Urban Māori at Kura Gallery

This year Kura Gallery has opened up to all Kai Mahi Toi Māori to contribute to look at what the term “Urban Māori” means to our Kai Mahi Toi Māori/Māori Artists.

The term is provocative and significant for Nga Iwi Māori, the majority of whom live away from their Papa Kainga, or ancestral lands. The reasons for this are layered and can be very painful for an indigenous people often forcibly dispossessed of whenua and the connection this ensures to whanau and Hauora.

Tamaki Makaurau is home to Hoani Waititi Marae, a Marae specifically built for “Urban Māori” a response to a very real need by Nga Iwi Māori to have a place, a Marae and all that whare brings to the individual and wider community, as a way of creating Hauora or complete wellness for the people connected to it.

Interestingly Nga Iwi o Ngati Whatua in this context despite Auckland being the metropolis it is, are not “Urban Māori” but infact Hau Kainga/ Or the people who keep the home fires burning on this their whenua.

The Kaupapa is broad and left entirely up to the Artist's interpretation of what the term “Urban Māori” means to them to interpret into their chosen medium, which should make for an exciting and fresh exhibition from artists across the Motu, some of whom are already represented in the Gallery and some who are not, an opportunity for all Māori artists to gain exposure for their brilliance and experience in a Gallery Exhibition space as so much of the practice of Mahi Toi Māori requires the essence of humarie/humbleness that sometimes our artists struggle to approach Galleries or worse still see their own brilliance reflected in their work.

The Kura Gallery will stay open for late night korero about the works with the Curator on Thursday, 10 October for Late Night Art. 

Part of Art Week 2024.