Māori Art and Architecture

Maori art history originates in Te Po/The Darkness when the parents Ranginui/Sky Father and Papatūānuku/Earth Mother were joined. They were later separated by some of their sons which brought forth Te Ao Marama/The World of Light. These histories have been passed down orally more than fifty generations, embedded in moteatea/laments, whakatauki/proverbs, waiata/songs and other forms. Many of these oral histories are subsequently made manifest in art. Archaeologists and anthropologists trace a different, but complementary history. Through tangible (e.g., adzes, weaving patterns) and intangible (e.g., language, skills) heritage they trace Maori migrations from central Moana-nui-a-Kiwa/Pacific Ocean, to New Zealand c. 1100. The field of Māori art history as a specific facet of the discipline of art history can be traced to 1988 when Ngahuia Te Awekotuku (Te Arawa, Tūhoe, Waikato) taught the first university course on Māori art history at the University of Auckland. Since then, four Maori have graduated with PhDs. Hirini Moko (Ngāti Awa) and Apirana Mahuika (Ngāti Porou) argue that Māori communities have been “practicing” art history for many generations in terms of talking about art, its origins, and influences. This is, in effect, the potential of New Art History—to understand the breadth of practice of the discipline and in turn learn from these new histories as much as they have been considering art history in turn. Notable Māori art historians include Jonathan Mane-Wheoki (1943–2014, Ngāpuhi, Te Āupouri, Ngāti Kurī, English), who was interested in the connections of Māori art history to other indigenous art histories. Other Māori art historians work as curators and artists, forging interdisciplinary links with anthropology and Maori studies, and more recently museum studies and non-Maori have made important contributions to our understanding of the changing dynamic that is Maori art. As increasing numbers of Maori publish and take up positions in universities, galleries, and museums it will be interesting to see how those who are not Maori plan out future research projects. Maori art writing is becoming more nuanced as more of the base narrative is published, and we hear whanau, hapu and iwi stories. Some may argue that it is now time for non-Maori to stand back when considering publishing such Maori art histories. There has certainly been ongoing critical discussion of this within the Maori art community. Māori are publishing in lengthy book format, while increasing numbers of Maori postgraduate students disseminate their research online to an increasingly digital audience. Over the period 2016–2017 three important moments should be noted which sum up the significance of Māori within the global and local landscape: three of the four prestigious Walters Prize finalists were Māori, all four artists chosen for the 2017 documenta 4 exhibition in Athens are Māori, and New Zealand’s artist for the Venice Biennale is Lisa Reihana. He toi whakairo, he mana tangata (Through artistic excellence, there is human dignity).