On Now
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil
From 24 August 2024

Shannon Te Ao Pūaotanga o te Ao 2022. Digital print. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2023
Exploring the relationship between tākata and whenua – people and land – through Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history.
This expansive and unmissable exhibition explores the fundamental role whenua plays in the visual language and identity of Aotearoa. Acknowledging Māori as takata whenua, the first peoples to call this land home, themes of kaitiakitaka, colonisation, environmentalism, land use, migration, identity and belonging are considered through collection works, new acquisitions and exciting commissions. Painting, sculpture, ceramics, raraka, photography, moving image, printmaking and weaving by historical and contemporary artists are brought together to reveal how land has been a material and subject for art in Aotearoa for hundreds of years.
Curator:
Peter Vangioni
Melanie Oliver
Felicity Milburn
Chloe Cull
Ken Hall
Exhibition number: 1165
Upcoming Event

Upcoming Event

Upcoming Event

A Visionary Landscape - the Canterbury Plains by Georgia Suiter
25 July
Join art consultant Grant Banbury as he discusses Georgia Suiter's A Visionary Landscape - the Canterbury Plains on display in He Kapuka Oneone - A Handful of Soil on the first floor.
Collection works in this exhibition (127)
Predator I

Denise Copland
Waiho, Retreat

Janine Randerson
He Taonga Mutunga Kore II

Te Kāhui Hono
Ka moe te whaea i te wai

Ross Hemera
Ko Tahu, ko Hamo koa

Ranui Ngarimu
29.09.2009 Tribute to Sāmoa, American Samoa, and Tonga

John Vea
Starfruit Fruiter

Jacquelyn Greenbank
2004 Foreshore and Seabed March, Cyril Chapman holding photograph of himself leading the 1975 Māori Land March in Wellington

John Miller
1975 Māori Land March, Dave Ruru wheels his daughter Tania along the Wellington motorway south of Porirua, Monday, 13th October, 1975

John Miller
1975 Māori Land March, Parliamentary welcome. Left to right: Matiu Rata, Whetū Tirikātene-Sullivan, Hārata Ria Te Uira Solomon, Sally Marshall, Tarawara Kātene.

John Miller
1975 Māori Land March, Whina Cooper speaks at Parliamentary welcome

John Miller
1975 Māori Land March Porirua to Wellington motorway

John Miller
The Blue Slip (Barton's Gully), from Mangarara Stream

Natalie Robertson
Tatau Pounamu

Areta Wilkinson
Akaroa Purchase 1856

Areta Wilkinson
Beacon

Jimmy Ma'ia'i
Reconnect

Sarah Hudson
Puna

Vanessa Wairata Edwards
Remember

Sarah Hudson
Te Hā o Papatūānuku

Louise Pōtiki Bryant
Poumanawhenua

Riki Manuel
Pūaotanga o te Ao

Shannon Te Ao
Māori Never Ceded Sovereignty to the Crown

Robyn Kahukiwa
Ka Whawhai Tonu Mātou

Diane Prince
Midnight Vessel

Tracy Keith
Twilight Vessel

Tracy Keith
Te Au

Simon Kaan
Travel without moving

Conor Clarke
Screens

James Oram
Amongst the People

Sorawit Songsataya
Paikea Pot

Colleen Waata Urlich
Hei Tiaki; Protective Pendants

Alexis Neal
Ka mua ka muri; Looking back in order to move forward

Alexis Neal
Untitled [possibly Mount Alexander from the Taramakau River]

Edmund Gouldsmith
Milford Sound

Edwin Robert Stapylton Sandys
Kawakawa Job 12: 7-8

Shona Rapira-Davies
Ceremonial

Baye Pewhairangi Riddell
Manaia

Baye Pewhairangi Riddell
Ōtāhuhu and Rarotonga

Emily Karaka
Ōhuiarangi

Emily Karaka
Matukutūruru

Emily Karaka
4902 VISTA VOLLEY

Bridget Reweti
4893 DREAM GOOD DREAMS

Bridget Reweti
4877 NO BAD ANGLES

Bridget Reweti
4870 LIVING THE DREAM

Bridget Reweti
4860 SATURATED IN SCENERY

Bridget Reweti
4851 WAIT TILL HE BRINGS YOU RABBITS

Bridget Reweti
4839 JUST NEED TO GO A BIT FASTER

Bridget Reweti
Te Whakawhitinga

Jeremy Leatinu'u
4836 SPOT ON

Bridget Reweti
Norwester Bowl #2

Hana Rakena
Inlet Bowl

Hana Rakena
Brush and Ink Study

Kim Lowe
Storehouses and Storage Platform

Charles Meryon, Auguste Delâtre
Bone Yard Open Home, Cave Painting 4, Convocation of Eagles

Bill Hammond
Frog Rock

Ivy Fife
Sheep Sale

Juliet Peter
Wainui

Rita Angus
View of Mokoia 1

Joanna Margaret Paul
Milkstock

Cheryl Lucas
Twin Peaks, Berlin

Conor Clarke
Untitled (Ōpāwaho Heathcote River, Ōtautahi Christchurch)

Robert Askew Gill
Untitled [Trucks on a Country Road]

Juliet Peter
Untitled [Farmer with Rabbits]

Juliet Peter
Untitled [Clearing Bush and Hoeing]

Juliet Peter
Devastation of burnt forest hillside, Westland

John Johns
Hill Country 2

Margaret Ryley
Pembroke, Lake Wanaka

Laurence William Wilson
Mount Aspiring, Head of Waiatoto Valley

W. G. Baker
On the Wilberforce River near Bond's Station

Thomas Selby Cousins
Freezing Works Series: Designs for a Dinner Set

Bing Dawe
Strataform I

Margaret Ryley
Dark Mountain

Marilynn Webb
Mount Torlesse from near Castle Hill, West Coast Road, Limestone Gate on the Thomas River

James Crowe Richmond
The Forks of the Rakaia

Thomas Selby Cousins
New Zealand glacier

Edwyn Temple
Te Whiti Drawing-Painting

Ralph Hotere
Kaitiaki Figure

John Bevan Ford
Mount Sefton

Charles Worsley
Mount Sefton from Foliage Hill

Charles Worsley
Mining Crumble

Marilynn Webb
A Visionary Landscape - the Canterbury Plains

Georgia Suiter
Mount Sefton

Margaret Stoddart
Mount Sefton from The Hermitage

Dorothy Kate Richmond
Brooklands

Archibald Nicoll
Wall-hanging, Untitled

Nancy Mason
Untitled Lake Scene

John Macintosh Madden
Back Country, Lake Selfe Area

Rata Lovell-Smith
Water Grasses

Ida Lough
Wintertime, Mount Sefton

Esther Studholme Hope
Marshes Burwood

William Menzies Gibb
Clearing up, Otira Gorge

John Gibb
Clearing up after Rain, Foot of Otira Gorge

John Gibb
Bottle Lake

John Gibb
On The Heathcote

James Lawson Balfour
Spöring’s View of Motuaro (from the Endeavour, 1769)

John Bevan Ford
Akaroa Hills

Rita Angus
Untitled [Rider with Dogs and Man in Sleeping Bag]

Juliet Peter
Wainui, Akaroa

Rita Angus
Potato Planting

Russell Clark
Okains Bay, Banks Peninsula

Doris Lusk
The Mamakus

Buck Nin
Kaikoura Country

Olivia Spencer Bower
Onekaka Estuary

Doris Lusk
Haycocks, Wainui

Rita Angus
Mount Rolleston and the Otira River

Petrus van der Velden
Early Morning, Jacksons

Herbert Horridge
Lake Wakatipu

John Gully
Colonization Triptych

William Dunning
Filter Action, Aramoana

Andrew Drummond
Governors Bay

Louise Henderson
On Another Man’s Land

John Pule
Canterbury Plains from Cashmere Hills

Doris Lusk
Canterbury Plains

Colin McCahon
The ‘Food Basket of Rakaihautu’ from Horomaka, 31 March 1991

Mark Adams
Bush Fire, Paraparaumu

Margaret Stoddart
Untitled [Quentin (Kin) Woollaston Shearing]

Toss Woollaston
Land Extensums, Port Hills

Pauline Rhodes
King Tāwhiao Tūkāroto Matutaera Pōtatau Te Wherowhero (Ngāti Mahuta, Tainui)

George Albert Steel, Elizabeth Pulman
King Tāwhiao Tūkāroto Matutaera Pōtatau Te Wherowhero (Ngāti Mahuta, Tainui)

Gottfried Lindauer
Bridge, Mt Cook Road

Rata Lovell-Smith
Aramoana - Drawing for a Black Window

Ralph Hotere
Aramoana Soup

Marilynn Webb
Mount Cook & Francis Joseph [Franz Josef] Glacier, New Zealand - from Freshwater Creek distance about 40 miles

Sir William Fox
Hills and Plains, Waikari

Bill Sutton
Happy Spinners

Olivia Spencer Bower
Still Keeping His Balance, He Used The Umbrella As A Safety Net - image of a man with missile

Bing Dawe
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Article

He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil
Our expansive collection exhibition explores the fundamental role whenua plays in the visual language and identity of Aotearoa New Zealand. Acknowledging Māori as takata whenua, the first peoples to call this land home, themes of kaitiakitaka, colonisation, environmentalism, land use, migration, identity and belonging are considered through collection works, new acquisitions and exciting commissions. Painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, moving image, printmaking and weaving by historical and contemporary artists are brought together to reveal how land has been a material and subject for art in Aotearoa for hundreds of years. Here, the Gallery’s curators each take a closer look at a key work from the exhibition that tells us something about our complex relationship with the whenua.
Director's Foreword

Director’s Foreword
As I write this it’s a cold and gloomy Ōtautahi Christchurch day and the Gallery is abuzz with a wide range of visitors, family groups and children, taking part in our school holiday workshops and programmes, and filling our spaces with activity, excitement and laughter. It’s a lovely warm place to be on a grey day. Hopefully by the time this Bulletin arrives in your hand there’s a sense that spring is arriving, trees are greening up and the days are longer once again. By then we will have recently opened our major new collection focused exhibition to replace Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection.
Commentary

He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil
Our expansive new collection exhibition explores the fundamental role whenua plays in the visual language and identity of Aotearoa New Zealand. Acknowledging Māori as takata whenua, the first peoples to call this land home, themes of kaitiakitaka, colonisation, environmentalism, land use, migration, identity and belonging are considered through collection works, new acquisitions and exciting commissions. Painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, moving image, printmaking and weaving by historical and contemporary artists are brought together to reveal how land has been a material and subject for art in Aotearoa for hundreds of years. Here, the Gallery’s curators each take a closer look at a key work from the exhibition that tells us something about our complex relationship with the whenua.