From Florence to Tairāwhiti

Rina and Tai Kerekere are two of the 10 Tairāwhiti artists who are a part of the Tahū exhibition. Picture by Paul Rickard

Identity and whakapapa are at the heart of the exhibition Tāhū — A Legacy of People and Place at the Tairāwhiti Museum.

The exhibition features artwork from 10 locals, created for the XIV edition of the Florence Biennale International Exhibition of Contemporary Art and Design, in Italy.

They wanted to bring the pieces home to show the people of Tairāwhiti, but have added works that came about in response to their experience travelling.

The 10 artists were Randal Leach, Hiwirori Hatea,  Kaaterina (Rina) Kerekere, Jack Brooking, Henare Tahuri, Miria Pohatu, Candyce Keelan, Erin Rauna, Hoana Forrester and Tai Kerekere,

Each year a theme is chosen for the Florence Biennale and for 2023 the theme was I AM YOU - Individual and Collective Identities in Contemporary Art and Design.

Rina Kerekere said they drew from that and their own interpretation which was around whakapapa and identity.

“One key focus for us was to be present and represent our people and our culture to the world,” she said.

The name Tāhū comes from tāhuhu, the backbone of the wharenui at marae.

They used that as a point to draw inspiration from as well as drawing from their ancestors.

“One link we wanted to tie in was that many of our tipuna (ancestors) are buried in Florence from dying during World War 2.”

All the pieces are connected to te ao Māori, the Māori world view, as all the artists whakapapa Māori.

During the event, the group spoke about their connection to Florence through the 28 Māori Battalion, which prompted the Governor of Tuscany to speak about how, as a child, he  remembered the soldiers coming to save their village.

The group also took their traditions to Florence, conducting a karanga, mihi, waiata and haka which drew in hundreds of people to view their mahi toi.

“It was a neat experience,” said Rina. “Language was not a barrier — you could understand what they were saying because of the context.”

She has created digital representations of heke (rafters) which are uploaded to a system made up of LED lights that show the digital artwork which includes motion.

It was created with digital motion graphic software, uploaded to the brain of the technology for it to be displayed.

Rina won an award for best new media art and the whole group won a commendation award.

The piece is inspired by heke, in particular ones that are held at the anthropology museum in Florence that are from Tolaga Bay. Heke are rafters and often have carvings or kowhaiwhai painted on them.

“This is a direct response to the heke there and a call to return home and to reconnect with them so whanau know they are there,” she said.

Tai Kerekere created two pieces for the exhibition in Florence, one inspired by the tipuna buried in the cemetery in Florence as well as North Africa and other areas the 28 Māori battalion fought in.

It features puhoro, a design that Māori warriors had tattooed on their upper legs and lower back as a way to represent the soldiers, and an upside-down cross that points to the whanau left there.

“It speaks about travelling the sea, to the whenua and how their blood is lying there now,” he said.

The other pieces are a set of three, one of which was made to take to Florence but the other two were created after the journey.

The first piece represents whanau who are left in Florence. “There is a manaia which has half its face in the spiritual world and the other in the physical, that represents the physical presence of their bodies,  but spiritually they are still here with us,” he said.

The other pieces are about the journey, travelling across the oceans and taking in the experiences.

“We were at markets in Italy that were older than our country — to think these markets were happening while our tipuna were still travelling around the Pacific Ocean.”

Another piece that stands near the entrance to the exhibition is a piece by Henare Tāhūri; a pou painted in the colour of the Palestinian flag. This is a response to the fact their journey was meant to take the group to Israel, but because of the conflict they decided not to and instead travelled to other European countries.

The exhibition is on for another month.