Pioneering Māori artist and broadcaster Selwyn Muru died this week at the age of 86. Tainui Stephens looks back at his life and work.
Herewini Murupaenga was born in Te Hāpua, the far north home of the Ngāti Kurī people of Te Aupōuri. His upbringing was steeped in the traditions of his people. He had a profound love for Māori history and art, and made a career out of it. His 10 brothers and sisters were taught the ways of the seas and harbours that surrounded their home, in particular the skills of fishing, and feeding the old people. Muru loved fishing.
His childhood was intensely musical. With their father on violin and everyone else on a range of instruments, the family would perform on special occasions, simply for the joy of it. That early introduction to the piano stayed with him; he once did a stint as a professional pianist. Muru developed a style of playing that meant he could play almost any song after hearing it once. He always maintained that his ears taught him to play any instrument — and that was a good thing, because ears are free.
While he pursued a career as a teacher, he managed to teach himself art. With the support of astute Pākehā mentors, his creative spirit and craft skills soared. In the 1950s Gorden Tovey, an arts advisor to the Department of Education, had implemented an arts development scheme aimed at Māori. It unleashed a generation of influential artists like Katerina Mataira, Para Matchitt, Fred Graham, Freda Kāwharu and Ralph Hōtere. Muru too was a key artist working in many media. He and his peers changed the face of New Zealand art. They expressed the pains of the people with a compelling sense of resurgent pride. Muru’s paintings and carvings are provocative and vast, whatever their scale.
As a writer he felt he was a medium for the old people. He was inspired by the best Māori practitioners of the day. Poet Hone Tūwhare opened his mind to the power of thinking in Māori, and writing in English. Te Ōhākī ā Nihe, first broadcast as a 1979 radio play in te reo, is an affectionate salute to an elder of his youth: a keen racing man who could see the future because he understood the whakapapa of horses. A version screened on Koha for Māori Language Week in 1993, and Don Selwyn later turned it into a half-hour film. Muru’s other plays included The Gospel According To Tāne and Get The Hell Home Boy. Their themes expressed the values of the kaumātua of his youth, and of the many he befriended in the course of an eventful life.
In 1964 Muru took an acting role in road movie Runaway. He ended up staying on for the rest of the shoot, as one of the set designers. He would go on to narrate episodes of 60s TV show Looking at New Zealand and this 1972 documentary about moko.
In the mid 1960s he joined the NZ Broadcasting Corporation, and became both protégé and peer to some of the best pioneer Māori radio broadcasters of the time. One early task was to establish long-running English language weekly show He Puna Wai Kōrero. In the 1970s Muru became the lead producer and presenter for weekly te reo programme Te Reo O Te Pīpīwharauroa. Old school Māori radio hands like Bill Parker, Pūrewa Biddle, Hēnare Te Ua, Bill Kerekere and Haare Williams impressed upon Muru the disciplines of using the right language at the right time, when communicating with listeners. He learned his craft well, and flourished as he brought to vivid life many radio documentaries that decade.
In the early 1980s, a move into television was a natural progression for a man with astute ears, an orator’s voice, and extravagant artistic gifts. All his talents were put to good use as he became a mainstay of the Koha team, as a reporter and director. Many television programmes of the 1980s benefitted from Muru’s writing or presenting skills. En route, he interviewed Hone Tūwhare and Whina Cooper, and reported from legendary exhibition Te Māori. He bought a focused Māori intellect, creativity and humour to every programme he made.
Māori television at that time was still new — Koha, the first regular Māori programme, debuted in 1980 — and the language was not yet welcome on-screen. Muru knew how to use both Māori and English in ways that moved the listener. He was one of the first to use sacred and formal language on television that would normally only be heard on the marae. This was a bold move and required mana to be done well.
There were also occasional acting roles. Muru appeared in Rowley Habib’s 1976 play Death of the Land, guested in this episode of cop show Mortimer’s Patch, and cameoed alongside his own artworks in Don Selwyn’s pioneering te reo feature The Māori Merchant of Venice (2002).
In 1987 he was chosen to present Whina Cooper’s episode of This is Your Life. He was also teaching a number of courses on Selwyn and Brian Kirby’s scheme, training Māori for work in television. Muru taught everywhere, from universities to Mt Eden prison. Creative New Zealand’s Te Tohu mō Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu Award recognised his work in Māori visual art, broadcasting, journalism and whaikōrero.
Muru cut a distinguished figure in mid-shot: his strong, bearded features were always underscored with an impressive taonga hanging around his neck. He had a fine speaking voice with a love for a well-turned phrase. His pronounced northern lilt and impeccable pacing gave weight and dignity to expressions of aroha that are now a normal part of the New Zealand television experience.
In 2022 Muru was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the NZ Portrait Gallery in Wellington - and accompanying book Selwyn Muru: A Life’s Work.
Muru passed away on 24 January 2024, surrounded by his whānau. He was 86.
Moe mai e te rangatira, moe mai.
This story originally appeared on NZ On Screen and is reproduced here courtesy of NZ On Screen. You can read more at its website www.nzonscreen.com
A timeline of Selwyn Muru’s life in the headlines he made
by Russell Baillie
Headlines and index descriptions don’t tell the whole story. But get enough of them and they can indicate how long, wide and deep the story was. So it is with the story of Selwyn Muru, a man who became a Māori multimedia force for many of his 86 years.
The man born Herewini Murupaenga in Te Hapua, became many things in his time – painter, teacher, curator, journalist, broadcaster, writer, playwright, director, musician, teacher, actor. If you look up his life at the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, you might start wondering: “Was there more than one Selwyn Muru?” But there was just the one, a man who contained multitudes.
Here are just some of them …
Selwyn Muru’s paintings win wide acclaim. 1964
New post for artist: Selwyn Muru appointed Māori Programme Officer with the NZBC. 1967
Selwyn Muru prominent worker for Māori Welfare in Wellington. 1969
Selwyn Muru is undertaking to complete a series of 300 paintings on the story of land grabs in Taranaki, originating from The Parihaka Story. 1975
Selwyn Muru, Māori writer has short play Get the Hell Home Boy in Auckland Festival. 1982.
Illustrative article on Selwyn Muru’s paintings which were exhibited in Aotea Square as a protest against the Springbok Tour and apartheid. 1981
Writer, artist and broadcaster, Selwyn Muru has constructed a “mural”on his garden fence. 1984
Selwyn Muru: his latest sculpture Crucifixus Pro Papa is a reciprocal gesture by the Auckland artist. 1986
Article about carver Selwyn Muru and his relationship with the Te Māori exhibition. 1987
Selwyn Muru is taking utu (revenge) against Auckland Regional Council politicians who made unflattering remarks last week about artwork in their new headquarters. 1990
Selwyn Muru replies to a recent editorial on race relations, written by Alan Duff. 1991
Selwyn Muru joins Kura Te Waru-Rawiri at Elam School of Fine Arts 1993
Selwyn Muru: A Life’s Work – the title of his New Zealand Portrait Gallery retrospective exhibition in 2022-23.
