New York via Te Papa for Flax Art
Fifty woven panels by 40 Maori artists are to hang permanently next to the entry of the General Assembly Hall at the UN Headquarters in New York. The tukutuku panels, a revered art form in…
Tag Archives: Maori Arts and Culture
Maori King’s Gift to Chairman Mao Loaned Back to New Zealand
‘The smallest is as a great as the largest’, said Chairman Mao when given a Maori cloak by New Zealand filmmaker Ramai Te Miha Hayward in 1957. Chairman Mao was replying to Ramai when…
Honouring the Greats
Prince Charles is greeted with a hongi by Bruce Simpson from the Ngati Ranana London Maori Club during a reception at St James’s Palace for prominent New Zealanders, Australians and Papua New Guineans….
Trojan War Maori Style
The director of New Zealand’s version of Troilus and Cressida Rachel House explains how she put Maori culture at the heart of Shakespeare’s Trojan tragedy. Thirty-seven theatre companies from around the world are presenting…
Secret Poi Swinging In NY
New York fire poi dancers are flouting fire restrictions and meeting stealthily on top of city rooftops to attend secret classes, where students are careful to remove any traces of their activity afterward….
Heirlooms Of Past For Future
‘Maori — Their Treasures Have a Soul,’ an exhibition of Maori art and artifacts at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris on through 22 January, juxtaposes ancestral heirlooms with contemporary art, architecture, photography, film…
Geothermal Goodness
“When I first see Shane Beattie engulfed in clouds of steam, sweat running in rivulets from beneath his white chef’s cap,” Wanda Hennig writes in an article for South Africa’s Independent Online, “he looks…
Spirituality Curved in Bone
A selection of “amazingly beautiful” hand-crafted bone carvings from Auckland-based gallery The Bone Art Place feature on American industrial design blog site Core77. “They are soft and warm to the touch yet the finish…
And the award goes to
Lincoln-born Phil Keoghan, Emmy Award-winning host of television show ‘The Amazing Race’, shares some of his on and off air adventures with USA Today ahead of the show’s 13th season and a stint in…
Futures in the Heavens
Bethany Edmonds, 26, is a Maori artist about to leave on a scholarship for New York University to study the conservation of traditional textiles; Kipa Rangiheuea works at the Auckland Museum. Both are proud…
Familiar tastes in France
NZ rugby fans in France have been able to enjoy a taste of home at Le Maori Cafe in Lyons. Owned by Aucklander Tai Pepere, who played rugby league for French club Catalans…
Moko in Vogue
A French fashion designer’s use of moko in advertisements for his latest collection has caused a stir in NZ. Jean Paul Gaultier’s campaign shots, featuring male and female models with Maori facial tattooing, have…
Icon and Storyteller Who Inspired All
Veteran actor and filmmaker Don Selwyn has died aged 71 after a long illness. Selwyn was a founding member of the New Zealand Maori Theatre Trust and He Taonga Films, and was…
Kahurangi in Kuala Lumpur
The Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre will celebrate Waitangi Day in Kuala Lumpur, performing at the Malaysia-New Zealand Cultural Extravaganza. Founded by Tama Huata in 1983, Kahurangi has showcased the songs and dances of the…
Kudos for Kahurangi
The Kahurangi Maori Dancers made a big impression on natives of Penticton, British Columbia, this month. The dance group, which comprises graduates of NZ’s Takitimu Performing Arts School, regularly tours North America, as well…
Imitation, Inspiration or Appropriation?
2006 has seen a rash of advertising and design taking inspiration – with varying degrees of offensiveness – from Maori art and culture. An Italian ad for the Fiat Idea showing a group of…
Indigenous Art in the Spotlight
The Musée du Quai Branly, French President Jacques Chirac’s long-awaited €235.2 million shrine to indigenous art, was officially inaugurated on June 21 in Paris. The Quai Branly boasts a collection of 300,000 works from Africa, Asia, Oceania…
Building Bridges on canvas
One of NZ’s most respected Maori artists and pioneer of indigenous art in schools, John Bevan Ford, has died aged 75 from cancer. While tremendously skilled in traditional Maori wood carving, Ford is best perhaps known…
Coming to America
The largest exhibition of Maori art ever to show in the US opened at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts on August 4. Entitled Toi Maori Art from the Maori…
Kai to die for
Independent food writer Jenni Muir nominates Nelson and Marlborough as the lesser-known food capitals of NZ. In Nelson, she recommends foraging for kai-moana with guide Mike Elkington of Te Hikoi Maori. Matua Valley is…
Good gut feeling
The Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre enthralled Boston audiences, according to the Village Voice. “From rapid finger flutters to haka warrior poses, thrusts, and vocal outbursts so strong you feel them in your gut, Tama…
National Anthem or Call to Arms?
Research by Auckland military historian Colin Andrews has cast a new light on NZ’s national anthem, penned by Thomas Bracken in 1876. Andrews believes that the line “Guard Pacific’s triple star” refers to the three stars…
He Maimai Aroha
Haere atu koutou hei whetu te rangi, tiaho mai mo ake tonu atu. He tohu aroha ki tenei morehu kuia. Rahera Windsor, spiritual leader of Britain’s Maori community, died May 3rd 2004 Born in Pupuke, 1925, she married…
Te Reo On Air
BBC notes the launch of NZ’s first nationwide Maori language TV station. The inaugural broadcast comes 13 years after the Supreme Court ruled that the government was legally bound (by the Treaty of Waitangi) to protect its…
Canterbrian Chinatown
An amateur English historian claims that NZ was discovered and settled by Chinese explorers well before the arrival of Maori. According to Cedric Bell, a Chinese city of 4,000 people was situated where the Botanical Gardens in…
Pacific Edge Connections
Works by contemporary Maori artists including Vicky Lee Hipora Stark, Roi Toia (above, Pakake – Whale), Sandy Adsett, Fred Graham, and Robert Jahnke featured in the Kiwa Pacific Connections: Maori Art from Aotearoa exhibition held in Vancouver…
Return of the Native?
As Whale Rider premieres in the UK, the Guardian ponders its impact as NZ and Maori cinema, and the cultural factors at play. “longside the celebration in New Zealand’s film industry, there has also…
Te Maori ki Te Ao – Paratene on Patriarchy
In an interview with SMH, Whale Rider star Rawiri Paratene discusses patriarchy – both within and outside of Maoridom – and the universal appeal behind the heart and award-winning film. “I think Maori stories well told can…
Te Reo on TV
The government has announced an increase of $7.075 million per annum for the Maori Television Service. MTS will eventually reach 86% of the population. “It is important to note that this is a greater level of coverage…
Transit vs. Taniwha
“Maori swamp creature delays road”. The proposed upgrade to a stretch of Waikato road is of concern to local Maori, who believe that the underlying swamp-land is home to a taniwha. This, they explain, is the reason…
Aotearoa Adornment
Auckland artist George Nuku’s mother-of-pearl pendants draw inspiration from his Maori cultural heritage and feature on the cover of June’s American Vogue. “Pile on multiple pendants for a modern, urban edge”, Elle’s ‘make it your…
BBC1 Haka Use Stirs Reaction
BBC1 uses the haka amongst a series of segments featuring multicultural imagery used to re-brand the British TV Channel, attracting reaction in NZ. Maui Solomon: “The Western culture, having all their own stories, are starting to mine…
“Come Together”
Wearing a traditional Maori cloak of native bird feathers, the Queen calls on New Zealanders to work together to resolve lingering differences between indigenous Maori and the Government. Elizabeth II was on her 10th tour of…
Lego Abandons Maori Names
Danish toymaker Lego is to stop making a multi-million-dollar range of toys after protests from New Zealand Maori groups, claiming the company had appropriated their language and images for the toy range. “Future launches of Bionicle sets…
Native Art Expert
Noted Maori and Polynesian art expert Terence Tui A Tane Barrow, 78, died Aug. 31 at his Honolulu home. “He was very famous — anyone who wanted to authenticate Polynesian art would call… from…
Lego-ality of Language Hi-jack?
Intellectual property Lawyer and “defender of Maori culture” Maui Solomon challenges the right of Danish toy-maker Lego to use Polynesian words in its new game Bionicle.
Returning the Gaze
Early European explorers of the Pacific created a cult of the South Seas – Sir Joseph Banks, for example, had his portrait painted wearing a Maori cloak over his European dress. Now the Pacific refocuses the…
Working for Justice
Dr Dorothy Millar began to question western values after contact with Maori culture, leading to a life spent working for justice and prosperity for all.
Flamin’ Right?
Fire poi are “trendy, hypnotizing and arty”, if a little confused: “The toys draw their name from the Maori people of New Zealand. Barred from speaking around men, Maori women invented poi dancing as a way…
League of Their Own
The Aotearoa Maori League team is “modelled on the Maori battalion,” says John Tamihere. “It will be a team of origin not of residence. And that’s great, it doesn’t matter if they’re on Mars, they’re still Maori.”
Secret History
An Italian monk’s stinging criticism of British mistreatment of Maori has been published in New Zealand for the first time – more than 100 years after it was written. Written by Benedictine monk Dom Felice Vaggioli,…
Obituary: Sir Peter Platt, Musicologist
Sir Peter Platt was born in Sheffield but spent a lifetime merging the music of the edges in the antipodes: he regarded an understanding of the music of the regions as crucial and guided his students…
Maori Mystique
The Washington Post’s Kid’s Section “Web@tlas” spotlights Australia and New Zealand, inviting readers to “take a peek into the world of the Maori – including the intricate tattoos that “they’re known for” by linking…
Maori Culture Previewed on USA Today
“The indigenous people of New Zealand are spotlighted at Maori Culture including historical background, portraits and even a cookbook.”
Oceania Merge the Edges With Log Drums and Electro Beats
Former leader of Killing Joke Jaz Coleman joins Maori singer Hinewehi Mohi in a high-tech fusion on their eponymous debut. “This isn’t a fashion record for me, or a passing flirtation with another culture,” says Coleman, recently…
Hyper-girl Lisa Reihana Weaves The Pacific Wave at Sydney Biennale
Along with fellow Kiwi Bill Hammond. Lisa Reihana, with the Pacific Sisters, has been honoured with a show at the prestigious Sydney Biennale 2000. Exploring Toi Maori, her works weave between the contemporary and…
Deep Forest Blends With Massive Attack in Oceanic Swirl
Oceania, with the release of its self-titled debut album and led by ex-Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman, makes a spirited and successful atempt to bring Maori music from New Zealand to a global stage. The result is…
