Whakapiri ki Rangimaria

This installation, by local artist Maia Wharewera-Ballard, transforms the gallery space. Her work seeks to reclaim mātauranga Māori and explore Tino Rangatiratanga through whakapapa.

Maia traces generational knowledge systems as a way of understanding identity to oneself, tangata, place and space. Tūrangawaewae is a place where one's feet are firmly rooted, belonging to a locality where tipuna stood and future generations can say they belong. Whakapapa to whenua exists as a genealogical narrative. The land is not just a place for holding and developing physical resources, it is about the reciprocal relationships we have on and with the whenua as tāngata.
 
This exhibition is an ode to a passed friend, a culmination of her studies as a part of the final Master of Fine Arts submission at Whitecliffe College.