Warrior for Maori rights and identity

By GAIL BAILEY

Robyn Kahukiwa - Ngati Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngati Hau, Ngati Konohi, Whanau-a-Ruataupare - knows exactly who she is.

"That search [for identity] is over," she says - but the quest to promote awareness of Maori's rightful presence in New Zealand is not.

For 30-odd years as a painter, illustrator, writer and sculptor, Kahukiwa has been at the forefront of contemporary Maori art, combining political activism in subject matter and method into powerful images that assert Maori identity and tradition.

Although Kahukiwa says she knows where she sits, painting about identity is still an integral part of her work. She acknowledges that today it is still "hard to keep identity for Maori".

Referring to her latest exhibition, New Zealand Natives, Kahukiwa says this group of paintings was in response to Trevor Mallard's and Don Brash's comments earlier this year about nationhood. "This is not just one New Zealand," she says.

Though known for her powerful images of Maori women, Kahukiwa has, in her words, created a "gentle series" of paintings in protest against such commentary by Mallard and Brash.

The fact that Maori are the indigenous people of this country has been a personal and artistic mission of Kahukiwa.

"Maori are the people of the land and always will be. Really, this series is a little statement that Maori are native of this country and are part of this land, as are the birds and the trees."

And as native as a nikau, pohutukawa and kowhai - or a tui, karearea and poa nanga - Kahukiwa has painted perfectly oval-shaped wahine faces in the forefront of six of the show's eight works.

Their heads askance as in traditional Maori carving, to the casual viewer there is nothing overtly political in these wahine paintings.

Yet there is intensity - of expression, from the solemn to the combative - equally matched with a richness of colour, an array of blues, greens, yellows and reds.

As is reflected in most of Kahukiwa's work, Maori women are not objects simply to be admired but forces that challenge the viewer.

The eyes of the women stare openly at the onlooker. The viewer is almost forced to adopt a similar stance, producing a mirroring exchange.

The remaining paintings are more confrontational in nature. Hikoi 2004, almost mural in form, is meant to capture "the fantastic unity of people" who participated in the protest march to Wellington this year. Kahukiwa includes words from Wi Tako Ngatata's statement against the Crown's acquisition of "lands that have not been fairly purchased".

Words painted on canvas combined with mostly female figures answering "NO" are designed to give voice to the foreshore and seabed debate, to which Kahukiwa adds is "something that cannot be ignored. I am trying to put something down, because it seems so easy to be dismissed."

When asked how non-Maori might interact with her work, Kahukiwa says the paintings she has in galleries "are for all".

However there are those paintings she creates only for Maori. She adds, "Most of my work is always about people.

"Yes, it has levels about being Maori, but my paintings can be read on very different levels. It should always work as a painting."

Do New Zealand Natives work as paintings? Yes. Yet there is a sense that without knowledge of Maoritanga, a sense of connection to Kahukiwa's work can be lost.

One gets the impression in talking to Kahukiwa and viewing her latest exhibition that the political naturally intertwines with the artistic mission that is a fundamental part of her work.

In parting, she says her ancestors brought her back to New Zealand from Australia when she was 19, and her debt to them for educating her politically is one she carries forever.

When asked if she considers herself to be a warrior of sorts, Kahukiwa responds, "Yes, a late warrior."

Exhibition

*What: New Zealand Natives, by Robyn Kahukiwa

*Where and when: Warwick Henderson Gallery, 32 Bath St, Parnell, to Nov 28