24 Jun 2019
In partnership with the Bishop Museum Library & Archives in Hawaiʻi, Creative New Zealand invites applications for a residency giving Māori access to millions of taonga archived in Hawai’i.
The Wānanga|Wānana Research Residency is a pilot initiative. Two Māori artists or practitioners will be selected by Bishop Museum Library & Archives, and supported by Creative New Zealand to travel to Hawaiʻi to explore archives that show a continuous relationship between Hawaiʻi and Aotearoa. The residency will take place from 2-18 September 2019.
The residency presents a rare opportunity to explore substantial archives that form the life work of Taranaki-born elite Māori scholar Te Rangihiroa (Ngati Mutunga) - also known as Sir Peter Buck (c1887–1951). Among his many accomplishments, Te Rangi served as the third Director of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum from 1936 until his death in 1951, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa in 1948.
The selected recipients will participate alongside Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian First Nation), working as teina (mentees) with tuākana (mentors). The tuākana are Honolulu-based independent curator Ngahiraka Mason (Ngāi Tūhoe, Te Arawa and Ngāti Pango tangata whenua), and Bishop Museum Library & Archives Director Leah Caldeira (Kanaka Maoli).
Creative New Zealand Senior Manager, Arts Development Services, Cath Cardiff says, “This is an unprecedented opportunity to bring together Māori and Kanaka Maoli to explore, in collaboration, an historical period that is not well-known in Aotearoa. We hope the residency will help forge meaningful connections between indigenous artists and practitioners from both countries.”
Bishop Museum Director of Library & Archives Leah Caldeira says, “We honor Sir Peter Buck as a kupuna of Bishop Museum. His work and leadership have left a lasting impact across the Pacific and on all who work at the Museum.”
“We owe much to Te Rangihiroa and are proud to continue to cultivate and strengthen our relationship with our Māori cousins through this program,” Leah says.
Ngahiraka, a former longstanding Indigenous Curator, Māori Art at Auckland Art Gallery, initiated the project and has consulted with the descendants of Te Rangihiroa, as well as Bishop Museum and Creative New Zealand, to develop the residency programme.
Ngahiraka says, "As the initiator and co-tuakana of the project, I am very grateful for the partnership between Creative New Zealand and Bishop Museum and excited for the two artist or practitioner recipients of the residency."
The residency is part of Creative New Zealand’s Cultural & Art Form Exchange Programme, which works with Mana Whenua and other First Nation communities to increase the visibility and understanding of how First Nation histories influence contemporary artistic expression. The programme supports residencies in which diverse and dynamic interactions help to develop innovative arts practice, identify new markets and further international cultural links.
Applications close 19 July 2019, and the residency will run from 2-18 September 2019 (excluding travel time).
Go to Bishop Museum website for information about the residency and how to apply
Enquiries about applying for the residency:
Joy Aroha Vercoe, Adviser - International Initiatives & Indigenous Exchange
E: joyaroha.vercoe@creativenz.govt.nz
Media queries:
Tere Harrison, Senior Communications Adviser (Māori) | Kaiārahi Whakawhitiwhiti Kōrero (Māori)
Mob: 027 257 6821 | DDI: +64 4 473 9738 | E: tere.harrison@creativenz.govt.nz
Background
Key concepts
Whakatauki
Tuia te kawa,
Tairanga te kawe,
Oi ko te kawe o te haere.
Lift up the burden carrier,
Lift up the burdens,
Ah, me – it is time that we went home!
-MS SC BUCK BOX 1.06
Sitting behind the title for the residency are spiritual and ancestral connections between tangāta Māori and tangata Hawaiʻi (Kanaka Maoli). Te Rangihiroa’s life was dedicated to fieldwork in the Pacific region, with an emphasis placed on Māori and Hawaiians. His life’s work is a perpetuation of wānanga of sharing knowledge, learnings, and understandings that elevate culture and dignify people.
Embedded in Te Rangihiroa’s work is Wānana, (to prophesize) performed through the sharing of knowledges. Wānanga is making known that which has been known before by ancestors, elders, and handed down through the ages.
Tuākana (Mentor) | Teina (Mentee)
Tuākana become the guardian of the Pou Aronui (our connection to Papatūānuku and the essence and knowledge that anchor us together), the wānanga providing experience and kinship, and encouraging the meeting of minds from each contributing entity. Teina awakens the journey, shifting the balance of power and responsibility in the conversation.
BIOS - Tuākana mentors
(both available as spokespersons – contact our media liaison above)
Ngahiraka Mason (Ngāi Tūhoe, Te Arawa and Ngāti Pango tangata whenua) trained in fine art, was the first mana wahine Māori curator and is a former Indigenous Curator, Māori Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, where she worked for more than 20 years.
Now based in Honolulu and internationally recognised, Ngahiraka has made more than 50 national and international contemporary, modern and historic exhibition projects she curated. These include the 2017 Honolulu Biennial: Middle of Now | Here (HNL) and Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand: The Maori Portraits, Auckland New Zealand. She co-created a Māori Television series (Behind The Brush – Series 1) and is a consultant to international projects.
She has produced books and contributed chapters to national and international publications, including the chapter: The State of Māori Art in an International Context in SAKAHAN: International Indigenous Art, (2013) National Gallery, Canada and Viewing Tradition: Exploring a Māori Aesthetic, 17th Biennale of Sydney, Australia, The Beauty of Distance – Songs for a Precarious Age (2010).
Her most recent publications include Honolulu Biennial: Middle of Now | Here (2017), which she edited and was a contributing author, and Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand: The Maori Portraits (2016), which she co-edited. She is a former trustee on Te Māori Manaaki Taonga Trust and a current trustee on Wairau Māori Art Gallery, Hundertwasser Art Center, Whangarei.
Leah Caldeira (Kanaka Maoli) is the Director of the Bishop Museum Library & Archives and the Acting Director of Bishop Museum Press. Her knowledge of Hawaiian and Pacific history and experience researching primary source materials is rooted in Bishop Museum’s expansive collection. Leah does curatorial work at Bishop Museum and serves on the board of the Hawaiian Historical Society. She has assisted with numerous publications, including as an editor for the 2015 publication Royal Hawaiian Featherwork: Nā Hulu Aliʻi and as a contributing author to the 2018 publication Hoʻoulu Hawaiʻi: The Kalākaua Era.
Bishop Museum Library & Archives
The Bishop Museum Library & Archives had its beginnings in the personal collections of Charles Reed Bishop and Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, as well as other members of the Hawaiian royal families.
Since the founding of the Museum in 1889, the Library & Archives has grown to encompass the most varied collection of published works and primary source materials in the world related to Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. Library holdings include rare books, periodicals, newspapers, and special collections of published material.
The Archives house collections of manuscripts, photographs, artwork, oral histories, sound recordings, moving images, and maps, as well as the results of studies done by Museum staff in various disciplines throughout the Pacific. In many cases, these holdings are unique to the Library & Archives.
The Library & Archives collection reflects the historical and contemporary research of Bishop Museum curators and scientists as well as the interests of its Hawaiian and Pacific communities.
Bishop Museum is open to the public and proudly serves more than 200,000 visitors each year. To learn more about the Museum’s research, collections, exhibits, and programs, visit www.bishopmuseum.org
Creative New Zealand
Creative New Zealand is a Crown entity governed by the Arts Council. The council encourages, promotes and supports New Zealand arts to benefit all New Zealanders. It upholds the right to artistic freedom and promotes a New Zealand identity in the arts.
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