art & about with naomi mccleary
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A still shot from Lisa Reihana’s Waltz, 6 mins, from Native Portraits n.19897 (1998).
Māori sensibility to the world but will also, over time, be a destination for other indigenous creatives to come to Aotearoa and, in particular, the West. Both Te Uru and the Corban Estate Arts Centre punch well above their weight. Although supported by relatively secure council funding, like all similar institutions across the country they splice and dice to produce work of international standing. We are not a society where private patronage for the arts is embedded into the culture of wealth and business as it has been for so long in the USA. I hope this will come; that business will come to see that an association with excellence in the arts can be as prestigious and savvy as an association with sport.
The Fringe OCTOBER 2018
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WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN IN THE WEST...
exhibition title comes from Barclay’s metaphor of indigenous cinema as a ‘camera on the shore’ that reverses the historically colonial direction of the camera’s gaze (from the settlers’ ships). Barclay and Mita were forerunners in making films by Māori, about Māori, for Māori. Through their work in film, television and writing, they set out some core concerns of indigenous film-making internationally, ranging from control over production through to community-based models of filming and the upending of technical conventions, such as staged interviews. The exhibition includes work by a current generation of contemporary artists that continue the legacy established by Barclay and Mita for indigenous people to be better represented through authentic and culturally-appropriate processes. Joining major names such as Lisa Reihana and Tracey Moffatt, representatives for New Zealand and Australia respectively at last year’s Venice Biennale, are Rob George, Nova Paul, Tuafale Tanoa’I (aka Linda T.) and Tanu Gago. Alongside the exhibition is an impressive screening programme of Barclay’s and Mita’s own films, as well as a compilation of each of their writings, which are influential but increasingly difficult to find. With such a significant historic statement to make, this exhibition will travel to another important institution, Pātaka in Porirua, which will open it to audiences in the Wellington region. Across town, but still in the West, that same reach will be a signature of two new and hugely important cultural institutions. Te Pou Māori Theatre and Whaotapu (the Sacred Chisels) will settle into the Corban Estate Arts Centre in 2019, bringing rich cultural traditions of hospitality and sharing along with their respective art forms in performance and carving. What I find fascinating is that these two groups are already part of an international network of indigenous peoples. This flow will take a