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    Haehae and the art of reconciliation : cutting through history to generations of artistic expression : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of Master of Fine Arts, Massey University, Wellington
    (Massey University, 2018) Bigham, Bonita
    At the heart of the Parihaka story is its people. Its origins, its resistance, its desecration, its desolation is its people. A place where its people have shaped its legacy, but one that could never be told or acknowledged without the survival of those people. Today its restoration, rejuvenation and revitalisation are still about its people. My people. From August 2000 to January 2001 an exhibition at Wellington’s City Gallery, curated by the late Te Miringa Hohaia, titled ‘Parihaka: The Art of Passive Resistance’ took the artistically interpreted story of those people, of that settlement, of that injustice and a hugely important but conveniently ignored part of this nation’s history to a wider public audience than ever before (Hohaia, O’Brien, & Strongman, 2001). It cut a swathe through the heart of ignorance, of cultural amnesia, of colonial government corruption and introduced thousands of unknowing citizens to a story purposefully forgotten and unspoken and one that, ironically today, still remains a largely unknown aspect of Aotearoa’s history. To date there has not been another single collection or exhibition of this magnitude brought together to speak directly of the Parihaka experience, but while the opportunity for continued education from an exhibition on that scale has not yet been realised, many other artworks, projects and exhibitions during the ensuing years have featured work which continues to educate by reflecting that painful legacy. That enduring pain continues to cut deep, into the consciousness of those of us who are descendants and into the psyche of those who come to the knowledge later in life, asking why they were never told (Warne, 2016). This thesis proposes to examine the integrated notion of cutting – or haehae, in its literal and figurative manifestations, on materials in creative output, within the hearts, minds and skin of Parihaka uri (descendants). It will examine its representative aspect within the art that relates to my Parihakatanga and is exemplified through many artforms created by other artists, with whom I share whakapapa to the Kipa (Skipper) whānau (family). I will also explore my own artistic response to that legacy, leading to the development of my final project, inspired by two specific personally experienced events – which on the surface seem totally unrelated, but in actuality are intrinsically linked. The first is ‘He Puanga Haeata,’ the Parihaka-Crown Reconciliation Ceremony held at Parihaka Pā on Friday 9 June 2017 (‘He Puanga Haeata’, 2017), while the second event is the May 2018 mass beaching of parāoa (sperm whales) along the South Taranaki coastline (Boult, 2018). Developing a cultural narrative and artistic transition from art reflecting pain, anguish and trauma to hope, promise and reconciliation is an ongoing challenge, a journey that myself and others may continue to articulate within various aspects of our work, cutting across history and generations.
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    Wi Te Tau Pirika Taepa : Te Arawa; Ngāti Whakaue, Te Roro o Te Rangi, Te Āti Awa : a dissertation, presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Māori Visual Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) Taepa, Wi Te Tau Pirika
    Apart from the occasional production of musical instruments like nose flutes, the making and firing of clay artworks is pretty well unknown in Māori arts and crafts traditions, though its emergence is connected with the prehistoric Lapita pottery tradition of SE Asia and passed through New Caledonia, Melanesia, Central and Eastern Pacific to reach Samoa and Tonga by approximately 1000 BC, where it then ceased. From service in Vietnam, working as a prison officer at Wellington’s Wi Tako prison, and becoming a self-taught carver, to employment as a social worker where I taught boys in reform institutions how to carve, I came to develop a specific interest in clay as an alternative to wood, as a medium. Clay offered me a welcome level of freedom compared with carving, and the speed of clay work allowed me to capture an idea while it was fresh. I like to make individual pieces using a low-tech approach – hand building and sawdust firing, using oxides and other clay slips, while incorporating Māori design elements. The innovations I make grow from knowledge of customary forms and designs and are often based on container and figure shapes while technically exploring patterns of notches and lines of early Polynesian and Māori art and recreating these in clay with both man-made and natural tools. There is also an evolving personal language that comes forth in the development of my practice. The evolution of my work with Hineukurangi and Mahuika; Clay and Fire, and an exploration of my major thematics; Te Putake, Kauhuri, Hononga, Raranga, Kaitiaki, Mahere, and Te Reo Karanga o Taranaki that capture my thinking, ingress and understanding of the whakapapa base of an abstract clay practice. The major exhibitions; Retrospect (2016) and Retrospective (2018) conceptually explore these major themes, surveying 30 years of my practice, within public spatial environments.
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    Hokopapa : an exhibition report presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Maori Visual Arts at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Tuuta, Brenda
    This exhibition report details the evolution and processes related to fibre work created for Hokopapa, the Master of Maori Visual Arts Thesis exhibition at Mahara Gallery in Waikanae in February 2018. This work has evolved over a period of three years researching my Moriori whakapapa. I wanted to illustrate through weaving the importance of family connections and in particular my personal connection to Nga Moriori. I have looked at ways of manipulating customary weaving materials and techniques to create a freestanding tree formation. Trees were not only significant in the daily lives of Moriori but also represent genealogy within mainstream New Zealand. The metaphor of the tree signifies the grounding of each of us to Papatuanuku, enveloping us within the never-ending cycle of life, a cycle that is out of the hands of all of us.
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    Beyond the corners of our whare : a conceptual Māori response to state surveillance in Aotearoa New Zealand : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Arts
    (Massey University, 2015) Te Tau, Terri
    This exegesis is a response to surveillance undertaken during ‘Operation 8,’ an anti-terror investigation carried out by the New Zealand Police in 2007. As an artist within the community subjected to the surveillance action, I was motivated to explore how an interdisciplinary arts practice, informed by Māori concepts and cosmo-genealogy, might respond to state surveillance. Power relations and surveillance are examined by juxtaposing a Māori world-view against state sanctioned surveillance of its citizens. A creative practice-based inquiry was utilised to explore intersections and differences between these two perspectives. The creative components of this research project comprise a science fiction literary component, sculpture, installation and video. The project is informed by art and literature that positions the research within the local but contextualised against global developments in surveillance. Māori concepts of mana, tapu, mauri, whanaungatanga and mana motuhake with a primary focus on hau provide a foundation for this research guided by the whakataukī (proverb): ‘He kokonga whare e kitea, he kokonga ngākau e kore e kitea.’ The corners of a house can be seen, the corners of the heart cannot be seen. When viewed within the context of surveillance the whakataukī asks how we are affected when the intimate private lives of individuals and community – the corners of the house - are visible to those with whom we have no direct relationship. The second aspect of the whakataukī refers to those attributes that are unseen. The qualities that surveillance technology cannot quantify; internal feelings and intentions. The heart as a hidden space is explored in this exegesis as a site of resistance, where the capacity of surveillance technique to interpret values of an individual and community are questioned.
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    How to communicate Kaitoki Marae into a mainstream product? : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree Masters in Design at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2015) Takimoana, Hemi Witere Wimaihi Kirihora
    This project aims to express Kaitoki Marae aspirations into a global arena by product communication. Proposing a contemporary visual language from the reconfiguration of customary elements fused with modern tools. Maori health model ‘Te Whare Tapa Wha’ by Dr Mason Durie metaphorical symbolism of a House is guiding knowledge for transitional zones and elements. This begins the building of a visual library. However project reflects upon cultural values to insure integrity of KaitokiMarae is retained.
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    He tataitanga ahua toi : the house that Riwai built, a continuum of Māori art : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Māori Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2006) Jahnke, Robert Hans George
    Prior to the 1950s, visual culture within tribal environments could be separated into customary and non-customary. In the early 19th century, customary visual culture maintained visual correspondence with prior painted and carved models of the pre-contact period. In the latter part of the 19th century, non-customary painted and carved imagery inspired by European naturalism informed tribal visual culture. This accommodation of European imagery and practice was trans-cultural in its translation to tribal environments. In the 1960s, an innovative trans-customary art form evolved outside tribal environments, fusing customary visual culture and modernism. This trans-customary art form, which maintained visual empathy with customary form of the 19th century, was introduced into the tribal environment, initially, in a painted mural in 1973, and subsequently in a multimedia mural in 1975. In 1989 and 1990, this trans-customary Maori art practice informed the art of the Taharora Project at Mihikoinga marae in Ohineakai. In this Project, the 1970s transcustomary Maori art precedents were extended with non-customary form and practice. The thesis employs tataitanga kaupapa toi as a paradigm for Maori cultural relativity and relevance en-framing form, content and genealogy. Annexed to this paradigm are a range of methods: a tataitanga reo method for interpreting Maori language texts; a tataitanga korero method, conjoining a kaupapa Maori and an iconographic approach, for interpreting meaning in tribal visual culture, and a tataitanga whakairo method, incorporating stylistic analysis as formal sequence, semiology and intrinsic perception, for analysing a continuum of stylistic development from the Rawheoro School of carving to the Taharora Project. The Taharora Project constitutes the case study where tribal visual culture and contemporary art within tribal environments are contextualised in a trans-cultural continuum. The critical question that underpins this thesis is how do form, content and genealogy contribute to art that resonates with Maori? The thesis concludes that trans-cultural practice in contemporary art can resonate with Maori if the art maintains visual correspondence or visual empathy with customary tribal form. In their absence, cultural resonance can be achieved through a grounding of the content, informing the art, in a paradigm of Maori cultural relativity and relevance, a tataitanga kaupapa toi. The genealogy of the artist is a further determinant for resonance.