Christchurch company Tuatahi Creatives sets up one of the four Matariki art creative hubs

Tuatahi Creatives chief executive Jordan Tuhura. Photo / Supplied

Tuatahi Creatives based in Christchurch is one of four artist hubs commissioned to create artwork in honour of Matariki this year.

“We’re going to do an artwork with AI projection, fusing Māori traditional art forms with innovative technology and merging them together. So it’s great to be given the opportunity to story-tell through a visual exploration of what our story is,” Tuatahi Creatives chief executive Jordan Tuhura says.

Creative Hub Toi Hourua has commissioned four different artists/creatives to the tune of $75,000 to create their artistic interpretation in time for Matariki this year.

“We realised there was a gap in educating Aotearoa about Matariki, so we saw this as an opportunity to educate Aotearoa through art,” said Toi Hourua chief executive Dawson Marama-Feagai (Ngāti Whakaue, Te Arawa).

The protection of Māori and Pasifika art especially in the digital space, is one of its main priorities as a digital arts commissioning agency, Marama-Feagai says.

“Māori and Pasifika are scared to engage in digital because of the IP issues that currently exist because, once you leave your digital footprint out there, it’s forever, so we are really conscious about contributing and making sure we can protect mātauranga Māori, mātauranga Pasifika in our organisation as well.”

The commissioned pieces will be completed between July 17 and August 30.