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A Bay of Plenty woman has won the 2025 Kīngi Tūheitia Portraiture Awards and a $20,000 cash prize.
Jazmin Tainui Mihi Paget-Knebel’s work, Taniwha Chasers, was chosen from 41 finalists, with the awards being announced in the presence of the Māori Queen Kuini Nga wai hono i te po at Pipitea Marae in Wellington on Wednesday.
Photographed in her hometown Ōpōtiki, Paget-Knebel said Taniwha Chasers referred to the intimate connection shared between tangata, hoiho and their whenua.
“Māori have held a long and historic connection to horses as they were used as a tool to colonise Aotearoa but have since been reclaimed as part of our whakapapa.
“This image captures the intimate connection rangatahi Māori share with the wild horses of Ōpōtiki and how they are being used to uplift the mana of our community.”
Paget-Knebel, who affiliates with Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Whakatōhea, Ngāpuhi, and Ngāti Hine, was born and raised in Ōmaio – a small coastal township about 30 minutes from Ōpōtiki.
Home-schooled throughout her upbringing, she began taking photographs at the age of 12.
Jazmin Tainui Mihi Paget-Knebel from Ōpōtiki won the 2025 Kīngi Tūheitia Portraiture Award for her work Taniwha Chasers.
Her interest in photography deepened after attending a five-day National Geographic photo camp in Murupara, where she learned alongside world-renowned photographers.
The 22-year-old moved to Wellington four years ago to study photography at Massey University, and this year will complete her honours degree in photography.
She said her work was “centred around celebrating Māori/indigenous culture through decolonising and re-indigenising western ideologies and perspectives surrounding the lens to better her community and people”.
“I descend from the Paget bloodline that came from my great-grandmother, Tangimamao (nee Patara), on my mother’s side of my whānau.
“She had whakapapa to the iwi of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and Whakatōhea.
“Her sons, John Paget and Richard Paget, went on to reside in Opōtiki, which later became the birthplace of my mother, Heather Paget (daughter of John Paget).
“My whānau are the original inspiration for the creation of Taniwha Chasers as they were some of the first generations to ride horses in Ōpōtiki."
Paget-Knebe served as the photographer for the 2023 Kīngi Tūheitia Portraiture Awards and was later invited by the New Zealand Portrait Gallery to photograph the 2025 awards.
“I never seriously considered entering the awards myself until this year.
“My friends kept encouraging me after seeing the photos I’d taken back home for a university assignment.
“I’m beyond excited to be the recipient of such an important award. It’s an incredible honour, and I’m especially excited for rangatahi to see the work and learn about the history behind it.”
Jazmin Tainui Mihi Paget-Knebel from Ōpōtiki won the 2025 Kīngi Tūheitia Portraiture Award for her work Taniwha Chasers.
The biennial awards were established in 2020 as a partnership between the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata and the late Kīngi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII to inspire a new generation of emerging Māori artists to create portraits of their tūpuna (ancestors).
The 2025 awards are hosted and administered by the gallery in his honour, with the blessing of Kuini Nga wai hono i te po.
The awards attracted portraits using a wide range of mediums, including video, stop-motion puppetry, ceramics with paua inlay, oil paintings and textiles made from linen, cotton and glass beads.
The shortlisted artworks were chosen by a panel of judges, including contemporary Māori artist Dr. Areta Wilkinson (Ngāi Tahu), head carver for Waikato-Tainui Renta Te Wiata (Waikato-Ngāti Māhuta, Te Arawa – Ngāti Kea Ngāti Tuara), and leading painter John Walsh (Aitanga a Hauiti).
Reflecting on the winning artwork, the judges said: “Taniwha Chasers is an uplifting, joyful image that captures the heart of our time.
“It is full of hope and youthful energy, with a fresh perspective on connecting with our tūpuna and te taiao. We are all carried along with this young rider into a future that is increasingly uncertain.
“The young rider, his galloping horse, the raised flag and the brooding land all merge wonderfully to convey this powerful message. The horse, once a symbol of colonisation, has been reclaimed as part of our whakapapa and on-going struggle. The message is bright and clear, the composition is strong, the scale and presentation are all striking. The work is in black and white, but you sense the richness of the scene. For us judges, it was a unanimous choice; we all read the work the same way.”
The runner-up and winner of the $2500 second prize was awarded to Maata-Maria Cartisciano from Waitārere Beach for Ekore koe e ngaro i tōku Koro, an acrylic and pencil portrait of the artist’s koro (grandfather).
The judges also gave honourable mentions to five artists – Shannon Te Rangihaeata Clamp, Divine Herekiuha, Jessica Hulme, Caitlin Jolley and Zoe Marler.
The exhibition will open at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata in Shed 11 on Wellington’s waterfront from May 22 to August 17, and entry is free.
The public can also vote for their choice to win the Forsyth Barr People’s Choice Award – a cash prize of $2500, announced at the close of the exhibition.
The finalists’ artworks will then tour Aotearoa over the next two years.
