Toi love: NZ’s new Māori and Pasifika art movement - and the gallery leading the charges
Nancy is at the door. An older Pākehā woman, she has called into the Tim Melville Gallery in central Auckland to discuss a group visit to the exhibition Mind That Māori. “I came to look. But I’m a bit intimidated by the Māori at the entrance,” she says.
“Good,” Tim Melville replies quietly, with a gentle laugh. Melville (Te Arawa, Te Atiawa) is not setting out to intimidate anyone. He says his gallery is a conduit to the artists who will “show us the way”.
Showing us the way at the entrance is the “intimidating” sculpture in question, Kaitiaki: an angular warrior in cast bronze, about a metre high, proud on his plinth. The sculptor, Chris Bailey (Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Paoa, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Porou), was one of 12 Māori artists in the show that ran in February and March.
Mind That Māori, the work that inspired the title of the group exhibition, is a crocheted statement in black and white by Lissy Robinson-Cole (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Kahu) and Rudi Robinson-Cole (Ngāti Paoa, Ngāruahine, Ngāti Makirangi, Ngāti Tu, Te Arawa). It’s in stark contrast to their vast neon wool sculpture Wharenui Harikoa (House of Joy) that attracted more than 40,000 people in 100 days to Waikato Museum recently. “‘Mind’ that Māori or ‘watch out for’?” asks Melville. The art may be black and white wool, but interpretation lies in the grey area. “You’re seduced into wanting to touch it and find out what it is because it’s so lovely, soft, gentle, and then you receive the message almost by osmosis.
“We are brought together by artists doing their job.”
The Tim Melville Gallery is the only Māori-owned dealer gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau. “I might just be the most high profile at the moment, but there are others coming up and there is hope for the future. They’re coming.”
He pauses to consider the notion he is capturing the zeitgeist. “These artists have been here for decades. They just haven’t been seen. There hasn’t been a place for emerging Māori artists to be seen in a commercial way.”
But this is indeed a “moment”, he says. “Like [artist] Brett Graham said, the best art in this country is being made by Māori artists. And it’s true. Much of the best artwork being made at the moment is by Māori and Pacific artists.”
Changing the landscape
Māori artists are the “quiet wave that just keeps rolling in”, says artist Elizabeth Ellis (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou).
“It’s good for Māori, but also the whole of New Zealand. We go with positives. It’s really important. None of us are negative people. It clashes with the whole idea of creativity, building our image.”