'Tichi' - a pixilated tiki - was commissioned by the Art in Public Places Trust from Kereama Taepa (Te Arawa, Te Āti Awa) but iwi reps say the trust needs more local Māori input. Photo / Craig Ashworth
Craig Ashworth, Local Democracy Reporter
New Plymouth’s public art will take on a more local flavour if the council’s iwi committee gets its way.
New Plymouth District Council (NPDC) officers have suggested urgent changes to its Art in Public Places Strategy, to keep viable the independent trust that buys the artworks.
But the committee, Te Huinga Taumatua, last week seized the process to push for more local Māori artists and narratives, and for iwi and hapū to get a say on the trust.
Those calls will now go to a full council meeting to be voted on.
The Art in Public Places Trust wanted the strategy changed so council funds could pay for project management, not just for the works themselves.
The trust also wanted the NPDC to streamline the process by pre-selecting potential sites for public artworks.
Council officers said if those resolutions passed they would then consult Māori when updating council’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the trust.
Taranaki iwi’s Te Huinga Taumatua representative Jacqui King said she understood the urgency, but took officers to task for not prioritising engagement with Māori.
“It seems a little bit premature that this paper would be presented when you still have work to do,” King said.
“It looks like the strategy requires a much broader review rather than what is being proposed.”
Community partnerships lead Callum Williamson apologised, admitting his team had slipped up.
“We were going to be working with the trust on the MOU which would involve clarifying the role of mana whenua... but we would do that up front if we could do it again,” Williamson said.
“We should have done this prior, and we’re meeting with Ngāti te Whiti in the first instance to discuss their issues that were raised in the city centre strategy.”
Despite that assurance, the committee voted to add a resolution instructing officers to discuss with trustees how to “include tangata whenua representation”.
Te Huinga Taumatua co-chair Gordon Brown said the Strategy and Operations committee had earlier noted a dearth of Māori public art.
Brown proposed that a new MOU include “an increased consideration of local Māori artists”.
But iwi reps said that wouldn’t guarantee change, and instead resolved that the MOU should require “an increased commitment to the inclusion of local Māori narratives and artists”.
Te Ātiawa representative Anaru White said including local narratives would reinforce relationships with iwi and hapū.
“We have heard from the chair today about early engagement, and the importance of engagement with mana whenua and... that also ensures the right approach as regards local Māori narratives,” White said.
“Who holds those narratives? Te mana whenua o te iwi.”
Williamson said his community partnerships team were committed to engaging and co-designing policy with mana whenua where possible.
He said there had been initial discussions about the future of the trust and officers would be “uncomfortable” if there was not an agreement about Māori involvement.
Officers were due to meet with Ngāti te Whiti this Thursday.
The Art in Public Places Trust was created to maintain independence from political processes in commissioning public art, and to enable it to attract private funding.
It was seeded with $310,000 in 2009 from the NPDC, plus another $50,000 a year previously allocated to the council’s fund for public art.
It has installed nine permanent and one temporary artworks, as well as co-ordinated other smaller works, and since 2014 has attracted $214,000 in external funding.
As the trust reviews its future, it currently has just two trustees, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery deputy director Antony Rhodes and Murali Bhaskar of Boon architects.
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