Bridget Reweti Ziarah 2018. HD digital video; duration 10 mins. Courtesy of the artist. Made with support from Circuit Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand, Asia New Zealand Foundation and Cemeti Institute for Art and Society Jogjakarta, Indonesia.
This exhibition is now closed
Ziarah is an Arabic word that refers to an ancestral or spiritual pilgrimage to a gravesite. Developed while artist Bridget Reweti was on residency in the Indonesian city of Jogjakarta, this work traces her attempt to find the unmarked graves of navigator Tupaia and his nephew and apprentice Taiata on nearby Damar Besar Island.
Local Betawi artist and fisher Safir Islami narrates, describing his environmental concerns for the area, his own relationship with the ocean and how he imagines Tupaia may have felt here, far from his home in Tahiti.
Tupaia and Taiata boarded the HMS Endeavour in Tahiti and sailed to Aotearoa in 1769. Tupaia’s diplomatic skill and ability to converse with Māori was instrumental in de-escalating violence from the Endeavour’s crew toward Māori, and warning oncoming waka taua (war canoes) about the gunpowder on board. In Indonesia late the following year, after a bout of serious illness on the ship, Tupaia and Taiata died only a few days apart.
Guided by translator Edwina Brennan and local fishers, Bridget reaches their resting place. Through shared knowledge and navigation, Ziarah reframes a story that is often dominated by the Endeavour and instead shows us a meaningful relationship between Tupaia, Māori and the waters that connect across time and place.
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Date:
7 July – 23 October 2023 -
Curator:
Jane Wallace -
Exhibition number:
1164
Related reading: Video art
Exhibition
Māori Moving Image ki Te Puna o Waiwhetū
4 June – 16 October 2022
An exhibition championing film, animation and video art made by several generations of Māori artists.
Exhibition
Spheres: An Online Video Project
April – October 2020
An online series of moving image works exploring social distance and personal environments including works from Xin Cheng, John Chrisstoffels, Conor Clarke, Ronnie van Hout, Sonya Lacey, Janet Lilo, Sione Monu, James Oram, Nova Paul, Bridget Reweti, Sriwhana Spong and Matavai Taulangau.
Exhibition
Māori Moving Image: An Open Archive
23 August 2019 – 26 January 2020
This dynamic exhibition explores the history of Māori artists who have used animation, film and video as a medium.
Interview
Looking at Forty Years of Māori Moving Image Practice
Māori Moving Image: An Open Archive is co-curated by Bridget Reweti and Melanie Oliver. The following text is a conversation between the two curators around co-curating, archives and Māori moving image practice.
Collection
Bridget Reweti 4902 VISTA VOLLEY
Te Rua-o-te-Moko Fiordland and Kā Puna-karikari-a-Rākaihautū Southern Lakes of Te Waipounamu South Island have been popular tourist destinations since the mid-nineteenth century. Commercial photographers of the time, such as the Burton Brothers, relied heavily on views of these iconic landscapes to make commercially attractive photographs to sell to customers. In this selection of photographs from Bridget Reweti’s Summering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri series, she responds to the Burton Brothers’ 1889 photographs from Wintering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. Reweti reclaims them through a different lens informed by the awareness that these sites hold significance and memories for mana whenua, Kāi Tahu. She hand-coloured each photograph with whenua given to her by locals in each location, reconnecting her images with the experience of being present in the land, rather than ‘snapped and trapped’ views separated from their physical and cultural context.
mana whenua ~ Māori with authority over particular land or territory
Kāi Tahu ~ tribal group of much of Te Waipounamu South Island
whenua ~ ground, soil
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
Bridget Reweti 4893 DREAM GOOD DREAMS
Te Rua-o-te-Moko Fiordland and Kā Puna-karikari-a-Rākaihautū Southern Lakes of Te Waipounamu South Island have been popular tourist destinations since the mid-nineteenth century. Commercial photographers of the time, such as the Burton Brothers, relied heavily on views of these iconic landscapes to make commercially attractive photographs to sell to customers. In this selection of photographs from Bridget Reweti’s Summering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri series, she responds to the Burton Brothers’ 1889 photographs from Wintering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. Reweti reclaims them through a different lens informed by the awareness that these sites hold significance and memories for mana whenua, Kāi Tahu. She hand-coloured each photograph with whenua given to her by locals in each location, reconnecting her images with the experience of being present in the land, rather than ‘snapped and trapped’ views separated from their physical and cultural context.
mana whenua ~ Māori with authority over particular land or territory
Kāi Tahu ~ tribal group of much of Te Waipounamu South Island
whenua ~ ground, soil
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
Bridget Reweti 4877 NO BAD ANGLES
Te Rua-o-te-Moko Fiordland and Kā Puna-karikari-a-Rākaihautū Southern Lakes of Te Waipounamu South Island have been popular tourist destinations since the mid-nineteenth century. Commercial photographers of the time, such as the Burton Brothers, relied heavily on views of these iconic landscapes to make commercially attractive photographs to sell to customers. In this selection of photographs from Bridget Reweti’s Summering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri series, she responds to the Burton Brothers’ 1889 photographs from Wintering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. Reweti reclaims them through a different lens informed by the awareness that these sites hold significance and memories for mana whenua, Kāi Tahu. She hand-coloured each photograph with whenua given to her by locals in each location, reconnecting her images with the experience of being present in the land, rather than ‘snapped and trapped’ views separated from their physical and cultural context.
mana whenua ~ Māori with authority over particular land or territory
Kāi Tahu ~ tribal group of much of Te Waipounamu South Island
whenua ~ ground, soil
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
Bridget Reweti 4870 LIVING THE DREAM
Te Rua-o-te-Moko Fiordland and Kā Puna-karikari-a-Rākaihautū Southern Lakes of Te Waipounamu South Island have been popular tourist destinations since the mid-nineteenth century. Commercial photographers of the time, such as the Burton Brothers, relied heavily on views of these iconic landscapes to make commercially attractive photographs to sell to customers. In this selection of photographs from Bridget Reweti’s Summering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri series, she responds to the Burton Brothers’ 1889 photographs from Wintering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. Reweti reclaims them through a different lens informed by the awareness that these sites hold significance and memories for mana whenua, Kāi Tahu. She hand-coloured each photograph with whenua given to her by locals in each location, reconnecting her images with the experience of being present in the land, rather than ‘snapped and trapped’ views separated from their physical and cultural context.
mana whenua ~ Māori with authority over particular land or territory
Kāi Tahu ~ tribal group of much of Te Waipounamu South Island
whenua ~ ground, soil
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
Bridget Reweti 4860 SATURATED IN SCENERY
Te Rua-o-te-Moko Fiordland and Kā Puna-karikari-a-Rākaihautū Southern Lakes of Te Waipounamu South Island have been popular tourist destinations since the mid-nineteenth century. Commercial photographers of the time, such as the Burton Brothers, relied heavily on views of these iconic landscapes to make commercially attractive photographs to sell to customers. In this selection of photographs from Bridget Reweti’s Summering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri series, she responds to the Burton Brothers’ 1889 photographs from Wintering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. Reweti reclaims them through a different lens informed by the awareness that these sites hold significance and memories for mana whenua, Kāi Tahu. She hand-coloured each photograph with whenua given to her by locals in each location, reconnecting her images with the experience of being present in the land, rather than ‘snapped and trapped’ views separated from their physical and cultural context.
mana whenua ~ Māori with authority over particular land or territory
Kāi Tahu ~ tribal group of much of Te Waipounamu South Island
whenua ~ ground, soil
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
Bridget Reweti 4851 WAIT TILL HE BRINGS YOU RABBITS
Te Rua-o-te-Moko Fiordland and Kā Puna-karikari-a-Rākaihautū Southern Lakes of Te Waipounamu South Island have been popular tourist destinations since the mid-nineteenth century. Commercial photographers of the time, such as the Burton Brothers, relied heavily on views of these iconic landscapes to make commercially attractive photographs to sell to customers. In this selection of photographs from Bridget Reweti’s Summering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri series, she responds to the Burton Brothers’ 1889 photographs from Wintering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. Reweti reclaims them through a different lens informed by the awareness that these sites hold significance and memories for mana whenua, Kāi Tahu. She hand-coloured each photograph with whenua given to her by locals in each location, reconnecting her images with the experience of being present in the land, rather than ‘snapped and trapped’ views separated from their physical and cultural context.
mana whenua ~ Māori with authority over particular land or territory
Kāi Tahu ~ tribal group of much of Te Waipounamu South Island
whenua ~ ground, soil
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
Bridget Reweti 4839 JUST NEED TO GO A BIT FASTER
Te Rua-o-te-Moko Fiordland and Kā Puna-karikari-a-Rākaihautū Southern Lakes of Te Waipounamu South Island have been popular tourist destinations since the mid-nineteenth century. Commercial photographers of the time, such as the Burton Brothers, relied heavily on views of these iconic landscapes to make commercially attractive photographs to sell to customers. In this selection of photographs from Bridget Reweti’s Summering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri series, she responds to the Burton Brothers’ 1889 photographs from Wintering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. Reweti reclaims them through a different lens informed by the awareness that these sites hold significance and memories for mana whenua, Kāi Tahu. She hand-coloured each photograph with whenua given to her by locals in each location, reconnecting her images with the experience of being present in the land, rather than ‘snapped and trapped’ views separated from their physical and cultural context.
mana whenua ~ Māori with authority over particular land or territory
Kāi Tahu ~ tribal group of much of Te Waipounamu South Island
whenua ~ ground, soil
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
Bridget Reweti 4836 SPOT ON
Te Rua-o-te-Moko Fiordland and Kā Puna-karikari-a-Rākaihautū Southern Lakes of Te Waipounamu South Island have been popular tourist destinations since the mid-nineteenth century. Commercial photographers of the time, such as the Burton Brothers, relied heavily on views of these iconic landscapes to make commercially attractive photographs to sell to customers. In this selection of photographs from Bridget Reweti’s Summering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri series, she responds to the Burton Brothers’ 1889 photographs from Wintering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. Reweti reclaims them through a different lens informed by the awareness that these sites hold significance and memories for mana whenua, Kāi Tahu. She hand-coloured each photograph with whenua given to her by locals in each location, reconnecting her images with the experience of being present in the land, rather than ‘snapped and trapped’ views separated from their physical and cultural context.
mana whenua ~ Māori with authority over particular land or territory
Kāi Tahu ~ tribal group of much of Te Waipounamu South Island
whenua ~ ground, soil
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Notes
A Quick Q&A with James Oram
Over lockdown, Ōtautahi artist James Oram made a new work for our online exhibition Spheres: An Online Video Project. I asked him a few questions about the making of the work, which is up on our website until the end of October.
Commentary
Memory Pictures
… it suits me to take pictures on celluloid that were formerly pictures of the mind, memory pictures, pictures of the imagination …
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Exhibition
Meg Porteous and Rea Burton: Nancy Treadler
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Exhibition
Max Fleury and Anna Brimer: Glory
A playful video of impromptu water fountains made from everyday objects.