Preparations for Landing—Paemanu: Tauraka Toi

Abstract

Since 2018, a kin group of Kāi Tahu contemporary artists called Paemanu has worked collaboratively with the Dunedin Public Art Gallery (DPAG)—established in 1884 and home of the oldest art collection in Aotearoa New Zealand—to see Māori values and concepts introduced into and intersect at the art institution. The group’s goals have been realised through the collaborative permanent collection exhibition Hurahia ana kā Whetū: Unveiling the Stars at DPAG (June 2021– April 2023 ); the enhanced role of the DPAG curatorial intern; the exhibition He reka te Kūmara (November 2021–March 2022) by emerging Māori curators; the establishment of the Paemanu Art Collection; and Paemanu’s self-determined exhibition at DPAG, Paemanu: Tauraka Toi—A Landing Place (December 2021–April 2022). This article discusses and celebrates the ways Kāi Tahu Māori contemporary visual culture has been elevated throughout DPAG for the first time in the institution’s history. It describes the tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) by Kāi Tahu Māori artists to change up the gallery experience at DPAG so that Mana Whenua (the people of the land) are finally visible and are sensed throughout.