Te Arawhata

Kia ora e te whānau,

Nai mai, hoki mai ki Te Arawhata—the modern edition!

This week we’re sharing fresh urban art, a must-experience pit-stop for northern roadies, a Māori making waves at London raves, and more to help you keep that cultural kete in the contemporary know.

Heoi, tuatahi/But first, pull those pihikete/biscuits from the umu/oven because kua tae mai te wā/the time has come for our news catch up.

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Talk of the tāone

Your weekly round up of the arts, media, and events everybody’s talking about
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- It’s Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa/NZ Music Month! Te Māngai Pāho and NZ On Air have released this playlist to help us celebrate.

- A waka carved from a 700-year-old Pōhutakawa has been unveiled on Waiheke.

- Māori singer/songwriter, Ria Hall, is running for mayor in Tauranga.

- Pasifika artist, Michael Tuffery, has released a new series of limited edition ‘Oma Rāpeti’ prints with Flox and they’re intensely pīwari/cute.

- Hundreds gathered to attend the premiere of ‘NZ Wars: Stories of Tauranga Moana’ on the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Gate Pā.

- Tickets are on sale for ‘Te Tupua - The Goblin’, a solo play about a newly bicultural Aotearoa in the 1800s (that sounds mīharo as).

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Picks o te wiki

Our top 4 contemporary recommendations from the world of Māori arts, media, and events.

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#1 ‘Rangikura’, a book of poetry about life and culture by Tayi Tibble‍‍

Tayi Tibble is the cool new poet on the block—not just ‘literary world’ cool—we’re talking the straight-up, millennials (like us) are scared of her kind. Her mahi is youth and mōhio/wisdom, explicit (we’re warning you), fiery, warm, reconnecting, and generous all at the same wā/time. Even if you hate poetry, there’s a high chance you’ll like this.

_{Find it: at the}_{Herenga Waka Press website}_{I Time: a couple of afternoons over a few weekends I Cost: $25 I Credits: written by Tayi Tibble, illustrated by Xoë Hall, published by Herenga Waka Press}

#2 ‘Te Ao Hurihuri’, an exhibition at Wairau Māori Art Gallery

We forget how much we love art until we’re standing in front of it. For a proper cultural kuranga/education, you’ve got to get your nono/butt to this epic gallery to see this epic exhibition. Featuring legends like Ralph Hotere, Cliff Whiting, and Buck Nin, it’s like the Rolling Stones concert of contemporary Māori art (or Spice Girls, you choose).

_{Find it:}_{81 Dent St, Whangārei}_{I Time: 1 hour I Cost: From $5 I Credits: the featured artwork is by Ralph Hotere, photograph by N. Santhosh}

#3 Cityscape artworks, a series by Shawnee Tekii

Our Cook Island cousin, Shawnee Tekii’s mahi/work is the absolute antidote to ‘dreary’. Using vivid tae/colours on canvas, skateboards, and walls, she invites us to give those ‘mundane’ city landscapes a second look. Through her karu/eyes, the view is fresh, unexpected (in a good way), and full of promise—just like her contribution to the modern art scene.

_{Find them: on her}_instagram_and_website_{I Time: 5 mins I Cost: free to browse, from $500 to buy I Credits: by Shawnee Tekii}

#4 ‘E Tū’, a waiata by Lady Shaka

Like all great contemporary artists, Lady Shaka is a boundary pusher. Her field of tākaro/play? Sweaty, laser-lit, boiler rooms at massive hui taurima/festivals around the world where she showcases Māori & Pacific music throughout her DJ sets. Thank god she also has this waiata on Spotify for those of us who are, ahem, past our rave days.

_{Find it:}_{on Spotify}_{I Time: 4 mins I Cost: free I Credits: Lady Shaka}

Feature o te wiki

‍A deep-dive on our kaupapa o te wiki

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Lights, camera, and… Te Kore

- Behind the scenes with Ashleigh Zimmerman, a contemporary Kai Tāhu artist, kaiako, and student completing her Masters in Māori Art

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Nō Tuāhuriri a Ashleigh/Ashleigh is from Tuāhuriri and it’s clear in our kōrero those southern roots run strong (her grandfather’s nickname was ‘Son of Sumner’). Now living in Whangārei, she spends her days juggling vocations; heading up the art department at Whangārei Girls’, creating photography and ceramics, and, a new wero this year, completing her Masters in Māori Art through Toioho ki Apiti.

Her masters project is unapologetically contemporary, deeply touching, and, a little hard for most people to talk about.

The kaupapa? Loss and infertility through a te ao Maori lens—her experience of loss and infertility expressed through self portraits even though she’s deeply uncomfortable in front of the camera—no less.

Six years on in her own personal journey, Ashleigh is surprisingly and quite inspiringly open on the matter.

“Now is the only time that I've been able to talk about it and not get the awkward, you know, tear in the eye,” she says as I somewhat awkwardly try to hold back my own.

It certainly sounds like it’s been a haerenga/journey.

Like many of our Māori readers, Ashleigh is on her reconnection journey. Her research for this series is playing a huge part in that and the revelations have been both enlightening and painful.

She literally lights up as she tells me about ukutangi—clay taonga puoro/traditional Māori instruments, created from ancestral whenua to be played, basically via sobbing, and then returned to the land as a practice of grief.

Discovering a new angle on ‘Te Kore’, the time before life in traditional Māori belief, has been another biggy. Ditching the normal kupu used to describe it, like ‘dark’, ‘empty’, and ‘lacking’, she’s now able to see it as a huge space primed for any potential. I like this a lot.

But it hasn’t all been warm fuzzies.Te ao Māori has also thrown difficult moments her way, including the fairly painful label ‘wharengaro’ or ‘broken house’ to describe women who don’t have children.

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The logistics and technical set-ups have been another wero/challenge. Ashleigh laughs as she describes paddling pools in garages, DIY systems that remind me of that Mouse Trap board game, and many afternoons instructing her partner (an agricultural parts supplier) when to push the button on her camera and when to run to spotlight one behind tree two as she pulled poses in the ngahere. Their marriage survived, she assures me.

All of this and more is shared in Ashleigh’s new body of work to help others—women who are struggling to conceive, women who have chosen not to conceive, and people who want to support them—to feel slightly less alone. All cultures invited.

As her solo exhibition approaches she’s starting to share sneak peeks (and very entertaining reels of behind the scenes) on instagram. She’s nervous about the big day.

“How best can our audience tautoko you when you’re ready to present your mahi?” I ask.

“Show up,” she replies with a massive smile.

“And if they’re a little nervous themselves to step into that gallery atmosphere where they may not know anyone?”

“Well I’d love to see and meet them. Plus, there’s normally wine,” she reminds me.

To experience Ashleigh’s incredible mahi, and perhaps lay ētahi kākano/some seeds for a gallery wine with her one day soon, stay tuned to her instagram.

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