inaugural Festival of Design Aotearoa in Whanganui, since October 16. The exhibition runs until Sunday.
Holmes says her work reflects a lifetime of political awareness and commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
“Our country has hidden our history. There’s a lot of skulduggery, and I just felt that I needed to tell the stories.”
The Titahi Bay poet draws inspiration from traditional nursery rhymes, which she says were often political.
She launched her collection A Waka of Words at Pipitea Marae last year. The book explores the political and social conditions that have shaped Māori lives, with poems on diverse topics including land loss, Governor Grey, seabed mining and Shane Jones.
Ora Te Toi brings together contemporary works by Māori artists from Te Taihauāuru, exploring how ancestral knowledge, lived experience and intergenerational ways of knowing continue to shape Māori art.
The exhibition is sponsored by Te Manu Atatū, the Whanganui Māori Business Network, and is being hosted at business incubator and workspace The Hive.
Whanganui creative Whetu Fala said the network aims to support Māori businesses that “are looking forward and able to support themselves”.
“So when Te Taihauāuru artists came to us, we said: why don’t you have an exhibition, and we’ll support it. We’ll give you a whare, and you can decide what it is that you want to put up, and tautoko the rest of the big festival.”
The exhibition features five artists, with backing from collectives and organisations including Te Pae Tawhiti Collective, Kiitahi Toi, and the Tamaūpoko and Tūpoho arts alliance.
Master weaver Trina Taurua is exhibiting a range of work in Ora Te Toi. She also has a whāriki (woven mat) featured in the Festival of Design Aotearoa exhibition He Puna Tohunga, which showcases master artists.
Taurua said exhibiting as part of a national festival was nerve-wracking, but she wanted to support the festival, the artists and Te Manu Atatū.
“And I think it’s about time I step out and exhibit the pieces that I’ve made.”
Taurua is well known in raranga, having tutored for 15 years at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, and spending many years making tukutuku and whāriki for marae.
She hopes the exhibitions will help promote her long-term kaupapa Papa Whāriki, an initiative that began in Ngā Rauru in South Taranaki and is now attracting interest from marae along Te Awa Tupua, the Whanganui River.
Taurua wants to encourage iwi, hapū, marae and whānau to bring whāriki back into their spaces, where they can be used for tangihanga, kawe mate and everyday whānau and marae life, while passing weaving knowledge on to future generations.
The first wānanga is planned for Taumarunui on the first weekend of November, and Taurua is encouraging local weavers to get involved.
Tuakana Holmes is exhibiting a pennant in the shape of Te Kooti’s 16m-long battle flag, recreating the flag’s famous symbols alongside elements of the Australian Aboriginal and Palestinian flags.
“Three different cultures in this flag,” Holmes said. “We’re not the only ones with this problem of colonisation. I was just trying to show that indigenous people around the world have got to stand together.”
He sees art as an outlet for political and artistic expression.
“Art is an opportunity to think and to create and to try and get a message through – and I love it. It’s good to create.”
Luther Ashford and Maihi Potaka-Butler, of Te Pae Tawhiti Collective, are presenting the Mātāpono Collection of digital prints.
“Bunch of mates from uni, we’ve come together with our skill sets, and formed Te Pae Tawhiti Collective,” Ashford said.
“We thought we’d create these eight artworks that reflect our values that we run with in our collective. [It] is all about social returns.
“We’re trying to figure out how we use our skill sets to create conversation and help others to move things.”
Ashford said they’ve been thrilled with how their first exhibition as a collective has been received, and with good opening night sales.
Ora Te Toi runs at The Hive HQ in Victoria Avenue, Whanganui, until October 25.The 10-day Festival of Design Aotearoa has been organised by Whanganui District Council staff, with funding of $300,000 from the Government Events Boost Fund, $100,000 from Whanganui District Council and $30,000 from Palmerston North City Council.
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