Stevei Houkāmau standing by her winning artwork. Photo / Melissa Nightingale
Stevei Houkāmau standing by her winning artwork. Photo / Melissa Nightingale
The winner of a $20,000 art award says she is in shock after her work took out the top spot in the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award.
Wellington woman Stevei Houkāmau’s piece, Kia Whakatōmuri te Haere Whakamua, came first out of 96 entries nationwide and 43 finalists.
The work is a string of “beads” primarily made from uku (clay) and is held together with strong wire. It can be displayed in many ways, including hanging from both ends, from the ceiling, coiled around itself on a plinth, draped onto a table, or displayed as it is in the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, draped in sweeping curves against a wall.
Houkāmau said one of the inspirations for the piece, which is one of five in a series called Whakapapa Chain, was when she was on a Native American reservation in New Mexico.
“I got to hold these blue corn seeds that had been in their whakapapa for generations,” she said.
“It was that whole idea about planting, growing, harvesting, feeding you whānau, collecting those seeds back up, storing them. They are ensuring the life of their whakapapa continues by feeding the children.”
Houkāmau said there were hundreds of carved beads in the series, and each one was individual. The beads in her winning work went from more Pasifika-focused designs to traditional Māori, contemporary Māori and back again, which described her own ancestry.
“It’s speaking to that broader idea that we were from the Pacific, and kōreroing to where we were, not just who we are ... so we can understand who we need to be.
“When you run your hand down it, it’s like you’re running your hand down individual parts of my whakapapa.”
Stevei Houkāmau's artwork, 'Kia Whakatōmuri te haere whakamua', can be displayed in multiple ways. Photo / Supplied
Houkāmau, whose iwi affiliations include Ngāti Porou and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, said the work was about her great-great-grandmother Hinemaurea but spoke to other tūpuna as well.
“She is the daughter of Raramaitai and was married to Te Aotaki and they occupied Wharekahika in the 16th century,” she said.
“She had five children and was mother of Ruataupare, who Tūwhakairiora (great Ngāti Porou chief) married to ensure the security of Ngāi Tuiti whenua which infused the stock of Porourangi throughout Tairāwhiti.
“Hinemaurea was seen to have great mana and has two existing marae named after her, including our marae in Wharekahika, Hicks Bay.”
She felt “really proud” to have won first place and said the win came at a good time.
“I had been struggling with my own work in the past month a little bit,” she said, adding her confidence ebbed and flowed.
“This really has come at a time to remind me that I am on the right path, just keep pushing.”
Judge and artists Lisa Reihana, of Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Hine, Ngāi Tūteauru and Ngāi Tupoto, said the work was “so beautiful”.
“It’s quite feminine in a way, but still very strong.”
Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award judge Lisa Reihana at the 2023 exhibition in Wellington. Photo / Melissa Nightingale
Reihana noted the award called for Māori artists to present a portrait of their tūpuna (ancestors), but that it could be in any medium – this year includes poetry, spoken word and an AI-created image.
“We were quite specifically thinking about signalling to the wider Māori artists that there’s so many different ways to be thinking about what they can present in this award.”
A partnership between Kiingtanga and the NZ Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, the award was launched in 2021 in honour of Kiingi Tuheitia.
The runner-up and winner of the $2500 second prize is Wellingtonian Ming Ranginui for Swept under the Rug – a broomstick made from muka and cotton pearl thread.
“The tūpuna my work depicts is my Nanny Heeni Jayne Ranginui,” she said.
“Although not physically depicted, I see this work as a depiction of my nan’s labour and collectively our ancestors, and all they had to do to survive and keep our culture alive. Unfortunately, this meant often having to sweep things under the rug.”
Wellingtonian Ming Ranginui was the runner-up in the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award 2023 for Swept under the Rug – a broomstick made from muka and cotton pearl thread. Photo / Supplied
Jaenine Parkinson, director of the NZ Portrait Gallery, noted both the winning and runner-up pieces stretched the definitions of portraiture.
“Neither use facial features, nor affect likeness, to evoke their chosen tūpuna, both instead use powerful symbolism,” she said.
The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award exhibition will run at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Shed 11 on Wellington’s waterfront from Thursday, May 25, to Sunday, August 20.
After this, the exhibition will be touring nationally. The public can also vote for their favourite in the People’s Choice Award, which has a cash prize of $2500.
