Whakapapa accounts for the way in which the earth, sky, oceans, rivers, elements, minerals, plants, animals and all people have been created. All things are linked through whakapapa, as well as having their individual place in the world. Ultimately, it is whakapapa that connects people to each other, to their ancestors, to the land, to the oceans and the universe.- Lonnie Hutchinson

The word taumauri, meaning calmness and deliberation, captures the intentions of these artists, which are political and poetic. They employ the language of contemporary art, abstraction and the metaphorical meaning of pattern and form to generate reflections on, and assertions of, non-western world views that speak to and affirm their own cultures and experience.

Lonnie Hutchinson (Samoan, Māori (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kuri,) Scottish and English) is a much acclaimed artist whose work is inspired by indigenous histories, women’s histories and craft practice. For this exhibition, she has created three circular aluminium discs which operate as heraldic devices or clan shields to assert and celebrate all aspects of her identity and heritage and the reality of hybridity in the 21st century. These ‘shields’ blend her signature kōwhawhai and koru cut-out forms with -hand-painted symbols.

Hutchinson works across a wide range of media including sculpture, film, painting, performance and installation to articulate and advance a Polynesian world view. She has exhibited nationally and internationally for over two decades and has been included in several major international exhibitions of Pacific art. A survey exhibition was held in Auckland and Lower Hutt in 2015 and a major solo exhibition was held at Christchurch Art Gallery in 2021. Her work is many significant public collections and she has also produced several major site-specific installations - most prominently for the justice precinct in Christchurch, the convention centre in Christchurch and the Britomart in Auckland.

Maioha Kara (Ngati Korokī Kahukua, Ngati Tipa, Ngati Pahauwera, Ngati Rangi Ita, Te Atihaunui-a-Paparangi, Ngati Rauru Ki Tahi, Ngati Hinemihi, Te Whanau A Iritekura, Te Whanau A Hinetapora, Cook Island) provided the title for this exhibition and her oval, stained birch works, with their insets of shimmering glitter, are a continuation of her interests in cyclical pattern and Mauri as life force. They offer, she says, a moment to pause, recalibrate and relocate in one’s surroundings and to acknowledge the Mauri within and around us.

Kara is currently undertaking a PhD in Fine Arts at the College of Creative Arts at Massey University in Wellington. She has exhibited throughout New Zealand, has had a solo exhibition at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and is currently included in Whetūrangitia/Made As Stars, at The Dowse in Lower Hutt. Her work is in a range of private and public collections including The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Dowse Art Museum, Rotorua Museum and Massey University.

Nina Oberg Humphries, who is of Cook Islands and Pākehā descent, creates artworks that draw on Cook Islands culture and history to explore the maintenance and advancement of culture for successive generations living in Aotearoa and the wider diaspora. Her ‘feather gods’, referencing early pre-Christian non-human representation of gods, speak to contemporary Pacific-Aotearoa narratives and experience.

Oberg Humphries completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in Sculpture at the University of Canterbury in 2018. In 2020, she was Pacific Artist in Residence at the University of Canterbury’s Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies and she is a current recipient of a CNZ Mana Moana Scholarship. She is also a board member of Scape Public Art in Christchurch and the director and co-founder of Tagata Moana Trust. She has exhibited across New Zealand and has previously shown in Wellington at Pātaka Art Museum and Enjoy. Her work is in public and private collections including the Christchurch Art Gallery, the Canterbury Museum, the Wallace Arts Trust and the Wrightman Collection.

Raukura Turei (Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Ngā Rauru Kitahi) uses painting as a tool to connect with her tīpuna and to evoke the strength of ngā atua wāhine, female Māori gods, to enhance mana wāhine. The paintings in this show reflect on her journey back to her Tūrangwaewae on the shores of Tīkapa Moana/the Hauraki Gulf and “the ocean’s ability to strip away generational trauma”. Her distinctive deeply textured surfaces are made with materials she has gathered from whenua connected to her own whakapapa, predominantly aumoana/blue clay and onepū/black ironsands.

Turei has exhibited throughout New Zealand including at Toi Moroki - CoCA, Ōtautahi, Objectspace, Tāmaki Makaurau, Te Pātaka Toi - The Adam Art Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She has works in the Chartwell and Cordis Hotel Collections and this year she was Runner Up for the Waikato Museum Contemporary Art Award. A self-taught artist, Turei is a registered architect with a Master of Architecture (Prof) from the University of Auckland