Kia Ora Whaea

Ehara a 'Kia ora' i te mihi noa iho. Kei tōna iho ko te whakanuitanga o te oranga o te tangata, ā, te mana me te tapu o te tangata anō hoki. Kia ora, e mea ana, e whakanui ana ahau i a koe.

Ko Kia Ora Whaea he whakapuakitanga o te ngākau nui ki ngā wāhine e kawe nei i te onamata me te anamata, he whakapūmautanga o te wāhi waiwai ki ngā māmā i te hauora o te katoa. Waihoki, he maharatanga ki ngā wero huhua o te māmātanga. E toro ana ngā mahi i tēnei whakaaturanga i te oranga hinengaro kōpūtanga mai i te tirohanga Māori, ka mutu, te whakaatu i ngā pānga o te tāmitanga ki te hapūtanga taketake.  

Exhibition Sponsors

E mahara ana ēnei whakakanohitanga me ēnei whakapuakitanga o ngā wheako hapūtanga o te ringa toi ki ngā pīkautanga ā-tinana, ā-kare ā-roto, ā-hinengaro, ā-wairoa hoki o te māmā. Waihoki ka toro i ngā tirohanga auraki ki te hapūtanga taketake, ka mutu, te whai kia taketake anō, ngā mōtika ā-ao o te wahine me te hauora hapūtanga. E pupuri ana mātou i te mana o ō mātou tūpuna, o mātou tonu, ā, o ā mātou mahi.


Kia ora is not just a greeting, an acknowledgement of someone's presence, a hello, or a thank you.  More deeply, it acknowledges one's well-being and, through that, their mana and the tapu that surrounds them.  Kia ora – "be well" – is a way to say I celebrate you.   

Kia Ora Whaea is an expression of affection for the wāhine that carry our pasts and futures, an affirmation of the vital role mothers play in the hauora of us all, and a recognition of the various inherent challenges of motherhood.  The works in this exhibition explore maternal mental health from wāhine Māori perspectives, while substantiating the effects of colonialism on indigenous maternity.  

These representations and expressions of the artists’ maternal experiences consider the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual workload we as Māori mothers carry, and explore how indigenous maternity is viewed and treated through a mainstream colonial lens, alongside convictions of reindigenisation, global women’s rights and maternal health. 

We uphold the mana of our tūpuna and thus ourselves and our descendants through the sharing and normalising of our stories and our practices.  

Resource Flyer

Essay by Turumeke Harrington

  

Kia ora Whaea is a personal story that for me captured maternity memories that textured our timeline with colonial infiltration, gagging legislation and marriages that moved us away from our hub of knowing. Using paint, cloth, fibre, symbols, domestic expression and metaphors of protest, the artists of Kia ora Whaea expressed this impact on the mental health of our wāhine. Post-natal depression is dark, dirtied by biomedical diagnoses and drugs that numbed living, however, other layers of postnatal depression are rarely unveiled. Through mothers as artists and some who have a personal relationship with postnatal depression, they have captured what it has meant to them and those they know.
  

Kia ora Whaea is an exhibition that requires time to sit with each piece to delve into the seams of time and take your meaning coloured by your own maternity stories and those you have observed. As wāhine Māori it is healing to express māmae and healing through art. It is a duality that reflects truth, chaos and potential, wāhine, tāne, takatāpui, tātou. I am deeply proud of the artists: Caitlin Rose Donnelly, Piupiu Maya Turei, Alix Ashworth, Vicki Marie Lenihan, Kate Stevens West, and Emma Kitson. I have had the privilege to meet, get to know and stay in contact with you as we collectively work towards sharing our birthing and parenting stories to strip back the pain, to be raw and ready to protect mana and whakapapa.
  

Dr Kelly Tikao
www.hākui.nz

Download the PDF of Kelly's reponse

The Artists

  • Alix Ashworth
    Alix Ashworth
    Ōtautahi

    Alix Ashworth (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) is a multimedia artist based in Ōtautahi. Their art practice discusses identity and belonging, focusing on strong narratives and using personal reflection to influence their creative process. After studying Fine Arts at Canterbury University, they gathered a range of craft skills to enable the creation of works that celebrate indigenous and non-indigenous handwork. Their primary material is uku (clay), contrasting this hard media with soft hand-stitched or hand-woven textiles. It is important to their art practice that the majority of the work and materials are handmade; for example, wool that is used will be carded and hand-spun by the artist before being woven into cloth. Part of their creative process is celebrating the knowledge and tools their Tīpuna used to thrive in this rugged terrain. Recently they have had the privilege of being mentored by Rangi Kipa, joining together with Ngā Kaihanga Uku, the opportunity to wānanga with Kauae Raro as well as showing with Paemanu at their Tauraka Toi exhibition in Ōtepoti. Sharing the joy of indigenous excellence with their peers, they bring these connections together in a range of mediums.

    @alix.ashworth

    Instagram
  • Caitlin Rose Donnelly
    Caitlin Rose Donnelly
    Southland

    Caitlin Rose Donnelly (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Pākehā) is a multidisciplinary artist based in rural Southland with her husband and two children. Her practice analyses being Māori, an adoptee, a mother, and a woman in traditionally male spaces. The whakataukī Ka mua, ka muri, meaning we must look to the past to inform the future, centres her whakaaro and mahi toi. She works for Paemanu Ngāi Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts Charitable Trust, Blue Oyster Art Project Space and her husband's farming business. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Dunedin School of Art.

    @caitlin_rose_d_art

    Instagram
  • Emma Kitson
    Emma Kitson
    Te Whanganui-a-Tara

    Emma Kitson (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) is an artist, designer and curator who resides in Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Her whakapapa traces its roots to Whenua Hou, the first planned bicultural settlement at the southern end of Te Waipounamu. Kitson regularly exhibited at the Blue Oyster Art Project Space throughout the late 1990s and graduated from the Dunedin School of Art in 1996. Kitson then worked at Otago Museum, leading to employment at many museums and art galleries in New Zealand and Australia. After studying Industrial Design at Massey University in the early 2000s, she focused mainly on her design work. Becoming a mother in 2012 was a catalyst for Kitson to return to making art; she found printmaking to be the most accessible option. Joining Paemanu Ngāi Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts Collective in 2014, she has contributed to their major exhibitions at CoCA and Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

    @lesserknownnative

    Instagram
  • Kate Stevens West
    Kate Stevens West
    Te Awakairangi ki Ta

    Kate Stevens West (Kāi Tahu, Pākehā) is a painter whose mahi toi focuses on family, connections, needs, emotions, and intergenerational secrets and stories. Recent work explores Kāi Tahutaka working with historical research and traditional paints and pigments. Her painting celebrates the lives and work of women. Stevens West lives in Te Awakairangi ki Tai Lower Hutt with her partner and four young children.

    @katestevenswest

    Web site Instagram
  • Piupiu Maya Turei
    Piupiu Maya Turei
    Ōtepoti

    Piupiu Maya Turei (Wairarapa Moana, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi) is an artist and curator living in Ōtepoti. Her mahi toi connects itself to the wellspring of whakapapa within her, seeking to make artwork (mainly digitally altered photography and installation) that she hopes her aunties love. Piupiu is the founder and current facilitator of Tini Whetū Project Space, an experimental artist-run gallery that resides within Evening Books, 474 Princes Street, Ōtepoti.

    @kaoretama

    Instagram
  • Vicki Lenihan
    Vicki Lenihan
    Ōtepoti

    Vicki Lenihan (Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Ngāi Tahu) is an Ōtepoti Dunedin-based multimedia artist whose practice centres on sustainability, celebrating identity interwoven with our unique and irreplaceable environment, and highlighting issues connected to self-determination and hauora. She is also a writer, an educator, a museum professional, a regular broadcaster, an arts advisor and an event producer.

    Recent exhibitions include Huikaau – where currents meet at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery; Te Mahi Peita at Tini Whetū Project Space; Whenua at Nelson Jewellery Week; Te riroka mai, he kaitaoka! and Ōtepoti Stor(i)es at Blue Oyster Art Project Space; Tū atu, tū mai – he karaka manu ki kā manuhiri for the Dunedin Dream Brokerage and Dunedin City Council Platform Project; Paemanu: Tauraka Toi – A Landing Place at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and Kā Paroro o Haumumu: Coastal Flows, Coastal Excursions at The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.  Recent publications include the self-published Whenua, Ko Hikaroroa Te Mauka! for Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki and the Ministry of Education, and Te Mahere o Sarah Hudson for Blue Oyster.

    @brownieguide

    Instagram
Alix Ashworth
Ōtautahi

Alix Ashworth (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) is a multimedia artist based in Ōtautahi. Their art practice discusses identity and belonging, focusing on strong narratives and using personal reflection to influence their creative process. After studying Fine Arts at Canterbury University, they gathered a range of craft skills to enable the creation of works that celebrate indigenous and non-indigenous handwork. Their primary material is uku (clay), contrasting this hard media with soft hand-stitched or hand-woven textiles. It is important to their art practice that the majority of the work and materials are handmade; for example, wool that is used will be carded and hand-spun by the artist before being woven into cloth. Part of their creative process is celebrating the knowledge and tools their Tīpuna used to thrive in this rugged terrain. Recently they have had the privilege of being mentored by Rangi Kipa, joining together with Ngā Kaihanga Uku, the opportunity to wānanga with Kauae Raro as well as showing with Paemanu at their Tauraka Toi exhibition in Ōtepoti. Sharing the joy of indigenous excellence with their peers, they bring these connections together in a range of mediums.

@alix.ashworth

View artwork
Caitlin Rose Donnelly
Southland

Caitlin Rose Donnelly (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Pākehā) is a multidisciplinary artist based in rural Southland with her husband and two children. Her practice analyses being Māori, an adoptee, a mother, and a woman in traditionally male spaces. The whakataukī Ka mua, ka muri, meaning we must look to the past to inform the future, centres her whakaaro and mahi toi. She works for Paemanu Ngāi Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts Charitable Trust, Blue Oyster Art Project Space and her husband's farming business. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Dunedin School of Art.

@caitlin_rose_d_art

View artwork
Emma Kitson
Te Whanganui-a-Tara

Emma Kitson (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) is an artist, designer and curator who resides in Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Her whakapapa traces its roots to Whenua Hou, the first planned bicultural settlement at the southern end of Te Waipounamu. Kitson regularly exhibited at the Blue Oyster Art Project Space throughout the late 1990s and graduated from the Dunedin School of Art in 1996. Kitson then worked at Otago Museum, leading to employment at many museums and art galleries in New Zealand and Australia. After studying Industrial Design at Massey University in the early 2000s, she focused mainly on her design work. Becoming a mother in 2012 was a catalyst for Kitson to return to making art; she found printmaking to be the most accessible option. Joining Paemanu Ngāi Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts Collective in 2014, she has contributed to their major exhibitions at CoCA and Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

@lesserknownnative

View artwork
Kate Stevens West
Te Awakairangi ki Ta

Kate Stevens West (Kāi Tahu, Pākehā) is a painter whose mahi toi focuses on family, connections, needs, emotions, and intergenerational secrets and stories. Recent work explores Kāi Tahutaka working with historical research and traditional paints and pigments. Her painting celebrates the lives and work of women. Stevens West lives in Te Awakairangi ki Tai Lower Hutt with her partner and four young children.

@katestevenswest

View artwork
Piupiu Maya Turei
Ōtepoti

Piupiu Maya Turei (Wairarapa Moana, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi) is an artist and curator living in Ōtepoti. Her mahi toi connects itself to the wellspring of whakapapa within her, seeking to make artwork (mainly digitally altered photography and installation) that she hopes her aunties love. Piupiu is the founder and current facilitator of Tini Whetū Project Space, an experimental artist-run gallery that resides within Evening Books, 474 Princes Street, Ōtepoti.

@kaoretama

View artwork
Vicki Lenihan
Ōtepoti

Vicki Lenihan (Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Ngāi Tahu) is an Ōtepoti Dunedin-based multimedia artist whose practice centres on sustainability, celebrating identity interwoven with our unique and irreplaceable environment, and highlighting issues connected to self-determination and hauora. She is also a writer, an educator, a museum professional, a regular broadcaster, an arts advisor and an event producer.

Recent exhibitions include Huikaau – where currents meet at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery; Te Mahi Peita at Tini Whetū Project Space; Whenua at Nelson Jewellery Week; Te riroka mai, he kaitaoka! and Ōtepoti Stor(i)es at Blue Oyster Art Project Space; Tū atu, tū mai – he karaka manu ki kā manuhiri for the Dunedin Dream Brokerage and Dunedin City Council Platform Project; Paemanu: Tauraka Toi – A Landing Place at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and Kā Paroro o Haumumu: Coastal Flows, Coastal Excursions at The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.  Recent publications include the self-published Whenua, Ko Hikaroroa Te Mauka! for Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki and the Ministry of Education, and Te Mahere o Sarah Hudson for Blue Oyster.

@brownieguide

View artwork
Kia Ora Whaea - Installation View

Kia Ora Whaea - Installation View

Kia Ora Whaea - Installation view, Vicki Lenihan, Kate Stevens West, Alix Ashworth, Piupiu Maya Turei
More about this artwork

Kia Ora Whaea - Installation View


Photo Credit Owen Spargo

Kōrero maiHow do we tell our kids the work is burning?, 2024

Kōrero mai
How do we tell our kids the work is burning?, 2024

Kōrero mai x 5, Alix Ashworth
More about this artwork

Kōrero mai
How do we tell our kids the work is burning?, 2024


Hama beads, cuisenaire rods, soft pastel, pencil, cotteon thread and sunshade felt pen, coloured pencil, graph paper
1720 x 1260mm


Photo Credit Owen Spargo

Ōritetanga, 2022

Ōritetanga, 2022

Ōritetanga, 2022, Caitlin Rose Donnelly
More about this artwork

Ōritetanga, 2022
Sheets and nappies washed in paint, cotton
1700 x 1700mm


Photo Credit Owen Spargo

Ōritetanga, 2022 - detail

Ōritetanga, 2022 - detail

Ōritetanga - detail, Caitlin Rose Donnelly
More about this artwork

Ōritetanga, 2022 - detail


Sheets and nappies washed in paint, cotton
1700 x 1700mm

Moe, 2022

Moe, 2022

Moe, Kate Stevens West
More about this artwork

Moe, 2022
Gesso, coloured pencil and oil paint on canvas
530 x 680mm


Photo Credit Owen Spargo

Sword Triptych, 2023 Kaeaea & Piharo (with Irihapeti) Isabella (with Ivan)

Sword Triptych, 2023

Kaeaea & Piharo (with Irihapeti)

Isabella (with Ivan)

Triptych, Kate Stevens West
More about this artwork

Sword Triptych, 2023
Mil Gesso, oil paint on canvas with brass eyelets
1670 x 570mm


Kaeaea & Piharo (with Irihapeti), 2023
Gesso, oil paint on canvas with brass eyelets
1670 x 570mm

Isabella (with Ivan), 2023
Gesso, oil paint on canvas with brass eyelets
1670 x 570mm


Photo Credit Owen Spargo


 

Maku Koe e tāwharautia, 2022 I te māra o te pō, 2022

Maku Koe e tāwharautia, 2022

I te māra o te pō, 2022

Maku Koe e tāwharautia and I te māra o te pō, Emma Kitson
More about this artwork

Maku Koe e tāwharautia, 2022
Woodcut print on hand-dyed Awagami extra thick Kozo
400 x 400 x 1200


I te māra o te pō, 2022
Monoprint on rice paper
Varying dimensions



Photo Credit Owen Spargo

I te māra o te pō, 2022 - detail

I te māra o te pō, 2022 - detail

I te māra o te pō, 2022 - detail, Emma Kitson
More about this artwork

I te māra o te pō, 2022 - detail


Monoprints on rice paper
Varying dimensions


Photo Credit Owen Spargo

Rangimārie, 2024 and Whakapono, 2024

Rangimārie, 2024 and Whakapono, 2024

Rangimārie and Whakapono, Piupiu Maya Turei
More about this artwork

Rangimārie, 2024 and Whakapono, 2024


Printed polysilk, duct tape, rope, PVC pressure piping. 1200 x 1800mm each


Photo Credit Owen Spargo


 

Rangimārie, 2024 and Whakapono, 2024

Rangimārie, 2024 and Whakapono, 2024

Rangimārie and Whakapono - detail, Piupiu Maya Turei
More about this artwork

Rangimārie, 2024 and Whakapono, 2024


Printed polysilk, duct tape, rope, PVC pressure piping. 1200 x 1800mm each


Photo Credit Owen Spargo

He Aroha Whaerere / Safety Blanket, 2024

He Aroha Whaerere / Safety Blanket, 2024

He Aroha Whaerere / Safety Blanket 2024, Vicki Lenihan
More about this artwork

He Aroha Whaerere / Safety Blanket, 2024


Whītau, kakara, miro, reiaku, weu pareaku, huruhuru hīpi me whao
1700 x 2080mm


Photo Credit Owen Spargo

He Aroha Whaerere / Safety Blanket, 2024 - Detail

He Aroha Whaerere / Safety Blanket, 2024 - Detail

He Aroha Whaerere / Safety Blanket - Detail, Vicki Lenihan
More about this artwork

He Aroha Whaerere / Safety Blanket, 2024 - Detail


Whītau, kakara, miro, reiaku, weu pareaku, huruhuru hīpi me whao
1700 x 2080mm



Photo Credit Owen Spargo

Taoka 1-24, 2024

Taoka 1-24, 2024

Taoka 1-24, Kate Stevens West
More about this artwork

Taoka 1-24, 2024


Gesso, oil paint and ink (Rautawhiri berries, Tarato gum, soot, kato and linseed oil) on canvas
1380 x 740mm


Photo Credit Owen Spargo

Sword Triptych, 2023 - Detail

Sword Triptych, 2023 - Detail

Sword Triptych - detail, Kate Stevens West
More about this artwork

Sword Triptych, 2023 - Detail


Mil Gesso, Oil Paint on Canvas with brass eyelets
1670 x 570mm


Photo Credit Owen Spargo

Kōrero mai - detail

Kōrero mai - detail

Kōrero mai x 5 - detail, Alix Ashworth
More about this artwork

Kōrero mai
How do we tell our kids the work is burning?, 2024


Detail - soft pastel on gallery wall


Photo Credit Owen Spargo

Maku Koe e tāwharautia, 2022 - detail

Maku Koe e tāwharautia, 2022 - detail

Maku Koe e tāwharautia - detail, Emma Kitson
More about this artwork

Maku Koe e tāwharautia, 2022 - detail


Woodcut print on hand-dyed Awagami extra thick Kozo
400 x 400 x 1200


Photo Credit Owen Spargo

Kia Ora Whaea Installation View  Photo Credit: Owen Spargo

Kia Ora Whaea Installation View 

Photo Credit: Owen Spargo

Kia Ora Whaea - Installation View, Emma Kitson, Vicki Lenihan, Kate Stevens West, Caitlin Rose Donnelly
More about this artwork

Kia Ora Whaea Installation View 


Photo Credit: Owen Spargo