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He Wai Mou! He Wai Mau! opens at Ngā Tohu o Uenuku - Mangere Arts Centre,
July 8th 2017
The exhibition opened at 11am on July 8th, 2017, attended by many Ngati Porou, iwi whānui, family, friends and colleagues. This is just a taster of the corridor part of the exhibition before going in to the main space. More images to come.
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News coverage by Māori Television, on Te Kaea. www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/photography-exhibition-seeks-environmental-action A new photography exhibition by Ngāti Porou's Natalie Robertson talks about the importance of freshwater planting to maintain the life force of waterways. He Wai Mou! He Wai Mau! spans the Waiapu at the East Coast and Mangere's Tararata stream. Photographer Natalie Robertson says, "my exhibition today speaks to environmental changes that have occurred in the Waiapu River in the last 130 or so years, and in 2014 Ngāti Porou signed the Waiapu River Accord, so I'm very interested in what can I offer to generations further down the track." 21 photos and four visual clips depict the waterways by air, by kayak or alongside the waters' edge. A lament tells the story of an ancestor who took to the Waiapu post-flood despite warnings. He drowned and was found at the river mouth entangled in driftwood. Robertson says "the mōteatea (lament) speaks about the species of fish that are in the river and the driftwood at the river mouth and I thought the mōteatea became a vehicle where we can act in some ways as a search party following Pahoe, looking for him, and noting the environmental changes that occur as we do so." Vision by Robertson shows man-made interventions, persistent erosion, and deforested banks. A planting at Tararata next month ties to her message; she hopes it improves conditions there for whitebait to spawn. "I'm hoping that we're at the bottom of a cycle; we had the mauri (life force) of the river and it was strong and it's come down to the lower point that it's at now and I'm hoping with the accords that we're signing we can pull it back up through restoration and strengthening the mauri." The Mangere Arts Centre exhibition ends September 2. The Tararata planting is open to the public. |
New Zealand Ockham Book Awards 2017
16 May 2017
A Whakapapa of Tradition: 100 Years of Ngāti Porou Carving, 1830–1930 by Ngarino Ellis and photographed by Natalie Robertson, won the Judith Binney Best First Book Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction.
Auckland University Press director Sam Elworthy said, ‘The Auckland University Press team is enormously proud of Ngarino and Natalie’s best first book win for A Whakapapa of Tradition. It’s work that embodies so many values that really matter and that we embrace – a commitment to long term research, a deep engagement with Māori tradition and history and the power of images and text working together. We congratulate author and photographer.’http://www.press.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/news-and-events/news/news-2017/whakapapa-of-tradition-wins-at-ockhams.htmlThe Judith Binney Best First Book Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction: Ngarino Ellis for A Whakapapa of Tradition: 100 Years of Ngāti Porou Carving, 1830-1930, with new photography by Natalie Robertson (Auckland University Press).
Featuring an interview between Ngarino and myself, the article below was published in the beautiful Matariki Special Edition of Threaded Magazine Issue 20 (August 2016) gorgeously designed by Kyra Clarke.
A Whakapapa of Tradition: 100 Years of Ngāti Porou Carving, 1830–1930 by Ngarino Ellis and photographed by Natalie Robertson, won the Judith Binney Best First Book Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction.
Auckland University Press director Sam Elworthy said, ‘The Auckland University Press team is enormously proud of Ngarino and Natalie’s best first book win for A Whakapapa of Tradition. It’s work that embodies so many values that really matter and that we embrace – a commitment to long term research, a deep engagement with Māori tradition and history and the power of images and text working together. We congratulate author and photographer.’http://www.press.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/news-and-events/news/news-2017/whakapapa-of-tradition-wins-at-ockhams.htmlThe Judith Binney Best First Book Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction: Ngarino Ellis for A Whakapapa of Tradition: 100 Years of Ngāti Porou Carving, 1830-1930, with new photography by Natalie Robertson (Auckland University Press).
Featuring an interview between Ngarino and myself, the article below was published in the beautiful Matariki Special Edition of Threaded Magazine Issue 20 (August 2016) gorgeously designed by Kyra Clarke.
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These stories began before we arrived. Taipei, Taiwan 2015
My first international project of the 2015 year was in Taipei, Taiwan, alongside the TIBE (Taiwan International Book Exhibition) which Aotearoa/New Zealand was the Guest of Honour country. I wonder if it was because it is the Lunar New Year, Year of the Sheep? The work selected by curator Charlotte Huddleston was Kawerau Drive Through, from 2006. To add a new dimension to the work, Charlotte and I went to BeiTou, the geothermal region of Taipei and collected water directly from the geothermal stream. On bringing it back to the gallery, I placed it in a bowl, and read a spoken word remembrance for people who had recently passed away who were connected to the video work about Kawerau, and Uncle Tasman - the Trembling Current that Scars the Earth (2007) .
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