Chance meeting of public figures at Napier art exhibition

There was a chance meeting between race relations conciliator and former long-time mayor of Gisborne, Meng Foon, and new Hawke's Bay Regional Council chairwoman Hinewai Ormsby at the opening of art exhibition, Nga Hoa Pākehā.

The opening of an art and photographic exhibition on Wednesday provided a backdrop for a meeting which could have doubled as a subject of one of the pieces on display - pieces which are now up for auction.

It provided a chance for new Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chairwoman Hinewai Ormsby to introduce herself to race relations conciliator Meng Foon – she as chairwoman of the Board of local iwi Ngati Pārau, and he as a last-minute replacement for artist and activist Tame Iti, who was to have officiated at the opening.

Where she has spent three years on the council and just a few weeks in the chair, he had 18 years’ experience as mayor of Gisborne prior to his appointment in 2019 to the new role, which he’ll serve in for five years.

The occasion - the launch of exhibition Nga Hoa Pākehā at Ahuriri Contemporary, upstairs in the growing boutique art quarter of the Tennyson St to Browning St sector of Hastings St, Napier - was just the setting for a fostering of the future of cultural relationships, the environment and human healing.

The exhibition runs until December 3, with all works on sale and the proceeds going to the Waiohiki Marae’s Stage 2 wharekai rebuild project, as part of a marae complex that community agent Denis O’Reilly says is aimed at being a “successful and sustainable 21st century kāinga, founded on Maori values but inclusive of any New Zealander who wants to participate and contribute”.

The first stage, the wharenui, was opened in June.

The exhibition includes Iti, the work of carver and sculptor Hugh Tareha, who died in May, and will also featuring other works of his. Also exhibited will be the camerawork of photographer Richard Brimer. O’Reilly said the two had “been the drivers of this [exhibition] in many ways”, and the launch was a successful beginning, with about 150 people in attendance.

O’Reilly said the exhibition - and the marae project - captures much about the community relationships in an area where Ngati Pārau, the iwi of wife Taape Tareha, invited European settlement in the mid-1880s, in contrast to some hostility elsewhere.

Not for the first time, he reiterated the words of ground-breaking chief and MP Tareha Te Moananui, the first Māori to speak in Parliament, who said: “The power of good is stronger than the power of evil.”

Foon said the work of the past now provides a challenge for the future, and it will be younger people who decide - including what he believes will one day be an official change to the name of the country to better reflect the relationships and partnership.