Kia ora tātou

Welcome to awateatanga, 'first light.' This online resource is dedicated to compiling a list of contemporary Māori resources currently available on the Web. The audience is primarily secondary school teachers teaching Art History. It is not intended as a general compedium on all Māori arts--my focus here is on contemporary artists who might be studied for Art History at NCEA level.

Why first light?
Because as a trainee teacher I feel like a farmer--I have to work late and arise early. In the Ngata Dictionary there is a proverb: 'Maranga ai te kaiahuwhenua i mua i te awateatanga' or 'The farmer gets up before first light.' This early light has attraction for many painters--it's the time when the old has passed and the new is about to emerge. What could be more fitting for the new and exciting wave of contemporary Māori art?

How does this resource work?
This is a 'blog' or online diary. Each week I will log into this resource and update the links to new resources that I have found. I've found that the biggest dificulty I've had to face in writing the HTML for this site has been macrons. Still, there is no excuse as information on coding for macrons is available here.

Six Māori Artists

Below I've listed links to information from a variety of sources on ten contemporary artists.


Shane Cotton. Excellent biographical information from Gow Langsford Galleries.
Lyonel Grant. Biography of Grant from John Leech Galleries--good overview of his career as a sculptor.
Ralph Hotere. Biography of Hotere from John Leech Galleries.
Robyn Kahukiwa. Info on her recent work from Bowen Galleries.
Peter Robinson. Good pictures of Peter Robinson's Bi-Polar exhibition at the 2001 Venice Biennale.
Hariata Ropata Tangahoe. Biographical information from the City Art Gallery.

There's a good page on contemporary Maori artists on the Wellington City Library Art Resource.

If you are having trouble reading macrons, you can download a free Māori font from Learning Media.

Robyn Kahukiwa

There a good short entry of information on Kahukiwa's work over at the University of Otago. The entry doesn't have the correct fonts--you'll notice that her artist's statement contains the great phrase "Ki te ao marama": 'To the world of light and life.' Pity that the macrons aren't correct!

Adding Users

I've just tweaked the blog so that I can now add other users to blog. If you'd like to be a contributor leave me a comment including your name and email address and I'll add you as a contributor. You can also email me at harveymolloy@excite.com.