Kiriata Screening

Toi Whenua, Toi Māori

Monday 5 February
4 pm Toi Whenua, Toi Māori, Len Lye Centre Cinema, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Buy Tickets

A programme of seven short documentaries and experimental works by contemporary Māori artists, exploring the connection between Māori art (Toi Māori) and the land (Toi Whenua). Curated by Leo Koziol (Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungunu) of the Wairoa Māori Film Festival. Screening at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in Ngāmotu New Plymouth over Waitangi weekend 2024 as part of the KIRIATA MĀORI Showcase.

Screen artists:

Karen Sidney (Te Aitanga a Māhaki, Rongowhakaata, Rongomaiwahine) Director IMDB Bio
Sarah Hudson (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Pūkeko)
Kathleen Mantel (Ngāti Kahungunu), Amber Esau (Māori, Samoan)
Moe Clark (Metis), Victoria Hunt (Māori)
Tiana Trego Hall (Te Rarawa, Ngāti Whātua, Tainui, Mangaia Kuki Airani Māori)
Kararaina Rangihau (Tūhoe, Te Arawa)
Daniel Nathan (Māori)

Daniel Nathan, Mauri Tu, Mauri Ora (2023)

Toi Whenua, Toi Māori
Screen Arts Programme:

Te Rā

Karen Sidney (6 min)

Te Rā is about the 100 year challenge issued by Māori Anthropologist Te Rangi Hiroa, for Māori to recreate the woven sail now kept at the British Museum. A challenge answered in 2022 by the wahine Māori/Māori women of the weaving group 'Ta Rā roopu ringa raupa'/the calloused hands.

Reconnect

Sarah Hudson (10 min)

Explores practicing gestures of ceremony to reconnect the geological genealogies.

Our tūpuna Māori used colourful rocks, clay and soils mixed with water as personal adornment, an art material, in ceremony and as medicine. These elements have been a part of my own art practice for the last three years; reconnecting to my cultural materials has been a reconnection with my body, the land, people, ancestors, and gods all at once.

Ko Parawhenuamea ko au

Ko Ukurangi ko au

Ko Rakahore ko au

I am earthly water

I am ancient clay

I am rocks in all forms

Whirlflow

Kathleen Mantel (5 min), writer Amber Esau

A surrealistic arc blazes over west Auckland, leaving a trail of images, ideas and dreams. A spoken word poetry piece that flows from darkness to light, signaling a breakthrough from the cycles that we find ourselves in. Screened at imagineNATIVE 2023.

Biolumin

Moe Clark, Victoria Hunt (5 min)

An experimental examination of threshold states (note: contains nudity). Biolumin is an experimental examination of threshold states. Moving through deep space time in underwater realms, mirrored bodies spiral, suspend and dance through te reo maori and nêhiyawêwin lamentations. Screened at imagineNATIVE 2023. In Cree and Māori languages.

The Politics of Toheroa Soup

Tiana Trego Hall (7 min)

A pūkōrero about whānau, kai. This film is about the slow depletion of the toheroa, the Foreshore Resource Management act and the impacts on one west coast Northland Māori whānau.

He Ōhākī - Imparting Words of Wisdom

Kararaina Rangihau (10 min)

Centuries of Tūhoe wisdom are illuminated by Kararaina Rangihau, youngest daughter of John Rangihau, as a means of truly addressing the impact of institutional racism against Māori. In 1986 John Te Rangiāniwaniwa Rangihau led a committee that delivered the most damning report of institutional racism New Zealand had ever seen, the Pūao Te Ata Tū, Daybreak Report. Now his daughter, Kararaina, carries on her father’s legacy by sharing his vision for a New Zealand that all future generations can be proud of.

Mauri Tu, Mauri Ora

Daniel Nathan (24 min)

Hokia te waoku kia purea ai - Return to the forest and be restored.

A passionate indigenous artist strives to re-awaken a deeper conversation with the natural world. Māori musician Kelly Kahukiwa is on a mission to re-vitalise 'Taonga Pūoro' traditional Māori instruments, raise awareness of threats to forest health, and foster enduring, inter-generational connections with 'Te Taiao' (natural world environments) in the Whangārei area of Te Tai Tokerau (Northland, New Zealand). His approach is informed by Mātauranga Māori (indigenous knowledge systems) and a deep affinity for the unique indigenous flora and fauna of Aotearoa (New Zealand).

Total run time: 67 min.