Kā Kaupapa o te Wā
What’s On
Made in the Pacific: A Collection of Tāoga
A selection of Pacific tāoga from the Canterbury Museum in conversation with contemporary artworks that highlight the continued strength in culture and traditional art forms.
Mark Adams: A Survey | He Kohinga Whakaahua
A comprehensive survey spanning the artist's career.
Ana Iti: Ngahere Behind a Pile of Metal
An immersive installation considering the legacies of deforestation and significance of kauri trees.
E tuwhera ana te wharetoi i kā rā e 7 o te wiki, 10am - 5pm
Ka tuwhera ki te 9pm i kā pō Wenerei
Open 7 days, 10am - 5pm
Late night Wednesday until 9pm
Uruka utukore, ahokore utukore
Free entry, free wifi
Collection
Cora-Allan Fighting for Sovereignty
Cora-Allan paints with whenua pigments sourced from the land. For Cora-Allan, and many Māori artists, whenua is inherently political. It is a symbol of what has been lost through colonisation and what is being fought for by generations of Māori land-rights activists.
When this work was first displayed in the exhibition Encountering Aotearoa in 2024, the artist wrote:
"This year on Waitangi Day, Māori and tangata Tiriti came together to protest the new government, as our nation’s founding document, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, was once again presented as something that can be questioned and revised. This work is an explicit acknowledgement of the fight for sovereignty over land, language and culture that continues to consume tangata whenua and Indigenous communities around the world."
kāpia - kauri gum, resin
hiapo – barkcloth from Niue
whenua – earth, land
tangata Tiriti – non-Māori people who uphold the promise of tino rakatirataka (self-determination, autonomy) enshrined in Te Tiriti o Waitangi
Te Tiriti o Waitangi – the Treaty of Waitangi
tangata whenua – Indigenous people, literally ‘people of the land’
Collection
Louise Pōtiki Bryant Te Hā o Papatūānuku
This spectacular new work by Louise Pōtiki Bryant takes inspiration from Papatūānuku and the way whenua is transformed over time by the movement of water. After Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 devastated the land around where Pōtiki Bryant lives, she reflected on the inseparable relationship between water and land. Awa represent the bloodways of Papatūānuku, while Parawhenuamea, the atua wahine of freshwater on land, is linked with silt deposits and springs. Emerging from the mountains, Parawhenuamea creates pathways over the land, shaping it beneath her as she moves. By using her own body in this work, Pōtiki Bryant explores parallels between the evolving landscape and the changes women’s bodies undergo across different stages of life.
Papatūānuku ~ earth, earth mother
whenua ~ land
awa ~ rivers
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)