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With the revival of Ngāi Tahu language and culture and the reconstruction of whare tipuna throughout the motu in recent years, these craftsmen have been given artistic license to express themselves through a combination of historical research and contemporary design.
As West Coast master carver Fayne Robinson explains it, “Today’s contemporary is tomorrow’s tradition.”
Rock art is one of the oldest and most significant of the traditional arts, and considered by some an early form of written language: meaningful marks left for others to read. Some of those marks offer a glimpse of the world in the time of moa and pouākai (Haast’s eagle). Earlier that morning I’d witnessed a drawing of the giant eagle soaring across a cave roof at Frenchman’s Gully. In this landscape of hawks and falcons, it’s easy to imagine the artist looking up to see that vast shadow pass above.
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Louise Pōtiki Bryant (Kāi Tahu – Kāti Taoka) is invariably described as one of New Zealand’s most exciting Māori choreographers. Her biography describes her as a choreographer, dancer, and video artist. Since graduating from the Unitec Department of Performing and Screen Arts with a degree majoring in Contemporary Dance, she has amassed an astonishing body of work.
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Nathan is a conceptual artist working in video and other photo media producing minimal cinematic installations. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and his work combines Ngāi Tahu and contemporary Māori society histories with cinema history.
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Acknowledging and informed by the rich cultural resources of her Polynesian heritage (Māori – Ngāi Tahu, Samoan), Lonnie is a multi media, installation and performance artist who exhibits in New Zealand. Drawing lies at the base of Lonnie’s practice which is as much influenced by contemporary, advertising, hip hop, graffiti art and popular culture as…
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Contemporary multimedia artist Lonnie Hutchinson (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Hāmoa) and carver Fayne Robinson have been commissioned to bring a Ngāi Tahu aesthetic to the $350 million-plus precinct, which will house staff from the Ministry of Justice, Police, the Department of Corrections, the Fire Service, St John, and Civil Defence and Emergency Management agencies. But what does a Ngāi Tahu aesthetic look like?
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The first arrivals in Aotearoa found a climate much cooler than the one they had left behind in Te Ao Tawhito, or the old world. The new arrivals needed to adapt and create clothes and tools from the new plants they found here.
Read MoreKaituhi Gerry Te Kapa Coates gives his thoughts on the state of Ngāi Tahu literary arts, following a recent wānanga for Ngāi Tahu writers. Ngāi Tahu has great artists – visual, carvers, weavers, kapa haka exponents – but writers don’t seem to feature prominently. In this hierarchy, Keri Hulme carved her own pou when she…
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A long time ago – over half a century gone past – two friends built a crib. My uncle Bill Miller & Tui McNeil.
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Late last year, around 30,000 people voted on Facebook and made Tanemahuta Gray (Ngāi Tahu) the first Māori winner of the AMP People’s Choice Scholarship, which provides funding for turning a dream project into a reality.
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