Untitled

Untitled

E rua ngā whakapaparanga tikanga pani tuku iho kei roto i tēnei taonga nā Shane Cotton i tā, waihoki ko ngā tirohanga ki te ao e tauaro ana. Kua whenumitia tētehi tikanga tuku iho i heke mai, arā, ko te tā i te whenua, ki ngā tānga pakoko nā te Māori tonu i whakaputa i muri mai i ngā pakanga whenua i ngā tau 1860, hei urupare atu i te raupatu a te Pākehā i hō rātou whenua.

Ko te tikanga o te ipu i roto i te tānga nei, hei whakamaharatanga ki ngā ipu otaota i peitahia ki te whare o Rongopai (1888) e ngā pononga a Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki, te poropiti nāna te hāhi Ringatū i whakaara. He hononga tō te tohu o te ipu otaota ki te maunu me te whakaipu i tētehi mea. Nā Te Kooti i arahi i ngā mahi ātete ki te raupatu whenua, pērā i hētehi atu poropiti o taua wā i piere nuku ngā panonitanga me te ahurea tonu.

Ko te maunga atamai kei waenganui hei tohu i tā Charles Heaphy tānga peita waikano e kīia ana ko Mount Egmont from the Southward (1840). I terea te kaipuke o te New Zealand Company e kīia ana ko te Tory, e Charles Heaphy, me te aha i utua a ia ki te whakaputa i ngā whakaahua o te ‘whenua hōu’ hei hoko atu ki ngā kainoho i Ingarangi. I whakarahia te kupu ‘SLICE’ i te pare o te tānga hei tohu i te ruri whenua me te whakatū taiepa ki te whenua hoki. He kupu hei whakakaha hoki i te motu i ngā here o te iwi Māori ki hō rātou whenua mā te ‘raupatu’ i pā ki te rohe o Taranaki, waihoki te parau me te turaki a ngā morehu o Parihaka i ngā taiepa hei rautaki tohu i tō rātou mana motuhake.

—

In this painting Shane Cotton layers two different painting traditions and their contrasting worldviews. An imported painting tradition in which land is depicted as available for the taking is re-mixed with a figurative painting tradition developed by Māori in the years after the 1860s land wars in response to the confiscation of their lands.

The pot in this painting recalls the iconography of pot plants painted in the meeting house Rongopai (1888) by the followers of Te Kooti Rikirangi Te Turuki, founder and spiritual leader of the Ringatū faith. The potted plant has associations of being uprooted and contained. Like other prophets during this time of change and cultural upheaval, Te Kooti led a resistance against the alienation of Māori land.

The elegant shaped central mountain directly references Charles Heaphy’s watercolour painting Mount Egmont from the Southward (1840). Charles Heaphy was the artist onboard the New Zealand Company ship the Tory charged with producing views of the ‘new land’ to sell to potential settlers in England. The word ‘SLICE’ emblazoned across the top of the painting alludes to the surveying and fencing of lands. The word also recalls the severing of Māori connection to their lands through the raupatu (confiscation) of the Taranaki region and the use of ploughing and fencing as a resistance strategy by the people of Parihaka.

— Text developed for Te Hau Whakatonu: A Series of Never-ending Beginnings (5 August 2023–11 February 2024), curated by Taarati Taiaroa