The Gallery, Takurua Winter 2023

Whakaahua: Now I sit as Pounamu on Papatūānuku is a series of transformational images crafted from artist Tia Barrett’s (Ngāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Te Rapuwai, Waitaha, Ngāti Tamainupō, Ngāti Maniapoto) earlier works. “These photographs traverse stages of change that depict my creative mauri as an entity, and how my mauri was affected in environments that held trauma and potential. Western education systems slowly exhausted my glow and discriminated against my unique Māori art practice,” she says. “The hope of possibility and the process of mauri ohooho nurtured my creative essence or energy back to a whole state of mauri ora. It reawakened a fresh potency of a mana wahine Māori perspective.”

Glossary. Mana wahine Māori, proud Māori woman. Mauri, spirit. Mauri ohooho, to nurture the potential in life force or energy. Mauri ora, full health, well-being, flourishing, potential.