Public Seminar: Anna-Marie White - Brett Graham’s Tai Moana Tai Tangata exhibition / contemporary Taoonga

THURS 3 JUNE, 12.00 – 1.00 PM, P152, DUNEDIN SCHOOL OF ART, RIEGO STREET, DUNEDIN  

Anna-Marie White

Brett Graham’s Tai Moana Tai Tangata exhibition at Govett-Brewster and contemporary Taoonga

M¯aori curator, art historian and researcher, Anna-Marie White (Te ¯Atiawa) outlines the development and presentation of the exhibition ‘Tai Moana Tai Tangata’ by Brett Graham (Tainui, Ng¯ati Koroki Kahukura) at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery as both an outcome of kaupapa M¯aori research practice and exercise in Maori curatorship.

‘Tai Moana Tai Tangata’ evolved from White’s doctoral research, which investigated Brett Graham’s work within the context of debates about the definition of contemporary M¯aori art. Reviving the arguments of Hirini Moko Mead (1984) and in reference to Paul Tapsell’s 1998 definition of taonga, White’s 2020 doctoral thesis, ‘Contemporary Taonga: The Art Works of Brett Graham’, emphasised the essential role played by M¯aori in the reception and performance of contemporary M¯aori art as taonga.

Leading from these findings, and as an extension of kaupapa M¯aori research practice, White invited Graham to develop an exhibition at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery based on the historic relationship between their respective iwi. The resulting exhibition created an opportunity for Taranaki and Tainui M¯aori to engage and restate the principles of their political pact, Te Kiwai o te Kete, forged during the New Zealand Land Wars, in the present. This meeting activated the art works as taonga with the exhibition going on to directly serve the needs of Taranaki M¯aori while resonating with a broad spectrum of audiences in spite of the myriad challenges issued by the exhibition.

An introduction to this installation and key art works outlines these challenges concluding with a personal reflection on this transformative experience from the perspective of the curator. 

Dr Anna-Marie White (Te ¯Atiawa) has held a number of curatorial positions across museums and art galleries in Aotearoa. Key exhibition projects include P¯akeh¯a Now! (2007), The Maui Dynasty (2008) and Kaihono Ahua: Vision Mixer (2013) with recently published essays on Jonathan Mane-Wheoki and George Hubbard reflecting on key movements of contemporary M¯aori art history of the 1990s.