Whakamaua! | Wear It! Browse adornments from Te Papa collections – art, history, taonga Māori, and Pacific cultures.
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of SoilExploring the relationship between tākata and whenua – people and land – through Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history.
This expansive and unmissable exhibition explores the fundamental role whenua plays in the visual language and identity of Aotearoa. Acknowledging Māori as takata whenua, the first peoples to call this land home, themes of kaitiakitaka, colonisation, environmentalism, land use, migration, identity and belonging are considered through collection works, new acquisitions and exciting commissions.
Huikaau | where currents meetHuikaau – where currents meet celebrates the past, present, and future of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection – Aotearoa’s first civic collection of art, which was established in Ōtepoti Dunedin in 1884. This exhibition upholds the stories and ideas carried within the collection, welcomes new arrivals, and continues to work in partnership to bring Māori and indigenous perspectives to the fore.
He Aa I Uta, He Aa I Tai: Weaving the ElementsBe immersed in new creations by members of Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa, the national collective of Maaori weavers, supported by the master weavers group, Te Kāhui Whiritoi.
Drawing inspiration from our relationship with air, earth, fire, water and spirit, this large-scale exhibition celebrates the legacy of weaving through traditional and contemporary handcrafted works.
📸 Kahu Piu - Paula-Rigby
Mataaho Collective Hautāmiro (2025) is an installation by Mataaho Collective, which is led by the ancestral narratives of Tokohurunuku, Tokohururangi, Tokohurumawake and Tokohuruatea, the four winds, or the pillars of the sky. The four were children of Huruteaarangi, an atua of the winds who sent her offspring to the edges of the sky to stand as pou that separated Ranginui and Papatūānuku. Inspired by the dynamic visual language of hukahuka whakarākei, the adornments of customary kākahu, Hautāmiro weaves together materials and techniques in an installation that celebrates adaptation, experimentation and mātauranga Māori across generations.
WaioraHemi Macgregor draws on geometric structures, patterns and processes in the natural world to explore our relationship with sky, water, earth and seasons.
Image: Mataura 44 photographed by Cheska Brown
Pōhatu Roa: Stories in StoneShaped by weather and other natural forces over millennia, pōhatu (stone) shows the mark of time on its surface and through its composition. It is the physical memory of our planet and the billions of people who have inhabited it. Each pōhatu silently holds its countless histories within, unable to share what it has experienced.
As a counterpoint to this, Pōhatu Roa: Stories in Stone offers a series of alternative histories told through the skilled hands of artists who have sculpted, carved, drilled and cut this tough and sometimes inflexible material. It features works by Chris Charteris, Craig McIntosh, Neke Moa, Renée Pearson, Fayne Robinson, Joe Sheehan and Tim Steel, who each tell their own stories through this evocative substance.
This exhibition gives a unique insight into diverse narratives that range from the deeply personal to more collective notions. The works in Pōhatu Roa, which loosely translates to the long or enduring stone, cover a surprising range of topics that include the touching story of whānau memories lost to time told through a series of bread plates carved from slate repurposed from a disused pool table; a 3 metre tall ‘necklace’ that acts as a literal and metaphorical anchor point for cultural histories; and the delicately carved objects of the everyday such as usb cords, clothes pegs and tiny birds eggs frozen forever in time.
Tā, TauAn ongoing provocation, Tā, Tau reflects the artist’s contemplation of her contribution to landscape art. She explores this by gathering dirt from places she has lived, as well as whenua connected to her tīpuna. As she walks the land and rests among tussock-covered hills, she considers landlessness, the housing crisis, and contemporary life. She is not concerned with romanticised scenic paintings but rather with the raw, weighty presence of whenua—felt in her hands and reimagined into the structures she creates.
Life in formsPauline Kahurangi Yearbury (b.1928 d.1977 Ngāpuhi) was one of the first Māori artists to introduce Māori cultural narratives into contemporary art. Her work is characterised by a bold and illustrative style. This focused survey includes incised wooden panels featuring figures from Māori whakapapa narratives for which Yearbury is best known, as well as lesser-known drawings and paintings.
Robyn Kahukiwa: Tohunga Mahi ToiThis beautiful and thought-provoking exhibition is a celebration of pioneering artist Robyn Kahukiwa (Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngāti Konohi, Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare).
Robyn’s artistic contributions over recent decades span the changing cultural and political landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum and Gallery is proud to host this selection of artworks. They provide not only beauty and strength but inroads to maatauranga, with Maaori accounts given proper currency and weight.
The title 'Tohunga Mahi Toi' refers to Robyn’s status and expertise as an artist, valued here and internationally. Her work has become an alternate visual rendering of Aotearoa’s history, through the lens of a Māori woman.
“Let us acclaim Robyn Kahukiwa. Let us celebrate her art. Let us celebrate the weaving of whakapapa and whānau that she presents us, and entwined with that, always the raising of the wide-reaching capabilities of women. Let us celebrate her gift and her great determination.”
- Roma Potiki (Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa), exhibition curator.
Robyn Kahukiwa: Tohunga Mahi Toi is developed and toured by The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, in partnership with Te Manawa Museum.
Well-Heeled: Shoes with PersonalityEverybody has shoes – but what do they say about the person that wears them. From sneakerheads to haute couture fanatics, people all over the world have had a fascination with collecting these utilitarian-turned highly desirable objects. Well-Heeled invites you to explore the personal stories, special moments and celebrated events told through the diverse tastes of three Aotearoa New Zealand foot-wear devotees.
📸 United Nude, Delta Wedge Boot, Collection of Lisa Reihana
Toi Whakaata / ReflectionsToi Whakaata / Reflections brings together a focused selection of works by esteemed Māori sculptor Fred Graham (Ngāti Korokī Kahukura, Tainui b.1928). Reflecting on Graham’s art practice of over 70 years, this exhibition includes significant works made between 1965 and 2013, with an emphasis on the artist’s small-scale freestanding sculptures and relief works. The exhibited pieces demonstrate the development of Graham’s distinctive visual language, which intersects Māori and European art traditions and combines wood, stone and stainless steel.
📸 Washbowl of Sorrow, 2004,, Courtesy of Waikato Raupatu Lands Trust/Visual Arts, Waikato Museum
Differences in kind and rhythmDifferences in kind and rhythm is the second in a series of dialogue exhibitions made at Te Uru since 2024 for which artists from Aotearoa are paired with international artists. This dialogue pairs the practices of Italian abstract painter Giorgio Griffa (b.1936, Turin) and local sculptor Peter Robinson (Ngāi Tahu, b.1966, Hakatere). This is the first time Griffa’s work will be exhibited in the Southern Hemisphere. Despite being artists of different generations, backgrounds, and contexts, Griffa and Robinson both use repeat forms and processes in their work to address related concepts of repetition and difference, emergence and continuum.
Whiria ngā kanorau Weave the many colours/seeds. 
He Tukutuku Auahatanga
Karanga atu, Karanga mai - calling outward, calling inward.Vanessa Edwards returns to Tāhuna Queenstown, supported by members of the Toi Whakaata - Māori Print Collective, Alexis Neal, Jasmine Horton and Tessa Russell, to honour her mother and explore the role of pattern within visual culture. Exhibition Opening: Saturday 14 June, 11:00am
To call outward is to expel breath from within - like a karanga during a powhiri or a wailing at a tangi. An outward expression acknowledging or responding to an external catalyst. To call inward is to receive a message into the self - like an internal voice, sometimes a whisper and other times a deafening, chaotic cry.
IwaFor Matariki 2025 we have taken inspiration from the nine stars of Matariki and invited nine ringatoi Māori to contribute ngā mahi toi to celebrate this special time of year. Entitled Iwa this exhibition will celebrate Māori creativity and innovation with the following ringatoi: Thomas Carroll, Mike Crawford, Michelle Hinekura Kerr, Stevei Houkāmau, Jon Jeet, Courtney Marama, Aaron Scythe, Isaac Te Awa, and Arielle Walker.
BirdlandThrough his distinctly recognisable visual language, Chris Heaphy navigates the complexity of representation, connection, identity, time and place. Repetition of motifs and symbols creates a narrative rhythm spurring conversations of interconnection and multiplicity.
Heaphy’s symbolic imagery appears to float on the surface, yet at times it recedes, as if carved into the paint. Like pou in a wharenui, each painting presents a vertical panel with a central point of focus. Similar to the stylised human forms in whakairo, Heaphy’s motifs become holders of whakapapa, an embodiment and preservation of knowledge, lineage, and identity.
Hei TāpiriHEI TĀPIRI is an extension of that noho - supported by our Kaitiaki of Okorore Ngā Toi Māori Hayley Smith supporting our kāhui of collective of local Ringatoi and Artists
A showcase of authentic Māori traditional and contemporary works to be presented this Matariki .
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Holding StoriesNew works from Stevei Houkāmau +Jack Trolove
TĀTAI WHETŪ | CLUSTER OF STARS As we whakanui the reappearance of the constellation of Matariki during Te Tahi o Pipiri we're bringing together mahi from artists Hira Anderson-Mita (Ngāti Maniapoto,Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Rereahu), Star Gossage (Ngāti Wai, NgātiRuanui), Turumeke Harrington (Kāi Tahu, Rangitāne), Reuben Paterson(Ngati Rangitihi, Ngāi Tūhoe, Tūhourangi), Lisa Reihana (Ngāpuhi-NgātiHine-Ngāi Tū-Te Auru), Ngataiharuru Taepa (Te Arawa, Te Āti Awa), and John Walsh (Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti).
Matariki mā PuangaAn exhibition featuring contemporary Māori art by a group of practitioners at the top of their game. Local legend Jacob Scott (Ngāti Raukawa, Te Arawa, Te Atiawa, Ngāti Kahungunu),
a respected Māori Mason, along with Jason Kendrick, is Te Ara Hihiko, whose magnificent work you may have seen recently at Te Whare Toi Heretaunga, Hastings City Art Gallery. Their innovate sculptural pieces of Māori inspired designs are carved using CNC machinery out of sustainable materials, including sea plastic, plywood and recycled native timbers. There is a lovely local connection with the Matariki Mā Puanga panels carved from recycled Rimu tongue and groove from an old villa on Napier Hill.
They share the space with Sheree Willman (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne), a painter based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. Willman’s work is a personal journey of reconnection with Te Ao Māori and her whakapapa. Drawing inspiration from the weavers of her tīpuna, interpreting traditional crafts practiced by Wāhine Māori in paint. Willman presents panels based on kaitaka (fine flax cloaks woven from harakeke) held in the Te Papa and Auckland Museum Collection, as well as one from the MTG (Aho Wāharua Kōpito) woven by her tīpuna.
Hononga“The Art speaks to Matariki as a time of reflection, remembrance, and regeneration. It speaks to harvest, whānau, and the sacredness of Māori cosmology — but also to our place in Aotearoa today. Together they tell a diverse story of who we are while connecting us directly to the Stars of Matariki.”
Te Kupenga | The NetThis exhibition marks the first public presentation of Harrison’s broader research project titled Ngā Pōito i te Kupenga o Toi te Huatahi — The Netfloats in the Net of Toi te Huatahi.
At its centre is the kupenga, or net—a metaphor for the moana as a connective structure, sustaining a people in their ancestral place. The pōito, Ngātiwai’s offshore islands, keep this net afloat. Understood in this way, the ocean is not a void between habitable zones but a lived space of interdependence and accountability. The Net resists the flattening of Māori experience into a single narrative, emphasising the polyvalent nature of the complex histories involved.
Through photography, video, and archival material, it shows how Ngātiwaiknowledge continues to shape their relationships with the natural world, and asks the viewer to imagine an understanding of conservation that acknowledges its roots in both occupation and in traditions of coexistence, sustenance and intergenerational care
Sacred Waters Between Land and SkyJourney through the celestial landscape of Matariki, where ancient stars weave stories of connection, heritage and transformation. This immersive exhibition explores the delicate interplay between water, earth and the cosmic realm, inviting viewers to contemplate the profound cultural significance of Aotearoa's star cluster. Through evocative artworks, Jimmy navigates the spiritual and physical boundaries that bind us to our environment, revealing the deep cultural narratives embedded in Matariki's luminous presence.
TaniwhaOn a bustling building site in Aotearoa, something extraordinary is stirring – the ground is shaking, the hills are shifting, and huge blue mushrooms are growing out of the portaloos! There are two shifty men in suits skulking around town, but Mereana and her tenacious buddies are on the case…When they discover a taniwha in their neighbourhood is being disturbed by new construction, Mereana knows it’s up to them to stop the development and protect its home.
With a score by award-winning composer Leon Radojkovic, invoking the spirit of 80s and 90s adventure flicks and Miyazaki anime, Taniwha is an audacious Aotearoa adventure for the whole whānau – a tale of courage, community, environmental guardianship, and fighting for what’s right.
From the creators of Silo Theatre’s much-loved production of Peter and the Wolf, in collaboration with visual artists Lissy and Rudi Robinson-Cole (Wharenui Harikoa), Taniwha bursts onto the stage in vibrant technicolour, packed with live music, puppetry, and videography. Featuring a revolving cast of narrators, get ready for a one-of-a-kind, magical experience in the theatre.
naadohbii: to draw waterThe exhibition brings together contemporary Indigenous artwork from Turtle Island (Canada), Aotearoa (New Zealand), and many First Peoples nations of Australia. Featuring over 20 artists, including newly commissioned pieces, Naadohbii: To Draw Water illustrates an axis of solidarity between First Peoples nations across the globe around environmental, political and cultural connections to water.
In that stone, in that cyclone, in that leaf
2025 National Contemporary Art AwardThe National Contemporary Art Award was launched in 2000 by the Waikato Society of Arts and has been facilitated and hosted by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery since 2006.
The prestigious competition’s blind-judging process keeps entrant identities confidential, enabling the guest judge to focus solely on the art.
Papatūānuku - Te Whanganui-a-TaraAccording to Māori tradition, Papatūānuku is the Earth Mother, from which all living things are created. In this concert we celebrate nature with Papatūānuku, a work co-created by Kiwi composer Salina Fisher and Grammy Award-winning taonga puoro artist Jerome Kavanagh.
Papatūānuku - Tāmaki MakarauAccording to Māori tradition, Papatūānuku is the Earth Mother, from which all living things are created. In this concert we celebrate nature with Papatūānuku, a work co-created by Kiwi composer Salina Fisher and Grammy Award-winning taonga puoro artist Jerome Kavanagh.
Whāia te TaniwhaThis exhibition celebrates the diversity of taniwha. They are shapeshifters, oceanic guides, leaders, adversaries, guardians and tricksters who have left their marks on the Aotearoa landscape.
Whāia te Taniwha also responds to the impact of colonisation on Māori knowledge systems by celebrating the deep and varied presence of taniwha within te ao Māori,” says Cull.
Whakamaua! | Wear It! Browse adornments from Te Papa collections – art, history, taonga Māori, and Pacific cultures.
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of SoilExploring the relationship between tākata and whenua – people and land – through Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history.
This expansive and unmissable exhibition explores the fundamental role whenua plays in the visual language and identity of Aotearoa. Acknowledging Māori as takata whenua, the first peoples to call this land home, themes of kaitiakitaka, colonisation, environmentalism, land use, migration, identity and belonging are considered through collection works, new acquisitions and exciting commissions.
Huikaau | where currents meetHuikaau – where currents meet celebrates the past, present, and future of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection – Aotearoa’s first civic collection of art, which was established in Ōtepoti Dunedin in 1884. This exhibition upholds the stories and ideas carried within the collection, welcomes new arrivals, and continues to work in partnership to bring Māori and indigenous perspectives to the fore.
He Aa I Uta, He Aa I Tai: Weaving the ElementsBe immersed in new creations by members of Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa, the national collective of Maaori weavers, supported by the master weavers group, Te Kāhui Whiritoi.
Drawing inspiration from our relationship with air, earth, fire, water and spirit, this large-scale exhibition celebrates the legacy of weaving through traditional and contemporary handcrafted works.
📸 Kahu Piu - Paula-Rigby
Mataaho Collective Hautāmiro (2025) is an installation by Mataaho Collective, which is led by the ancestral narratives of Tokohurunuku, Tokohururangi, Tokohurumawake and Tokohuruatea, the four winds, or the pillars of the sky. The four were children of Huruteaarangi, an atua of the winds who sent her offspring to the edges of the sky to stand as pou that separated Ranginui and Papatūānuku. Inspired by the dynamic visual language of hukahuka whakarākei, the adornments of customary kākahu, Hautāmiro weaves together materials and techniques in an installation that celebrates adaptation, experimentation and mātauranga Māori across generations.
WaioraHemi Macgregor draws on geometric structures, patterns and processes in the natural world to explore our relationship with sky, water, earth and seasons.
Image: Mataura 44 photographed by Cheska Brown
Pōhatu Roa: Stories in StoneShaped by weather and other natural forces over millennia, pōhatu (stone) shows the mark of time on its surface and through its composition. It is the physical memory of our planet and the billions of people who have inhabited it. Each pōhatu silently holds its countless histories within, unable to share what it has experienced.
As a counterpoint to this, Pōhatu Roa: Stories in Stone offers a series of alternative histories told through the skilled hands of artists who have sculpted, carved, drilled and cut this tough and sometimes inflexible material. It features works by Chris Charteris, Craig McIntosh, Neke Moa, Renée Pearson, Fayne Robinson, Joe Sheehan and Tim Steel, who each tell their own stories through this evocative substance.
This exhibition gives a unique insight into diverse narratives that range from the deeply personal to more collective notions. The works in Pōhatu Roa, which loosely translates to the long or enduring stone, cover a surprising range of topics that include the touching story of whānau memories lost to time told through a series of bread plates carved from slate repurposed from a disused pool table; a 3 metre tall ‘necklace’ that acts as a literal and metaphorical anchor point for cultural histories; and the delicately carved objects of the everyday such as usb cords, clothes pegs and tiny birds eggs frozen forever in time.
Tā, TauAn ongoing provocation, Tā, Tau reflects the artist’s contemplation of her contribution to landscape art. She explores this by gathering dirt from places she has lived, as well as whenua connected to her tīpuna. As she walks the land and rests among tussock-covered hills, she considers landlessness, the housing crisis, and contemporary life. She is not concerned with romanticised scenic paintings but rather with the raw, weighty presence of whenua—felt in her hands and reimagined into the structures she creates.
Life in formsPauline Kahurangi Yearbury (b.1928 d.1977 Ngāpuhi) was one of the first Māori artists to introduce Māori cultural narratives into contemporary art. Her work is characterised by a bold and illustrative style. This focused survey includes incised wooden panels featuring figures from Māori whakapapa narratives for which Yearbury is best known, as well as lesser-known drawings and paintings.
Robyn Kahukiwa: Tohunga Mahi ToiThis beautiful and thought-provoking exhibition is a celebration of pioneering artist Robyn Kahukiwa (Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngāti Konohi, Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare).
Robyn’s artistic contributions over recent decades span the changing cultural and political landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum and Gallery is proud to host this selection of artworks. They provide not only beauty and strength but inroads to maatauranga, with Maaori accounts given proper currency and weight.
The title 'Tohunga Mahi Toi' refers to Robyn’s status and expertise as an artist, valued here and internationally. Her work has become an alternate visual rendering of Aotearoa’s history, through the lens of a Māori woman.
“Let us acclaim Robyn Kahukiwa. Let us celebrate her art. Let us celebrate the weaving of whakapapa and whānau that she presents us, and entwined with that, always the raising of the wide-reaching capabilities of women. Let us celebrate her gift and her great determination.”
- Roma Potiki (Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa), exhibition curator.
Robyn Kahukiwa: Tohunga Mahi Toi is developed and toured by The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, in partnership with Te Manawa Museum.
Well-Heeled: Shoes with PersonalityEverybody has shoes – but what do they say about the person that wears them. From sneakerheads to haute couture fanatics, people all over the world have had a fascination with collecting these utilitarian-turned highly desirable objects. Well-Heeled invites you to explore the personal stories, special moments and celebrated events told through the diverse tastes of three Aotearoa New Zealand foot-wear devotees.
📸 United Nude, Delta Wedge Boot, Collection of Lisa Reihana
Toi Whakaata / ReflectionsToi Whakaata / Reflections brings together a focused selection of works by esteemed Māori sculptor Fred Graham (Ngāti Korokī Kahukura, Tainui b.1928). Reflecting on Graham’s art practice of over 70 years, this exhibition includes significant works made between 1965 and 2013, with an emphasis on the artist’s small-scale freestanding sculptures and relief works. The exhibited pieces demonstrate the development of Graham’s distinctive visual language, which intersects Māori and European art traditions and combines wood, stone and stainless steel.
📸 Washbowl of Sorrow, 2004,, Courtesy of Waikato Raupatu Lands Trust/Visual Arts, Waikato Museum
Differences in kind and rhythmDifferences in kind and rhythm is the second in a series of dialogue exhibitions made at Te Uru since 2024 for which artists from Aotearoa are paired with international artists. This dialogue pairs the practices of Italian abstract painter Giorgio Griffa (b.1936, Turin) and local sculptor Peter Robinson (Ngāi Tahu, b.1966, Hakatere). This is the first time Griffa’s work will be exhibited in the Southern Hemisphere. Despite being artists of different generations, backgrounds, and contexts, Griffa and Robinson both use repeat forms and processes in their work to address related concepts of repetition and difference, emergence and continuum.
Whiria ngā kanorau Weave the many colours/seeds. He Tukutuku AuahatangaKaranga atu, Karanga mai - calling outward, calling inward.Vanessa Edwards returns to Tāhuna Queenstown, supported by members of the Toi Whakaata - Māori Print Collective, Alexis Neal, Jasmine Horton and Tessa Russell, to honour her mother and explore the role of pattern within visual culture. Exhibition Opening: Saturday 14 June, 11:00am
To call outward is to expel breath from within - like a karanga during a powhiri or a wailing at a tangi. An outward expression acknowledging or responding to an external catalyst. To call inward is to receive a message into the self - like an internal voice, sometimes a whisper and other times a deafening, chaotic cry.
IwaFor Matariki 2025 we have taken inspiration from the nine stars of Matariki and invited nine ringatoi Māori to contribute ngā mahi toi to celebrate this special time of year. Entitled Iwa this exhibition will celebrate Māori creativity and innovation with the following ringatoi: Thomas Carroll, Mike Crawford, Michelle Hinekura Kerr, Stevei Houkāmau, Jon Jeet, Courtney Marama, Aaron Scythe, Isaac Te Awa, and Arielle Walker.
BirdlandThrough his distinctly recognisable visual language, Chris Heaphy navigates the complexity of representation, connection, identity, time and place. Repetition of motifs and symbols creates a narrative rhythm spurring conversations of interconnection and multiplicity.
Heaphy’s symbolic imagery appears to float on the surface, yet at times it recedes, as if carved into the paint. Like pou in a wharenui, each painting presents a vertical panel with a central point of focus. Similar to the stylised human forms in whakairo, Heaphy’s motifs become holders of whakapapa, an embodiment and preservation of knowledge, lineage, and identity.
Hei TāpiriHEI TĀPIRI is an extension of that noho - supported by our Kaitiaki of Okorore Ngā Toi Māori Hayley Smith supporting our kāhui of collective of local Ringatoi and Artists
A showcase of authentic Māori traditional and contemporary works to be presented this Matariki .
Holding StoriesNew works from Stevei Houkāmau +Jack Trolove
TĀTAI WHETŪ | CLUSTER OF STARS As we whakanui the reappearance of the constellation of Matariki during Te Tahi o Pipiri we're bringing together mahi from artists Hira Anderson-Mita (Ngāti Maniapoto,Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Rereahu), Star Gossage (Ngāti Wai, NgātiRuanui), Turumeke Harrington (Kāi Tahu, Rangitāne), Reuben Paterson(Ngati Rangitihi, Ngāi Tūhoe, Tūhourangi), Lisa Reihana (Ngāpuhi-NgātiHine-Ngāi Tū-Te Auru), Ngataiharuru Taepa (Te Arawa, Te Āti Awa), and John Walsh (Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti).
Matariki mā PuangaAn exhibition featuring contemporary Māori art by a group of practitioners at the top of their game. Local legend Jacob Scott (Ngāti Raukawa, Te Arawa, Te Atiawa, Ngāti Kahungunu),
a respected Māori Mason, along with Jason Kendrick, is Te Ara Hihiko, whose magnificent work you may have seen recently at Te Whare Toi Heretaunga, Hastings City Art Gallery. Their innovate sculptural pieces of Māori inspired designs are carved using CNC machinery out of sustainable materials, including sea plastic, plywood and recycled native timbers. There is a lovely local connection with the Matariki Mā Puanga panels carved from recycled Rimu tongue and groove from an old villa on Napier Hill.
They share the space with Sheree Willman (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne), a painter based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. Willman’s work is a personal journey of reconnection with Te Ao Māori and her whakapapa. Drawing inspiration from the weavers of her tīpuna, interpreting traditional crafts practiced by Wāhine Māori in paint. Willman presents panels based on kaitaka (fine flax cloaks woven from harakeke) held in the Te Papa and Auckland Museum Collection, as well as one from the MTG (Aho Wāharua Kōpito) woven by her tīpuna.
Hononga“The Art speaks to Matariki as a time of reflection, remembrance, and regeneration. It speaks to harvest, whānau, and the sacredness of Māori cosmology — but also to our place in Aotearoa today. Together they tell a diverse story of who we are while connecting us directly to the Stars of Matariki.”
Te Kupenga | The NetThis exhibition marks the first public presentation of Harrison’s broader research project titled Ngā Pōito i te Kupenga o Toi te Huatahi — The Netfloats in the Net of Toi te Huatahi.
At its centre is the kupenga, or net—a metaphor for the moana as a connective structure, sustaining a people in their ancestral place. The pōito, Ngātiwai’s offshore islands, keep this net afloat. Understood in this way, the ocean is not a void between habitable zones but a lived space of interdependence and accountability. The Net resists the flattening of Māori experience into a single narrative, emphasising the polyvalent nature of the complex histories involved.
Through photography, video, and archival material, it shows how Ngātiwaiknowledge continues to shape their relationships with the natural world, and asks the viewer to imagine an understanding of conservation that acknowledges its roots in both occupation and in traditions of coexistence, sustenance and intergenerational care
Sacred Waters Between Land and SkyJourney through the celestial landscape of Matariki, where ancient stars weave stories of connection, heritage and transformation. This immersive exhibition explores the delicate interplay between water, earth and the cosmic realm, inviting viewers to contemplate the profound cultural significance of Aotearoa's star cluster. Through evocative artworks, Jimmy navigates the spiritual and physical boundaries that bind us to our environment, revealing the deep cultural narratives embedded in Matariki's luminous presence.
TaniwhaOn a bustling building site in Aotearoa, something extraordinary is stirring – the ground is shaking, the hills are shifting, and huge blue mushrooms are growing out of the portaloos! There are two shifty men in suits skulking around town, but Mereana and her tenacious buddies are on the case…When they discover a taniwha in their neighbourhood is being disturbed by new construction, Mereana knows it’s up to them to stop the development and protect its home.
With a score by award-winning composer Leon Radojkovic, invoking the spirit of 80s and 90s adventure flicks and Miyazaki anime, Taniwha is an audacious Aotearoa adventure for the whole whānau – a tale of courage, community, environmental guardianship, and fighting for what’s right.
From the creators of Silo Theatre’s much-loved production of Peter and the Wolf, in collaboration with visual artists Lissy and Rudi Robinson-Cole (Wharenui Harikoa), Taniwha bursts onto the stage in vibrant technicolour, packed with live music, puppetry, and videography. Featuring a revolving cast of narrators, get ready for a one-of-a-kind, magical experience in the theatre.
naadohbii: to draw waterThe exhibition brings together contemporary Indigenous artwork from Turtle Island (Canada), Aotearoa (New Zealand), and many First Peoples nations of Australia. Featuring over 20 artists, including newly commissioned pieces, Naadohbii: To Draw Water illustrates an axis of solidarity between First Peoples nations across the globe around environmental, political and cultural connections to water.
In that stone, in that cyclone, in that leaf2025 National Contemporary Art AwardThe National Contemporary Art Award was launched in 2000 by the Waikato Society of Arts and has been facilitated and hosted by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery since 2006.
The prestigious competition’s blind-judging process keeps entrant identities confidential, enabling the guest judge to focus solely on the art.
Papatūānuku - Te Whanganui-a-TaraAccording to Māori tradition, Papatūānuku is the Earth Mother, from which all living things are created. In this concert we celebrate nature with Papatūānuku, a work co-created by Kiwi composer Salina Fisher and Grammy Award-winning taonga puoro artist Jerome Kavanagh.
Papatūānuku - Tāmaki MakarauAccording to Māori tradition, Papatūānuku is the Earth Mother, from which all living things are created. In this concert we celebrate nature with Papatūānuku, a work co-created by Kiwi composer Salina Fisher and Grammy Award-winning taonga puoro artist Jerome Kavanagh.
Whāia te TaniwhaThis exhibition celebrates the diversity of taniwha. They are shapeshifters, oceanic guides, leaders, adversaries, guardians and tricksters who have left their marks on the Aotearoa landscape.
Whāia te Taniwha also responds to the impact of colonisation on Māori knowledge systems by celebrating the deep and varied presence of taniwha within te ao Māori,” says Cull.
Whakamaua! | Wear It! Browse adornments from Te Papa collections – art, history, taonga Māori, and Pacific cultures.
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of SoilExploring the relationship between tākata and whenua – people and land – through Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history.
This expansive and unmissable exhibition explores the fundamental role whenua plays in the visual language and identity of Aotearoa. Acknowledging Māori as takata whenua, the first peoples to call this land home, themes of kaitiakitaka, colonisation, environmentalism, land use, migration, identity and belonging are considered through collection works, new acquisitions and exciting commissions.
Huikaau | where currents meetHuikaau – where currents meet celebrates the past, present, and future of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection – Aotearoa’s first civic collection of art, which was established in Ōtepoti Dunedin in 1884. This exhibition upholds the stories and ideas carried within the collection, welcomes new arrivals, and continues to work in partnership to bring Māori and indigenous perspectives to the fore.
He Aa I Uta, He Aa I Tai: Weaving the ElementsBe immersed in new creations by members of Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa, the national collective of Maaori weavers, supported by the master weavers group, Te Kāhui Whiritoi.
Drawing inspiration from our relationship with air, earth, fire, water and spirit, this large-scale exhibition celebrates the legacy of weaving through traditional and contemporary handcrafted works.
📸 Kahu Piu - Paula-Rigby
Mataaho Collective Hautāmiro (2025) is an installation by Mataaho Collective, which is led by the ancestral narratives of Tokohurunuku, Tokohururangi, Tokohurumawake and Tokohuruatea, the four winds, or the pillars of the sky. The four were children of Huruteaarangi, an atua of the winds who sent her offspring to the edges of the sky to stand as pou that separated Ranginui and Papatūānuku. Inspired by the dynamic visual language of hukahuka whakarākei, the adornments of customary kākahu, Hautāmiro weaves together materials and techniques in an installation that celebrates adaptation, experimentation and mātauranga Māori across generations.
WaioraHemi Macgregor draws on geometric structures, patterns and processes in the natural world to explore our relationship with sky, water, earth and seasons.
Image: Mataura 44 photographed by Cheska Brown
Pōhatu Roa: Stories in StoneShaped by weather and other natural forces over millennia, pōhatu (stone) shows the mark of time on its surface and through its composition. It is the physical memory of our planet and the billions of people who have inhabited it. Each pōhatu silently holds its countless histories within, unable to share what it has experienced.
As a counterpoint to this, Pōhatu Roa: Stories in Stone offers a series of alternative histories told through the skilled hands of artists who have sculpted, carved, drilled and cut this tough and sometimes inflexible material. It features works by Chris Charteris, Craig McIntosh, Neke Moa, Renée Pearson, Fayne Robinson, Joe Sheehan and Tim Steel, who each tell their own stories through this evocative substance.
This exhibition gives a unique insight into diverse narratives that range from the deeply personal to more collective notions. The works in Pōhatu Roa, which loosely translates to the long or enduring stone, cover a surprising range of topics that include the touching story of whānau memories lost to time told through a series of bread plates carved from slate repurposed from a disused pool table; a 3 metre tall ‘necklace’ that acts as a literal and metaphorical anchor point for cultural histories; and the delicately carved objects of the everyday such as usb cords, clothes pegs and tiny birds eggs frozen forever in time.
Tā, TauAn ongoing provocation, Tā, Tau reflects the artist’s contemplation of her contribution to landscape art. She explores this by gathering dirt from places she has lived, as well as whenua connected to her tīpuna. As she walks the land and rests among tussock-covered hills, she considers landlessness, the housing crisis, and contemporary life. She is not concerned with romanticised scenic paintings but rather with the raw, weighty presence of whenua—felt in her hands and reimagined into the structures she creates.
Life in formsPauline Kahurangi Yearbury (b.1928 d.1977 Ngāpuhi) was one of the first Māori artists to introduce Māori cultural narratives into contemporary art. Her work is characterised by a bold and illustrative style. This focused survey includes incised wooden panels featuring figures from Māori whakapapa narratives for which Yearbury is best known, as well as lesser-known drawings and paintings.
Robyn Kahukiwa: Tohunga Mahi ToiThis beautiful and thought-provoking exhibition is a celebration of pioneering artist Robyn Kahukiwa (Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngāti Konohi, Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare).
Robyn’s artistic contributions over recent decades span the changing cultural and political landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum and Gallery is proud to host this selection of artworks. They provide not only beauty and strength but inroads to maatauranga, with Maaori accounts given proper currency and weight.
The title 'Tohunga Mahi Toi' refers to Robyn’s status and expertise as an artist, valued here and internationally. Her work has become an alternate visual rendering of Aotearoa’s history, through the lens of a Māori woman.
“Let us acclaim Robyn Kahukiwa. Let us celebrate her art. Let us celebrate the weaving of whakapapa and whānau that she presents us, and entwined with that, always the raising of the wide-reaching capabilities of women. Let us celebrate her gift and her great determination.”
- Roma Potiki (Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa), exhibition curator.
Robyn Kahukiwa: Tohunga Mahi Toi is developed and toured by The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, in partnership with Te Manawa Museum.
Well-Heeled: Shoes with PersonalityEverybody has shoes – but what do they say about the person that wears them. From sneakerheads to haute couture fanatics, people all over the world have had a fascination with collecting these utilitarian-turned highly desirable objects. Well-Heeled invites you to explore the personal stories, special moments and celebrated events told through the diverse tastes of three Aotearoa New Zealand foot-wear devotees.
📸 United Nude, Delta Wedge Boot, Collection of Lisa Reihana
Toi Whakaata / ReflectionsToi Whakaata / Reflections brings together a focused selection of works by esteemed Māori sculptor Fred Graham (Ngāti Korokī Kahukura, Tainui b.1928). Reflecting on Graham’s art practice of over 70 years, this exhibition includes significant works made between 1965 and 2013, with an emphasis on the artist’s small-scale freestanding sculptures and relief works. The exhibited pieces demonstrate the development of Graham’s distinctive visual language, which intersects Māori and European art traditions and combines wood, stone and stainless steel.
📸 Washbowl of Sorrow, 2004,, Courtesy of Waikato Raupatu Lands Trust/Visual Arts, Waikato Museum
Differences in kind and rhythmDifferences in kind and rhythm is the second in a series of dialogue exhibitions made at Te Uru since 2024 for which artists from Aotearoa are paired with international artists. This dialogue pairs the practices of Italian abstract painter Giorgio Griffa (b.1936, Turin) and local sculptor Peter Robinson (Ngāi Tahu, b.1966, Hakatere). This is the first time Griffa’s work will be exhibited in the Southern Hemisphere. Despite being artists of different generations, backgrounds, and contexts, Griffa and Robinson both use repeat forms and processes in their work to address related concepts of repetition and difference, emergence and continuum.
Whiria ngā kanorau Weave the many colours/seeds. He Tukutuku AuahatangaKaranga atu, Karanga mai - calling outward, calling inward.Vanessa Edwards returns to Tāhuna Queenstown, supported by members of the Toi Whakaata - Māori Print Collective, Alexis Neal, Jasmine Horton and Tessa Russell, to honour her mother and explore the role of pattern within visual culture. Exhibition Opening: Saturday 14 June, 11:00am
To call outward is to expel breath from within - like a karanga during a powhiri or a wailing at a tangi. An outward expression acknowledging or responding to an external catalyst. To call inward is to receive a message into the self - like an internal voice, sometimes a whisper and other times a deafening, chaotic cry.
IwaFor Matariki 2025 we have taken inspiration from the nine stars of Matariki and invited nine ringatoi Māori to contribute ngā mahi toi to celebrate this special time of year. Entitled Iwa this exhibition will celebrate Māori creativity and innovation with the following ringatoi: Thomas Carroll, Mike Crawford, Michelle Hinekura Kerr, Stevei Houkāmau, Jon Jeet, Courtney Marama, Aaron Scythe, Isaac Te Awa, and Arielle Walker.
BirdlandThrough his distinctly recognisable visual language, Chris Heaphy navigates the complexity of representation, connection, identity, time and place. Repetition of motifs and symbols creates a narrative rhythm spurring conversations of interconnection and multiplicity.
Heaphy’s symbolic imagery appears to float on the surface, yet at times it recedes, as if carved into the paint. Like pou in a wharenui, each painting presents a vertical panel with a central point of focus. Similar to the stylised human forms in whakairo, Heaphy’s motifs become holders of whakapapa, an embodiment and preservation of knowledge, lineage, and identity.
Hei TāpiriHEI TĀPIRI is an extension of that noho - supported by our Kaitiaki of Okorore Ngā Toi Māori Hayley Smith supporting our kāhui of collective of local Ringatoi and Artists
A showcase of authentic Māori traditional and contemporary works to be presented this Matariki .
Holding StoriesNew works from Stevei Houkāmau +Jack Trolove
TĀTAI WHETŪ | CLUSTER OF STARS As we whakanui the reappearance of the constellation of Matariki during Te Tahi o Pipiri we're bringing together mahi from artists Hira Anderson-Mita (Ngāti Maniapoto,Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Rereahu), Star Gossage (Ngāti Wai, NgātiRuanui), Turumeke Harrington (Kāi Tahu, Rangitāne), Reuben Paterson(Ngati Rangitihi, Ngāi Tūhoe, Tūhourangi), Lisa Reihana (Ngāpuhi-NgātiHine-Ngāi Tū-Te Auru), Ngataiharuru Taepa (Te Arawa, Te Āti Awa), and John Walsh (Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti).
Matariki mā PuangaAn exhibition featuring contemporary Māori art by a group of practitioners at the top of their game. Local legend Jacob Scott (Ngāti Raukawa, Te Arawa, Te Atiawa, Ngāti Kahungunu),
a respected Māori Mason, along with Jason Kendrick, is Te Ara Hihiko, whose magnificent work you may have seen recently at Te Whare Toi Heretaunga, Hastings City Art Gallery. Their innovate sculptural pieces of Māori inspired designs are carved using CNC machinery out of sustainable materials, including sea plastic, plywood and recycled native timbers. There is a lovely local connection with the Matariki Mā Puanga panels carved from recycled Rimu tongue and groove from an old villa on Napier Hill.
They share the space with Sheree Willman (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne), a painter based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. Willman’s work is a personal journey of reconnection with Te Ao Māori and her whakapapa. Drawing inspiration from the weavers of her tīpuna, interpreting traditional crafts practiced by Wāhine Māori in paint. Willman presents panels based on kaitaka (fine flax cloaks woven from harakeke) held in the Te Papa and Auckland Museum Collection, as well as one from the MTG (Aho Wāharua Kōpito) woven by her tīpuna.
Hononga“The Art speaks to Matariki as a time of reflection, remembrance, and regeneration. It speaks to harvest, whānau, and the sacredness of Māori cosmology — but also to our place in Aotearoa today. Together they tell a diverse story of who we are while connecting us directly to the Stars of Matariki.”
Te Kupenga | The NetThis exhibition marks the first public presentation of Harrison’s broader research project titled Ngā Pōito i te Kupenga o Toi te Huatahi — The Netfloats in the Net of Toi te Huatahi.
At its centre is the kupenga, or net—a metaphor for the moana as a connective structure, sustaining a people in their ancestral place. The pōito, Ngātiwai’s offshore islands, keep this net afloat. Understood in this way, the ocean is not a void between habitable zones but a lived space of interdependence and accountability. The Net resists the flattening of Māori experience into a single narrative, emphasising the polyvalent nature of the complex histories involved.
Through photography, video, and archival material, it shows how Ngātiwaiknowledge continues to shape their relationships with the natural world, and asks the viewer to imagine an understanding of conservation that acknowledges its roots in both occupation and in traditions of coexistence, sustenance and intergenerational care
Sacred Waters Between Land and SkyJourney through the celestial landscape of Matariki, where ancient stars weave stories of connection, heritage and transformation. This immersive exhibition explores the delicate interplay between water, earth and the cosmic realm, inviting viewers to contemplate the profound cultural significance of Aotearoa's star cluster. Through evocative artworks, Jimmy navigates the spiritual and physical boundaries that bind us to our environment, revealing the deep cultural narratives embedded in Matariki's luminous presence.
TaniwhaOn a bustling building site in Aotearoa, something extraordinary is stirring – the ground is shaking, the hills are shifting, and huge blue mushrooms are growing out of the portaloos! There are two shifty men in suits skulking around town, but Mereana and her tenacious buddies are on the case…When they discover a taniwha in their neighbourhood is being disturbed by new construction, Mereana knows it’s up to them to stop the development and protect its home.
With a score by award-winning composer Leon Radojkovic, invoking the spirit of 80s and 90s adventure flicks and Miyazaki anime, Taniwha is an audacious Aotearoa adventure for the whole whānau – a tale of courage, community, environmental guardianship, and fighting for what’s right.
From the creators of Silo Theatre’s much-loved production of Peter and the Wolf, in collaboration with visual artists Lissy and Rudi Robinson-Cole (Wharenui Harikoa), Taniwha bursts onto the stage in vibrant technicolour, packed with live music, puppetry, and videography. Featuring a revolving cast of narrators, get ready for a one-of-a-kind, magical experience in the theatre.
naadohbii: to draw waterThe exhibition brings together contemporary Indigenous artwork from Turtle Island (Canada), Aotearoa (New Zealand), and many First Peoples nations of Australia. Featuring over 20 artists, including newly commissioned pieces, Naadohbii: To Draw Water illustrates an axis of solidarity between First Peoples nations across the globe around environmental, political and cultural connections to water.
In that stone, in that cyclone, in that leaf2025 National Contemporary Art AwardThe National Contemporary Art Award was launched in 2000 by the Waikato Society of Arts and has been facilitated and hosted by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery since 2006.
The prestigious competition’s blind-judging process keeps entrant identities confidential, enabling the guest judge to focus solely on the art.
Papatūānuku - Te Whanganui-a-TaraAccording to Māori tradition, Papatūānuku is the Earth Mother, from which all living things are created. In this concert we celebrate nature with Papatūānuku, a work co-created by Kiwi composer Salina Fisher and Grammy Award-winning taonga puoro artist Jerome Kavanagh.
Papatūānuku - Tāmaki MakarauAccording to Māori tradition, Papatūānuku is the Earth Mother, from which all living things are created. In this concert we celebrate nature with Papatūānuku, a work co-created by Kiwi composer Salina Fisher and Grammy Award-winning taonga puoro artist Jerome Kavanagh.
Whāia te TaniwhaThis exhibition celebrates the diversity of taniwha. They are shapeshifters, oceanic guides, leaders, adversaries, guardians and tricksters who have left their marks on the Aotearoa landscape.
Whāia te Taniwha also responds to the impact of colonisation on Māori knowledge systems by celebrating the deep and varied presence of taniwha within te ao Māori,” says Cull.
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