Te Huringa/ Turning Points

Te Huringa – the Turning Point Pakeha Colonisation and Maori Empowerment is an exhibition of paintings from the collections of the Fletcher Trust and Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui.

The long curvaceous peninsula of Northland/Te Tai Tokerau can claim a very unique place in the social, political and cultural memory of our country. As birthplace of a nation and a significant first point of social interaction between Maori and Pakeha, Northland also became a seedbed for artistic expression after the colonial era.

Te Huringa – the Turning Point Pakeha Colonisation and Maori Empowerment is a major exhibition of New Zealand art and historical responses to a new social order, and consequent reclaiming of old values, as viewed by contemporary artists in the mid to late 20th century.

Described eloquently as ‘like a travelator back though a pictorial history of Aotearoa’ Whangarei Art Museum is proud to be able to bring this highly important exhibition to Northland on the ‘final leg’ of its national tour. Many thousands have visited the exhibition all over New Zealand - 42,000 in Wellington alone. The exhibition has been supported by the Fletcher Trust (and Angus Fletcher in particular whose father Sir James Fletcher began the art collection), Te Puni Kokiri and Maori Television, indicating its cultural significance.

Prestigious art museums such as the City Gallery Wellington, Christchurch Art Gallery, and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery have hosted the exhibition which contains works by many of the most important artists of their era. Spanning two centuries from the post-Contact period these include Augustus Earle, Nicolas Chevalier, John Louis Steele and Charles Goldie, Horatio Robley, Russell Clark, Colin McCahon, Gordon Walters Ralph Hotere, Robyn Kahukiwa and Shane Cotton and many many more.

This is a visually sumptuous and compelling exhibition filling the entire museum galleries with resonant images and deeply relevant text information from dual maori and pakeha perspectives on the themes of the exhibition. This ground-breaking approach to curatorship with two adjacent perspectives to the same work show how interpretation can differ according to the cultural backgrounds of the viewer. The exhibition is designed to appeal to all ages and levels of art knowledge – or those who want to engage with the important themes in past and recent New Zealand history.

The opening of this exhibition will be attended by the 2 co-curators; art historian Dr Jo Diamond (Ngapuhi) and Fletcher Trust collection curator and author Peter Shaw and Fletcher Trust Chairman Angus Fletcher.

Image: Robyn Kahukiwa - Tihe Mauri Ora
From the Fletcher Trust collection

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