Ka Awatea, A New Dawn surveys the work of Senior Māori artist Emily Karaka, a descendant of the many iwi [tribes] of Tāmaki Makaurau, the Auckland Isthmus, Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Kahu and Ngāti Hine. Largely self-taught, Karaka is an abstract expressionist, a colourist and an occasional assemblage artist. Born of the politics of colonisation, her work is personal, passionate and anchored in Māori rights related to the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Described by Karaka as ‘political landscapes’ or ‘self-portraits personal in the landscape,’ her paintings embody her ongoing advocacy for iwi justice and equity. Recognised for their expressionistic intensity, saturated colour palette and often-ambitious scale, her canvasses carry messages of Māori sovereignty, social justice, care for the environment and love for her family.
Karaka is of Ngai Tai ki Tāmaki, Te Kawerau ā Maki, Ngāti Tamaoho, Te Ākitai Waiohua, Te Awhiwaru, Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Tāhinga, Ngāti Kahu and Ngāti Hine descent. Ka Awatea, A New Dawn is the first major exhibition of the artist’s oeuvre. It highlights the immediacy of her practice as a political artist; her influence as an iwi leader with cultural knowledge and tribal history carried within her work; and her power as a painter. The exhibition brings together selected works drawn from public and private collections, across her five-decade career, alongside new work commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation.
Emily Karaka: Ka Awatea, A New Dawn is curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, and Megan Tamati-Quennell, of Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Mutunga, Taranaki, Ngāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe and Waitaha descent, co-curator of Sharjah Biennial 16, with Amal Alkhaja, Assistant Curator, and Abdulla Aljanahi, Curatorial Assistant at Sharjah Art Foundation.
PARALLEL PROCESS:
PALESTINIAN HORIZON
mixed media on canvas
2024
The forced and illegal eviction of Palestitian People from their homeland breaches the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement
Treaty of Peace, Diplomatic Relations and Full Normalization Between the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel signed 15 September 2020 United Arab Emirates, United States (witness) & the Bahrain–Israel Agreement, Abraham Accords: Declaration of Peace, Cooperation, and Constructive Diplomatic and Friendly Relations also signed15 September 2020 between Bahrain, Israel, United States (witness)
The illegal eviction of the Palestinian People from their ancestral and spiritual homeland is an act of Genocide
with 10,000 children killed in 100 days,its undisputable, the WAR on innocent people must stop now! The global call for ceasefire is ignored; Human rights groups calling Palestine
"the world's largest open-air prison." yet it is Ironic that yet again the British: Colonial Construct, in creating the State of Israel, fuelled never ending division, oppression and war
30.January 2024—"The United Kingdom will look at the issue
of recognizing a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations," British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said at a London reception for Arab ambassadors. The U.K., like the United States, supports a two-state solution to the decades-old crisis in the Middle East, whereby Israelis and Palestinians would negotiate an end to the conflict through the creation of a new independent nation of Palestine to exist alongside Israel.
As the Israel-Hamas war continues, the U.K. has joined others (not, however, the U.S) in calling for an immediate pause in the fighting, as well as the release of all hostages being held in Gaza and the provision of humanitarian aid to the war-torn Palestinian territory. The three opposition parties, the Maori Party,Green Party and Labour Party in New Zealand oppose the war in Palestine, New Zealand First Leader and Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand supports the two nation state solution:The liberation of Palestine must be determined now(6)
But "most important of all," Cameron told the Arab ambassadors, "is to give the Palestinian people a political horizon."
Parihaka:
Invasion and Destruction
mixed media on canvas
2024
Founded in the mid-1860s, Parihaka attracted dispossessed and disillusioned Māori from all around the country
Maori Prisoners Act 1880
Reports described arrested maori ploughmen and fencers as political prisoners. August 1880, the Crown-appointed West Coast Commission concluded its final report by stating that Taranaki Maori were being imprisoned “not for crimes, but for a political offence in which there is no sign of criminal intent”. On 7 October 1880, the Crown released twenty-five ploughmen as an “experiment” to gauge how Taranaki Maori, and the prisoners themselves, would react. The next release of prisoners did not occur until December 1880, approximately eighteen months after the first ploughmen were arrested for fencing cultivations destroyed by settlors & their cattle
June 1881, Crown forces engaged in road-making again opening fences surrounding cultivations near Parihaka. Residents of Parihaka, including Te Atiawa people, again repaired them. In August, Māori from Parihaka and surrounding settlements began to clear and fence traditional cultivation sites, some of which lay on coastal sections that the Government had surveyed or sold to European settlers As tensions increased, the Crown increased the Armed Constabulary presence around Parihaka
5 November 1881 about 1600 troops invaded the western Taranaki settlement of Parihaka, which symbolised peaceful resistance to the confiscation of Māori land .Following the invasion of Parihaka, 6 people were arrested including leaders, Tohu Kakahi and Te Whiti Rongomai who were charged with sedition all were imprisioned without trial. 1600 followers were expelled, Homes and cultivations in the vicinity were systematically destroyed, and stock driven away or killed. Special legislation was subsequently passed to restrict Maori gatherings.Entry into Parihaka was regulated by a pass system. Taranaki Maori, including Te Atiawa, assert that women were raped and otherwise molested by the soldiersIts still the meeting place of the peoples of Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi. The 18th day of every month is the pivotal forum of the community wherein the traditions and teachings of Parihaka are maintained. The spiritual legacy is one of living in harmony with the land and humanity
SCORCHED EARTH;
IHUMATAO in the Ring of Fire
mixed media on canvas
2024
Ihumatao Penninsula once had four volcanic mountains out of the fifty volcanoes of Tamakimakaurau / Auckland Volcanic Ring of Fire. Te Puketāpapatanga-a-Hape (or Pukeiti), is the smallest cone in Auckland's Volcanic field. Other ancestral maunga within the Ihumataao Penninsula are the main volcanic cones of Ōtuataua and Maungataketake to the south, quarried in the 1950s and 1960s, the scoria used for public works programmes including the runways for Auckland Airport. Once, Ōtuataua acted as a natural fortification for Ihumāatao’s pā, the lower slopes of the volcano had intensive gardening areas. The remnant of Ōtuataua Maunga is now part of the Ōtuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve
The Colonial Crown exerted (as it still does), that their authority over ‘the Natives’ is on the basis that the English language version of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, rather than Te Reo Māori te Tiriti (Māori version) is correct.
Ihumatao is where the first Māori King, Chief Te Wherowhero Pōtaatau was elected (with two of five meetings held between 1856 and 1858 at Ihumatao) to establish the Kiingitanga.This
is where the Tainui waka landed after crossing the portage at Ōtāhuhu, before it finally sailed to Kawhia where it is buried.
On 17th July 1866 Scottish Methodist Farmer Gavin Struthers Wallace bought Lot 175 (13) and Lot 176 (14) confiscated Māori land at Ihumātaao at a Waste Land Office Auction– The Royal Seal of Land Grant from Queen Victoria’s representative, Freemason Governor George Grey, was affixed to the Grant on 28th December 1867. (3)
In 2012, Manawhenua opposed the settler Wallace Family's Company seeking to have the land rezoned through an appeal
to the Environment Court, to have the existing rural land (known as "The Wallace Bloc") designated as a Future Development. The Wallace Family’s appeal succeeded and the Land was included within the Auckland Metropolitan Urban limits Plan. ‘The Wallace Block’ was then for sale... to Fletcher Residential – a subsidiary of Fletcher Building Limited,
Local Maori opposed the Settler Wallace Family move in the Environment Court to have the disputed land at Ōruarangi in Ihumāatao rezoned from ‘Rural’ to ‘Future Development Zone’ stating, that all land at Ōruarangi was wāhi tapu, or sacred, since the site contained ancient volcanic burial caves.
November 2013, Fletcher Residential advised the Council that it intended to build at Ōruarangi Rd. Council’s Housing Projects Office prepared a confidential brief titled the ‘The Wallace Block’. The Māngere Ōtāhuhu Local Board discussed and rejected the proposal on 19 March 2014. The following day, Fletcher and the Blackwells entered into a sale and purchase agreement for $19 million. Eleven days later, Fletcher, as a majority overseas company, applied for Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approval of the sale. Two days after that, the Auckland Council Development Committee, approved the Fletcher proposal to build 520 houses with an end of 2014
start date.
An updated Wallace Report included a short section saying, ‘the Local Board opposes the project’ to which the Housing Projects Office added ‘recommend that the project proceed.’
Fletcher Building consortium bought the 81-acre paddocked property off Gavin H Wallace Limited in March 2014 for a sum of $19 million. Fletcher Building’s subsidiary Fletcher Residential planed to develop the site for residential housing next to the Puketaapapa volcano at the edge of the Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve (4)
Raupatu : The Confiscation or Seizure of Maori Land
The Hashtag #ProtectIhumaatao had lit up social media like a Christmas tree for several months. It appeared the whole nation was talking about and had an opinion about Ihumaatao.
"The land must be returned to mana whenua" is the unified anthem that was released not only from Waikato-Tainui but also the Kingitanga.( Te Hookioi : Issue 71)
There wasn’t a robust processes by the Crown to ensure the return of the 81 CONFISCATED acres of land comprising the Oruarangi Block at Ihumātaao which is alongside and adjacent to the Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve owned by the Auckland (City) Council.
The Consented BUILD at SHA 62 (the Special Housing Area)
By National protest was stonewalled. Government relies upon the Kingitanga, the oldest Cultural, Spiritual and Political institution in the Country to peacefully resolve any stand-off
at Ihmuaatao, Auckland/ Tamakimakaurau.
The Crown and its Agent, The Governor General and
The New Zealand Government have a distinct duty of care and responsibility to compensate Te Ahi Waru under the Te Ahi Waru (Taua) WAI 2401 Historic Treaty of Waitangi Claim,
iwi- landless after the loss of the Tribal estate Confiscated in1860's...wai 2401 is set down to be heard next year,2025.
I riro whenua atu, me hoki whenua mai..
(as land was taken, land should be returned)
the land and humanity