The Christchurch Art Gallery had a wonderful exhibition by Maureen Lander called Flat-pack Whakapapa, being toured by The Dowse Art Museum.
The original exhibition held in 2017 at The Dowse Art Museum can be viewed here. There are two more confirmed venues for this touring exhibition: (1) Whakatāne Library and Exhibition Centre 2 December 2019 to 3 February 2020; and (2) Waikato Museum, Hamilton 27 June to 4 October 2020.
A very thought provoking exhibition, giving imagery to the different concepts of whanau today not just our genetic family and ancestors but how friends are part of the concept of family as we can be so geographically disperse from our genetic family. The kit-set whanaungatanga piece was a very graphic example of how our "family" can alter, we can play different roles within it and some of the "family" move away and others join and is perhaps a more fluid grouping today than it would have been for our ancestors. Of course I also really enjoyed the visual stimulation of the woven pieces themselves, the different patterns and colours of this traditional Māori art.
A very thought provoking exhibition, giving imagery to the different concepts of whanau today not just our genetic family and ancestors but how friends are part of the concept of family as we can be so geographically disperse from our genetic family. The kit-set whanaungatanga piece was a very graphic example of how our "family" can alter, we can play different roles within it and some of the "family" move away and others join and is perhaps a more fluid grouping today than it would have been for our ancestors. Of course I also really enjoyed the visual stimulation of the woven pieces themselves, the different patterns and colours of this traditional Māori art.
Exhibition statement
Heritage and knowledge passed down from ancestors
Just as whakapapa reflects a person's lineage and biology, the first line of a kete determines how its patterning and size will develop. Here, Maureen Lander has created three installations that explore the connections between whakapapa and raranga.Flat-pack Whakapapa is about kinship, family and friendship networks as well as genetic heritage. Approaching human connection from a mātauranga Māori perspective, Lander engages with weaving techniques - including whiri and whakairo - and the concepts of aho tuku iho.
Building on the notion that our whakapapa is always with us, Lander's installations can be packed down into individual weavings that are easily carried around, reconfigured and added to later. Her approach symbolises the way our whakapapa grows with us, and how our genealogy is inherited by our descendants, who continue our heritage lines. By representing whakapapa as a series of portable weavings, Lander explores the idea that even though whānau migrate away from their tūrangawaewae, hapū, and iwi they always carry their culture with them.
Using an everyday idea like the flat-pack design to symbolise deeply held cultural beliefs such as whakapapa, Lander contributes to a wider, ongoing conversation amongst contemporary Māori artists who address customary knowledge in ways that are relevant for new generations.
He taonga tuku iho nō ngā tūpuna
Pēnā i tā te whakapapa whakaatu i ō te tangata kawai, ma te whiri o te kete e whakatau i tona hanganga. Nā, kua waihanga a Maureen Lander i ngā toi e toru nei, e whakatewhatewha ana i ngā hononga o te whakapapa me te raranga.Ko te kaupapa matua o tēnei whakaaturanga, ko te hononga: whānau mai, hoa mai, ira mai. Nā te tino māori nei o te aronga a Lander ki tēnei kaupapa, ka riro mā te āhua-a-mahi o te raranga - pērā i te whiri me te whakairo - me te aho tuku iho hoki te hononga tangata e hiwa ai.
Heoi, mā runga tonu i te whakaaro 'he mea kawe te whakapapa e te tangata, ao te pō, pō te ao' e āhei ana te wetewete me te pōkai i ngā mahi toi a Lander hei wāhanga raranga motuhake. He ngāwari noa te kawekawe haere, te whakaemi mai anō, me te tāpiripi i atu i ngā mea hou. Mā wēnei mahi toi, e taea ai te kitea, ka tipu ngātahi te whakapapa me te tangata, ā, ka tuku iho te ira ote tangata ki ōna uri, mā rātou anō te pā harakeke e whakatipu, e whakanui. Otirā, mā te whakataurite i te whakapapa hei raranga kawekawe, e whakaatu ana a Lander i tenei whakaaro nei: ahakoa wehe te whānau i tōna tūrangawaewae, hapū, iwi rānei, ka kawea tonutia e a ia tōna ake ahurea.
Mā te whakamahi i te āhuatanga 'kai-paipa' nei o te taputapu pōkai hei tūāpapa mō te whakapapa, e whakawhānui ana a Lander i te puna wānanga o ngā kaimahi Māori toi moroki o nāianei, rātou e aro ana ki te tukunga o te mātauranga Māori kia mārama ake ai ngā reanga kei te tipu mai.
Flat-pack Whakapapa 2017 (harakeke, muka) Collection of the artist
Whakapapa - genealogy; to make layers; to lie flat
Artists Statement: This continuous line of kete, stacked in layers on a plinth and extending up on the wall, has been made to represent whakapapa through the weaving techniques of raranga and whiri. Stacked like archaeological layers, every line embodies a generation and an ancestor, with the older generations at the bottom and the younger generations at the top.
This configuration allows the installation to be experienced with an aho tuku iho reading for the first four ancestors, and a tupu reading for the following generations. The formation pays tribute to the Māori belief that while your ancestors came before you, they are not gone or in the past, but guiding you into the future.
While this installation is left open for anyone to consider their genealogy, Lander created it with her own whakapapa in mind. Most significantly, she has chosen to represent a line through her Ngāti Awa ancestor, Puhi Moana Ariki, to acknowledge and illustrate a whakapapa connection to the 'Awa' line that is present in the Hutt Valley and Wellington through Te Atiawa.
diy DNA 2017 (harakeke, muka) Collection of The Dowse Art Museum purchased 2017
DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid, consisting of two long chains of nucleotides twisted into a double helix: the carrier of genetic information.
Artists Statement: Through her engagement with whakapapa, Lander has come across the contemporary phenomenon of genealogy testing websites such as AncestryDNA. Here, for a small cost, participants can find out their genetic make-up by posting a small sample of saliva for testing.
For this installation, Lander has used rolled leaf-strips and whiri to mimic the ladder-like structure of DNA. This structure also references the Māori story of Te Ara Pikipiki a Tāwhaki, which tells how the legendary figure Tāwhaki climbed up vines from earth to the spiritual realm. In Christian and Judaic tradition, 'Jacob's ladder' references the Old Testament story in which Jacob dreams of a stairway that symbolises the connection between heaven and earth.
diy-DNA opens a space to consider why similar narratives unfold within different cultures and religions, and how mythology, science and technology have all been used throughout human history to try to understand where we come from, and what makes us who we are.
Kit-set Whanaungatanga 2017 (harakeke, Teri dyes) Collection of the artist
Whanaungatanga - family connections, kinship patterns, reciprocal relationships.
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| Individual photographs of a few of my favourites |
Artists Statement: The concept of whānau originates from family and the extended kinship lines of whakapapa patterns. Today many of us live apart from family and often create social groups centred on belonging through shared experiences and work. It is also common to refer to these groups as whānau.
Kit-set Whanaungatanga epitomises this viewpoint in the way it has been created and exhibited. In previous exhibitions, Lander invited a group of weavers to contribute kete to this installation, and each was then asked to make several pieces with a predetermined set of criteria that included technique, size, colour and pattern. However, within each kete setup, every weaver had some freedom to choose their own variations and express their skills, creativity and individuality.
When displayed on the gallery wall, Kit-set Whanaungatanga can be reconfigured in a variety of ways. The individual pieces are symbolic of the different personalities who make up any given group - each distinctive but related - creating a visual statement about the nature of whanaungatanga.
The packing crate
Artists Statement: For this iteration of Flat-pack Whakapapa, artist Maureen Lander has emphasised the mobility of the work by leaving the bespoke crate it is shipped in on display. Lander says "the crate itself can be a metaphor for whakapapa - whaka (to make), papa (flat or in layers)". The crate was made by Georgia Morgan, registrar at The Dowse Art Museum, who are touring Lander's exhibition.
Glossary
aho tuku iho - ancestral lines handed down continuously from generation to generation, lines coming downwards
hapū - extended family
iwi - tribe
kete - basket, kit
mātauranga Māori - Māori knowledge
raranga - Māori weaving, plaitwork
Te Ara Pikipiki a Tāwhaki - The Pathway Climbed by Tāwhaki
tupu - upwards
tūrangawaewae - the place you belong to through your whakapapa
whakairo - patterning
Whakapapa - genealogy
whānau - family
whiri - braiding
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