Whiti o Rehua School of Art<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For artist Rongomaiaia Te Whaiti from the College of Creative Arts, the Cape Palliser coastline, home of her hap\u016b Ng\u0101ti Hinewaka, is a special place. \u2018I have quite a relationship to that land, I spent time there growing up and I recall the official ceremony when it was handed back to our hap\u016b by the Crown,\u2019 she said. \u2018I have spent time walking that landscape, locating different p\u0101 sites that are evidenced through the impressions in the land, finding where k\u016bmara pits and gardens were. I\u2019ve lived quite a rich upbringing in terms of my relationship to the land and who I am in terms of my connection to the people around me.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, Te Whaiti has created a new art installation for the New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui te Ananui a Tangaroa titled Te kai a te rangatira<\/em>, exploring early M\u0101ori and European encounters at Cape Palliser. The work is part of an exhibition commissioned for Tuia \u2014 Encounters 250, a Ministry for Culture and Heritage commemoration to mark 250 years since the first onshore encounters between M\u0101ori and P\u0101keh\u0101 in 1769, and will become part of the museum\u2019s permanent collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The theme Te Whaiti chose for the work is \u2018Food for Whao (chisels)\u2019, which came out of research she carried out into Ng\u0101ti Hinewaka\u2019s encounters with the Endeavour<\/em>, by examining journals by James Cook and Joseph Banks. \u2018It was never Cook\u2019s intention to anchor at Cape Palliser, as it\u2019s a rough coastline, with exposed southerly winds and rock formations down to the sea, so it\u2019s pretty hard to navigate,\u2019 she said. \u2018When my hap\u016b saw the Endeavour<\/em> approaching, they set off in their waka, and it was noted by Cook and Banks that when they arrived, they went on board in a way that was described as peaceful and non-threatening. I wanted to acknowledge that the encounter was instigated by my people, rather than being imposed upon them.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once on board, the Ng\u0101ti Hinewaka members conversed with Tupaia, a rangatira (chief) from Tahiti who was known as Cook\u2019s translator and a tohunga (expert) because he knew how to navigate his way to Aotearoa New Zealand. \u2018Tupaia\u2019s presence had a lot to do with our people\u2019s choice to work with people on board the Endeavour<\/em>,\u2019 said Te Whaiti. \u2018They went there with the intention to trade, and were carrying with them items such as fruit and crayfish. Through Tupaia, they requested whao, which are chisels traditionally made of bone or pounamu, but in this case were massive iron ship nails, which can be reshaped and used as chisels. I showed this history through a sculptural installation in which I made hybrid forms of chisels and ship nails, wrapped in blue velvet, which was a reference to our engagement across the sea but also to Joseph Banks and his velvet jacket. I embossed drawings onto the velvet of karaka and h\u012bnau berries and crayfish, which I found by looking at Banks\u2019 specimens that are now in Te Papa\u2019s collections, as well as on-board artist Sydney Parkinson\u2019s prints and the iconic watercolour painting that Tupaia did of Joseph Banks trading with the M\u0101ori rangatira. I usually find something that grabs me, and blow that up. I tend to dwell on the details.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n \u2018It was noted by Joseph Banks that this was the first example of an organised trading practice that they had come across, so that was another thing that I wanted to acknowledge, including my people\u2019s agency in this trade. I think we do have that responsibility as M\u0101ori artists to represent a more accurate picture than what has been represented in the past.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of her research, Te Whaiti discovered another interesting piece of history around Ng\u0101ti Hinewaka\u2019s encounter with the Endeavour<\/em>. The ship had anchored at Te Kauwae-a-M\u0101ui (Cape Kidnappers), approximately 340 kilometres away by land. \u2018By the time the Endeavour<\/em> had sailed around the coastline to Cape Palliser, the news had already travelled through our own communication network across the land. I thought that was quite remarkable and sophisticated,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018I\u2019m very lucky that the landscape has been so accessible to me and my kids \u2014 it\u2019s a part of us. We belong to the land rather than that idea of ownership, and it\u2019s something that we do as a cultural practice, to locate ourselves within the landscapes wherever we go, and we do that in the simplest forms. My work is grounded in my belonging to the land in which I come from and the people and the culture around that.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" RONGOMAIAIA TE WHAITI Ng\u0101ti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Ng\u0101i Tahu Whiti o Rehua School of Art For artist Rongomaiaia Te Whaiti from the College of Creative Arts, the Cape Palliser coastline, home of her hap\u016b Ng\u0101ti Hinewaka, is a special place. \u2018I have quite a relationship to that land, I spent time there growing up and … Continue reading Art and the land<\/span>