Robyn Kahukiwa

born 1938, Sydney
Ngāti Porou (Ngāti Hau, Ngāti Konohi, Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare, Te Whānau-a-Te Aotawarirangi), Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti

Since the early 1970s, Robyn Kahukiwa has explored questions of heritage, identity, and sovereignty central to the Māori experience and relevant to Indigenous people internationally. Best known as a painter, she has also produced prints, drawings, and sculpture. Her practice ranges across diverse subjects, including colonialism and the dispossession of Indigenous people, customs and pūrākau, whakapapa and motherhood. She exhibits regularly and has works in collections all over the world.

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'We have never been assimilated despite many attempts by successive governments to make Māori and Pākehā one people. Today's Māori are living proof of the continuum of whakapapa, the power of our achievements and the survival of an intact, dynamic culture.'