Q & A: Former NZMACI director Karl Johnstone

NZMACI Foundry head caster Eugene Kara, Chairman of the Iwi Leaders Group Sir Tumu te Heuheu, Lady Susan te Heuheu and Iwi Chairs Forum technical adviser Karl Johnstone. Photo/Supplied

The Rotorua Daily Post caught up with New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute's former director Karl Johnstone about the bronze Maori storehouse headed to the United Nations.

What is your background and how did you get involved with the project?

I'm the former director at the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts institute, now I'm still leading that project.

I came up with the initial concept and engaged with the Iwi Chairs Forum.

It grew as more people came into contact with it, which is the natural concept development process I guess.

Please explain the kaupapa?

It's for the Iwi Chairs Forum, as a representative group of iwi Maori, to gift in this instance the whatarangi as a symbol of support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People on behalf of New Zealand.

Where did the idea for the project come from and what were your first thoughts when you found out about it?

The New Zealand government had given support for the declaration I think back in 2010.
So that's great, but given the declaration's protection of indigenous life it was important that Maori made a statement to complement the support of the New Zealand government.

It was important that we looked at our own unique way of recognising the declaration and articulating it through our own material language.

Which is what the whatarangi does in terms of what it represents.

We set the foundry up for this, and we had been working on the methods for 18 months to two years beforehand.

How many people have been involved with the project and when did it first start?

Just the artists themselves I would suggest 30 plus people were involved in the carving and casting of the whatarangi over the past four years.

The Maori Tu declaration has 68 iwi signing in its support, in its initiative, its gifting and its purpose.

What was the process for consultation with Maori - both locally and throughout the country?

The Iwi Chairs Forum, it was up to them to socialise it through their hapu and their structures.

The bronze storehouse sculpture unveiled at Te Puia. Photo/Stephen Parker

Why was a whatarangi chosen?

Whatarangi are store houses, they're elevated high up.

That's about keeping our most tapu or the taonga that holds the highest status, keeping them protected and to keep people protected from them.

So what it becomes is a vessel or a structure for maintaining intellectual property, for maintaining traditions, practices and processes.

It becomes a symbol, I guess, of cultural wealth and a device, much like the declaration, for the protection of our property.

They parallel each other in many ways.

Is this one of the biggest projects you've worked on?

I think, in terms of political reach and in terms of complexity, with both the UN and the various New Zealand ministries and actually the engagement collectively across all iwi, it doesn't get much bigger than that.

Just under four tonnes, it is the biggest bronze we've ever done, but I have worked on other projects of this complexity.

What were some of the challenges in working on a project of this scale, that needs to be transported half way across the world?

It's been made with an internal armature, an internal stainless steel skeleton.

The whatarangi will actually transport in around about three pieces, so what we'll work to do once the negotiation period with the UN is complete is look to establish its footings in the grounds of New York.

We're hoping we can achieve the installation in a really small amount of time.

How satisfying is it to see it completed?

It's hugely relieving if I'm honest.

Only because there are a lot of people who've really backed the project, who have put their shoulder to the wheel, technically, physically, politically and socially.

It's nice completing something that you said you'd do.

What does it mean both personally, and for Maori, to have this go to the UN?

It raises social and political consciousness around the declaration, for the rights of indigenous people.

At the moment I don't think the majority of New Zealand understand what that declaration actually sets out to protect or how to engage within the UN framework.

I'm hoping what it does is build shared understanding with people, in respect to the declaration itself, but I think one of the great outcomes of this is there's a galvanising of all iwi across the country on a shared kaupapa.

It's really important that we're being self determined alongside the government.

Over time with that beacon in the UN grounds we'll start to understand how to maximise the opportunities that statement makes.