Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei is marking 184 years of tuku whenua - the birth of modern Tāmaki Makaurau, with the launch of a special art exhibition.
Karakia, karanga and waiata flowed at dawn as the Ngā Taonga Tūturu: Treasured Māori Portraits exhibition was unveiled at Auckland Art Gallery.
“Kāre i kore kei te pupū mai ngā kare ā-roto o ngā uri o Te Kawau me ngā mea Māori kua tau nei i te ata nei,” Ngarimu Blair of Ngāti Whātua says.
(Emotions are stirring among the descendants of Te Kawau and those who have arrived this morning.)
September 18th, 1840 is the day that Ngāti Whātua chief Apihai Te Kawau allocated 3000 acres of land to Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson. This was the foundation for what is now Tāmaki Makaurau’s city centre, offered as ‘tuku whenua’ - a claim which gives access to land with expectations of reciprocity.
The exhibition features 18 historic Gottfried Lindauer oil portraits of tīpuna Māori from across the motu. A selection of nine whakairo are on display at the gallery for the first time since 1915, after being on long-term loan to Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum.
“E hangai ana te kaupapa nei ki a [Te Kawau] - ki ērā o ngā pou matua o Ngāti Whātua nāna tēnei whenua o te Pokapū o Tāmaki, nāna i tuku ki te kāwana, ki a Kawana Hopihana.”
“I tukuna e Apihai i ērā whenua hei nohoanga mā te Pākehā,” gallery poumatua Joe Pihema says.
(This exhibition directly relates to [Te Kawau] - to the main pillars of Ngāti Whātua, the owners of the Auckland city centre who allocated it to Governor Hobson. That land was given by Apihai as a settlement for Pākehā.)
This launch coincides with the renaming of an upstairs section of the gallery in honour of Apihai Te Kawau, whose son Te Hira Te Kawau appears in a portrait by Lindauer.
While Auckland Anniversary Day is typically celebrated in January - marking the day when Hobson arrived at Kororāreka - the question has been raised of whether it should be changed to a different day to honor Hobson’s partnership with mana whenua.
“He mahi kia whakaoho i te marea whāioio i roto i tēnei tāone - mā te aroha o Ngāti Whātua ka tū tēnei tāone - ehara i te mea mā te Atua Pākehā e noho ora nei te Pākehā ki runga i ēnei whenua, nā te Māori tērā mahi.”
“Kia whakanui tēnā whakaaro, tērā rautaki nō te mea kei te ora tonu, kei te haruru tonu te iwi o Ngāti Whātua.”
(This is to awaken the masses in our city - the love of Ngāti Whātua is what established this town. The Pākehā do not thrive on this land by their Atua Pākehā - it is by Māori. We endorse this notion and strategy because Ngāti Whātua is still alive and thriving.)
Although few tāonga are on display, around 300 tāonga are said to be in the larger collection, and may come to light in due time.
“Ka haere tonu, ka haere tonu tēnei whakaaturanga, engari ko ngā whakaahua, ā, ētahi taima ka rereke, ka tīnihia. Heoi anō, i tenei wā, ae - e tuwhera ana tēnei whare, Te Kawau, mō ake tonu atu. Me te tūmanako ka haere mai te tini me te mano o Aotearoa ki te titiro, ki te nohotahi me ēnei tīpuna nō ngā hau e whā.”
(This exhibition will continue, but the portraits may be changed at times. However, right now, the Te Kawau Gallery will be open forever and ever with the hope that crowds from across Aotearoa will come to see it, to be one with these ancestors from the four winds.)
Ngā Taonga Tūturu: Treasured Māori Portraits is a free exhibition, and will remain at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki as a semi-permanent display for the forseeable future.