Colleen Waata Urlich Te Popoto o Ngapuhi ki Kaipara, Te Rarawa
Fred Graham was Colleen Waata Urlich’s first art teacher. The depictions of forces underlying the land in Graham’s images opened her eyes to a new way of seeing. As she was the only Maori student in Graham’s academic class, he took the time to explain to her that he and others like him wanted to express themselves as Maori artists, using modern media but incorporating customary iconography and motifs in a completely new way. Waata Urlich’s next art teacher, Mrs Whimp, encouraged her burgeoning interest in clay. During the late ’50s Auckland Art Gallery, under Peter Tomory, was a ‘happening place’ and Waata Urlich was encouraged by Auckland Teachers’ Training College clay tutor, Hillary Clarke, to take further art classes with Colin McCahon and Hamish Keith. At that time Hamish was rooming with Barry Brickell and the two were creating their own domestic tableware. In the 1960s Waata Urlich was part of a highly creative, energetic and committed group of Auckland art teachers who met regularly to work and share ideas and practices under the leadership of Murray Gilbert and other influential art specialists, including Ralph Hotere. After forty years of teaching art and part-time study, Waata Urlich began full time academic study, gaining an Applied Arts Degree from Massey University followed by an MFA from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland where she chose to make ancient Lapita ceramic practices the focus of her research. Her resulting thesis on Lapita design traditions and the retention of clay knowledge by Maori totally negated the common assumption that Maori knew nothing of clay. This culminated in a paper presented to the International Archaeology Conference in 2003, celebrating fifty years since the first Lapita dig at Foue, New Caledonia. The knowledge Waata Urlich gained from this research, including a perceived contribution of the Lapita aesthetic to the patterns of weaving, tapa and tattau amongst Polynesian peoples, continues to inspire her contemporary art practice. Waata Urlich was mentored by the late Reverend Maori Marsden in Matauranga Maori related to uku or clay. This was profoundly important in providing a philosophical and spiritual foundation to her clay practice, reflecting themes underlying the formation of Nga Kaihanga Uku by Baye Riddell and Manos Nathan.
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left: Colleen Waata Urlich Ipu One, Lapita Series, 2002 collection of the museum of new zealand—te papa tongarewa