Exhibition: Whenua Mai, Whenua Atu

Whenua Mai, Whenua Atu, explores the sacred, cyclical relationship between tangata whenua and the land, the continual exchange of life and death, giving and receiving.

Whenua means both land and placenta, our first source of nourishment, later returned to Papatūānuku, binding us to place, tīpuna, and belonging. From first breath to last, we remain connected to the whenua.

Within this exhibition, manu appear as tīpuna and kaitiaki, planting life into the soil. Plants emerge from kete whakairo and pīkau, a deliberate reworking of the colonial notion that land can be owned or contained. Where pots once symbolised control, these woven vessels reclaim the autonomy of whenua, living, breathing and impermanent. Made from the earth itself, they too will one day return to it.

Through these works, whenua is revealed as both origin and destination, a living relationship in which we are never apart from the land, but of it.

Opening event: Saturday 20 June, 10am
Live painting in the gallery: Saturday 20 June and Wednesday 8 July