New Year Honours: Celebrated Northland Māori artist, conservationist, and Treaty negotiator Alex Nathan carves a name for himself

Alex Nathan says it is still sinking in that he has received the NZ Order of Merit for services to Māori and art. Photo / Tania Whyte

Alexander Nathan, Whangārei
New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori and art

The rich tapestry of artist and Treaty negotiator Alexander Nathan's life and achievements have been acknowledged with a New Zealand Order of Merit awarded in today's New Year Honours.

"It's still sinking in," Nathan said.

A key chapter in the artist's "chalk and cheese" life story is his heavy involvement in the research and presentation of the Treaty of Waitangi claims lodged by Te Iwi o Roroa in 1986.

He was one of the lead negotiators from the conclusion of the Treaty of Waitangi Report in 1992 to a reached settlement in 2008, and chaired Te Roroa until 2010 in the post-settlement phase.

"It took 13 years to settle with the Crown and only two of us were left," he said.

Nathan helped establish Matatina Marae located in the midst of the Waipoua Forest and represented Te Rorora over the protection of the forest and Kai Iwi Lakes in negotiations with local and regional councils plus government agencies.

He and conservationist Stephen King established the Waipoua Forest Trust that has planted 1,550,000 million trees since its 1998 inception.

The trust is an innovative bicultural conservation partnership that gives Māori joint governance in its property management.

"We're still achieving its primary purpose of recovery and rehabilitation of that Kauri environment," Nathan, the trust's honorary chairman, said.

He has been an instrumental part of restoration work for the health of the largest surviving kauri, Tāne Mahuta, and other environmentally beneficial projects in Waipoua Forest such as monitoring scientific research permits and highway management.

Nathan has also carved a name for himself as an internationally renowned artist known for his use of silver in indigenous art form.

He is believed to be the only New Zealand artist who uses the traditional Hopi overlay technique in his work which involves tracing a design on a sheet of silver and then painstakingly carving it by hand.

Nathan's enthralment with silver is a non-traditional step away from his customary beginnings working with bone, stone, and as a carver.

The turning point was a 1991 wānanga organised by revered New Zealand artist and painter Sandy Adsett at his marae, Raupunga Te Huki, and led by American Hopi silversmith and artist Michael Kabotie.

"I was one of the ring-ins. All the other artists were heads of departments at the various institutes they were working … in the end, I was the only one that actually carried on with it."

It's an ardour Nathan endeavours to pass on as he collaborates with indigenous artists globally from the United States, Canada, Japan, and various Pacific nations.