2.1

EXPLICIT

Emily Karaka
Emily Karaka
Ngahuia Harrison
Ngahuia Harrison
30.07.22–27.08.22
EMILY KARAKA
I am a descendant of Te Arawaru Toone. Te Ahiwaru are mana whenua at Ihumātao. The laws and historical confiscations of lands enacted by the Crown at Ihumātao are the root cause of a well-known series of protests.
I have made a number of works about Ihumātao. Six were presented at the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, NIRIN, in 2020. It was important to me to take the stories of Ihumātao to the world. The situation was complicated, so much so that it was necessary for the Māori King, Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, to mediate. We all knew the immense mana of the King would bring the stability needed in the volatile situation. For Explicit, two works from NIRIN are presented alongside two paintings from my 2015 Settlement series. The Settlement works respond to land claims, confiscations, and Treaty settlement processes in Tāmaki Makaurau, where I have lived all my life, and the Tāmaki Makaurau Collective Redress Deed, which provides collective redress for the thirteen iwi and hapū of Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau, referred to as the Tāmaki Collective. Treaty claims, land issues, and kaitiakitanga have formed the core of my work for many years. The fourteen Tūpuna Maunga named in the Collective Redress Deed are central to another exhibition of mine, Matariki Ring of Fire, currently on show at Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery, which underscores the depth of the whakapapa ties within this city.

NGAHUIA HARRISON
E rere kau mai te awa nui mai te Kāhui Maunga ki Tangaroa, 2022
(From the Coastal Cannibals series)
390 x 485mm; 410 x 510mm; 395 x 490mm (framed)
Edition of 3
EMILY KARAKA
DODPNZ – Death of Democratic Process in New Zealand, 2020
(From NIRIN)
Mixed media on canvas
1220 x 1830mm

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with assistance from Creative New Zealand
EMILY KARAKA
Ahiwaru, 2020
(From NIRIN)
Mixed media on canvas
1830 x 1220mm

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with assistance from Creative New Zealand
NGAHUIA HARRISON
Tauranga Waka, 2021
(From the Coastal Cannibals series)
1205 x 1530mm (framed)
Edition of 3

NGAHUIA HARRISON
The Cave, 2022
(From the Coastal Cannibals series)
950 x 1180mm (framed)
Edition of 3
EMILY KARAKA
Maungawhau and Maungakiekie, 2015
(Settlement No. 14)
Oil on kauri board
1000 x 1000mm

EMILY KARAKA
Ōhinerau, 2015
(Settlement No. 13)
Oil on kauri board
1000 x 1000mm
NGAHUIA HARRISON
Coastal Cannibals has come out of my doctoral research. I began looking at the effects of the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 upon my iwi, Ngātiwai.
The research has morphed into looking at everything that falls outside of the narrow definition the Crown has created to tell Māori how we relate to the sea and coastline. As well as all of the fronts we fight on to protect not only our relationship to the moana, but the moana itself. I’ve been working on Coastal Cannibals for the past three years and I’m constantly adding to it. The series focuses on the Whangārei Harbour, Whangārei Te Rerenga Parāoa, and the heavy industry established on and around the place, including residential housing developments. The heavy industry are places like the oil refinery, the Portland cement works, the Limestone works, the marinas—all these things gobbling up our environment and our moana. Some of the residential developments around Ruakākā and Marsden Point have carved out the land to channel the moana, creating canals so people can have their own jetty to park their boats like they park their cars. For coastal and ocean tribes, the moana is an important and significant place—the ocean is everything. To see it being used in this way is very frustrating—it’s taking and using our land in a way that assumes our interests have been extinguished. They haven’t. (Adapted from a 2021 interview with Objectspace, Tāmaki Makaurau.)
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EMILY KARAKA
Motuihe and Tiritiri Matangi, 2015
(Settlement No. 9)
Oil on kauri board
1000 x 1000mm

EMILY KARAKA
Ōtāhuhu and Rarotonga, 2015
(Settlement No. 12)
Oil on kauri board
1000 x 1000mm
NGAHUIA HARRISON
Ka Mua, Ka Muri, 2021
(From the Coastal Cannibals series)
1205 x 1530mm (framed)
Edition of 3

NGAHUIA HARRISON
First Cinema Camera 5, 2021
(From the Coastal Cannibals series)
330 x 475mm (framed)
Edition of 3
NGAHUIA HARRISON
First Cinema Camera 3, 2021
(From the Coastal Cannibals series)
345 x 505mm (framed)
Edition of 3

NGAHUIA HARRISON
First Cinema Camera 4, 2021
(From the Coastal Cannibals series)
345 x 505mm (framed)
Edition of 3
NGAHUIA HARRISON
Pūriri, 2018
(From The earth looks upon us /Ko Papatūānuku te matua o te tangata)
370 x 305mm (framed)
Edition of 3

NGAHUIA HARRISON
Hinekirikiri, 2018
(From The earth looks upon us / Ko Papatūānuku te matua o te tangata)
375 x 305mm (framed)
Edition of 3
EMILY KARAKA
Matukutūruru, 2015
(Settlement No. 7)
Oil on kauri board
1000 x 1000mm
EMILY KARAKA
Ōhuiarangi, 2015
(Settlement No. 8)
Oil on kauri board
1000 x 1000mm