Known for her striking artwork, Robyn started producing protest art in the early 1970s. There are some strong themes to her work – women’s rights, children’s rights, and Māori rights.
She challenged the position and treatment of wāhine within society, with a strong focus on motherhood, childbirth and upholding the mana of women. She asserted the rights of tamariki/children and how they are treated and seen within Aotearoa. And she asserted Māori rights, including Māori purākua/stories, Māori identity, Māori art, Māori traditions and more - challenging colonialism in mainstream life. There is a strong bold use of Māori and female symbolism throughout her body of work.
Robyn had her first solo exhibition in 1971 at Red Cottage Gallery in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington. The 70s was a time of Māori reawakening, and her work supported what was happening elsewhere in the country, including Sid and Hana Jackon’s 1972 petition to the government to make te reo a recognised and official language in New Zealand. Hana often spoke of Robyn’s work and that her art should be visible across Aotearoa.
In the 1980s Sir Peter Sharples, credited with starting kohanga reo and kura kaupapa (te reo based Māori education movement), wanted to see Robyn’s art and themes imbedded in the kura kaupapa school curriculum. In the late 1980s I had the privilege of interviewing Robyn for TVNZ. She was a very, very humble person, grounded in her mana and dedicated to her purpose – she preferred to speak through her art.
A very talented kuia, she also wrote and illustrated books for tamariki, as well as creating illustrations for other authors’ children’s books. Her books focused on Māori mātauranga themes, another way of upholding and sharing our culture.
Robyn received many accolades throughout her life, just a couple of examples are the 2011 Creative New Zealand Te Tohu Toi Kē award, and the Te Tohu Aroha mō Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu - the supreme Te Waka Toi award in 2020. True to her principles, she did not accept any Crown or government recognitions offered to her.
We hold a beautiful work by Robyn Kahukiwa in our collection, He Aroha Whaereere He Potiki Piri Poho, that is one of our director’s favourites. This work is one of a series produced around the subject of motherhood.
This work explores the interconnectedness of race and gender through whakapapa. It embodies Robyn’s kaupapa of empowering women, Māori and children. She coloured our Aotearoa landscape for the better.
Haere ke te pō nui, te pō roa, te pō pamamao, ki te kunenga mai, e moe
Farewell, go to Hinenui te Pō, Goddess of Night, sleep well.
