Sylvia Marsters, Io-ora (breath of life), Tiare Maori, 2025. Oil on extra fine linen, 205x300mm.
Opening 6pm, Monday 21st July, all welcome.
"When approaching this exhibition, in celebration of our 60th milestone of self government, I revisited notes and statements that I had made of “identity” and what it is that defines us as to who and what we are as a people.
Colonization - do we know what this is? Social and cultural values have changed since the arrival of the Christian Missionaries, then later the Commercial Traders. We have consequently become conditioned to adapt and believe in Western concepts and structures which dictate what we are today. In my view this is irreversible, as we would fashion it to be.
Theres the old saying that “home is where the heart is”. What if home were to change? And became something you could no longer identify with? That there were names or faces that you could no longer recognize, relate or identify with. Where is culture then?
Reclamation of culture? What is that? History, Language, Papa’anga and Traditions that will only struggle to retrieve itself."
Mahiriki Tangaroa.
Mahiriki Tangaroa.
