This course highlights the intersections, relationships and connections between a wide and diverse range of Maori and Pacific art forms, including performance, tapa cloth, body adornment and contemporary gallery based art practices, and cultural concepts like Mana Wahine, Talanoa (open ended dialogue), Ta (temporal), Va (spatial, reciprocal and relational), and Turangawaewae (‘a place to stand’, a sense of belonging or association grounded in one’s genealogy and tied to a particular place). It firmly positions Maori and Pacific artists, key exhibitions and art writers within an intersectional art historical framework, indigenous knowledge systems and the contemporary, global world.
Classes revolve around readings which are discussed and related to a range of art forms and practices. You are expected to have read and engaged with the relevant resources in preparation for class discussion each week.
Themes explored include indigenous and migrant voices, memory and notions of belonging, popular culture and its interface with gallery practices, and stereotypes and representation. Themes and issues are discussed alongside relevant Maori and Pacific writers and theorists, including Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Haunani Kay Trask, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Albert Wendt and Epeli Hau’ofa.