Present Encounters : Papers from the conference of the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 1996

all those who had settled in New Zealand as a result of the Crown exercisi ng its prerogative under the Treaty) . The Act also set in motion a process whereby Maori grievances agai nst the Crown - due to repeated violations of the Treaty by successive governments - might be red ressed . Events in 1 975 - such as the hikoi, or land march , on pa rliament - politicised Maori, and sparked off the resurgence of Maori nationalism and culture that has been gathering force ever since, and is a significant element in the dynamics of New Zea land's political life at the present time. Contemporary Maori art, as distinct from New Zealand art, is essentially a political art. Implicit in practically all Maori creative endeavour is the determination to reclaim all the treasures that make up our unique collective identity: mana (power, prestige, authority) , land (the und isturbed possession of which was guaranteed by the Treaty) , tino ragatiratanga or self-determination (likewise guaranteed by the Treaty) , customs and language. To affirm what it means to be Maori . The pre-school language nest movement, kohanga reo, was established in 1 984 and by dint of the Maori Language Act of 1 987, Maori was accorded recogn ition as an official language of New Zealand. First nation people in Australia , Hawai'i, British Columbia and elsewhere in Te Moananu i-a-Kiwa have shown i ntense interest in such developments, and it was thus inevitable that networks of I ndigenous interest groups - political , educational and cultural - would be established . What, then , is the I ndigenous art network to which Lisa Reihana refers, and how extensive is it? For the purposes of this discussion we wi l l restrict ourselves to first nation peoples in this region of Te Moananui-a-Kiwa, those who i nhabit the places where their ancestors were the first inhabitants, although I might add that Maori artists have also established relations with tribal peoples in Africa , and are interested in investigating the Celtic tribal cultures of Europe. There is a lso empathy with displaced people of 'colour' in the United States of America and Europe who, like the colon ised 'blacks' of Africa, Australia and Aoteaora/New Zealand, have shared the ignominy of racial discrimination because of the pigmentation of their skin and their cultural difference from mainstream 'wh ite' society condemns them to be regarded as inferior. In its broadest sense 'indigenism' is itself a g lobal ism . The Indigenous art network consists of a world-wide community of individual practitioners, both innovative and conservative, contemporary and customary, who are in communication with each other. It is the technology of the age of global communication in which we live that has made it possible for the Indigenous peoples of Te Moananui-a-Kiwa to bridge the vast expanses of water that once kept us apart, to investigate our commonalities and kinship lines, our histories and genealogies, to compare our experiences of European colonisation and imperialism , and to understand, respect and affirm our differences, our unique collective identities. Out of this shari ng has a risen not only a strengthening sense of political and cultura l solidarity and common purpose , but a deepening understanding of our common origins in ancient times, as revealed through a comparison of our great waka (canoe) trad itions. Peter Robinson , a New Zealand artist of 3 . 1 25% Maori descent, was struck by the resembl ance of the profiles of aeroplanes i l l ustrated on an Air New Zealand poster to the shape of the traditional waka. This insight inspired a series of works in which white aeroplane motifs were compared and contrasted with black canoe motifs. (The Maori term for aeroplane, incidentally, is waka rererangi - an airborne canoe or conveyance.) Just as the ocean-going waka in ancient times brought the first waves of settlers to Aotearoa, the waka of the air, Robinson's art argues, are transporting new settlers to New Zealand. The percentage figu res inscribed on Robinson's works indicate the d i l ution of Maori authenticity and identity that has occu rred through interma rriage over the past five generations. These same aeroplanes a re enabling first nation peoples of Te Moananui-a-Kiwa to bridge the distances; to retrace the paths of their ancestors to their islands of orig i n ; to assemble for festivals and conferences to explore thei r commonalities; and to celebrate a bove all , one supposes, their survival . Just prior to the opening of the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in September 1 996 , the Seventh Festival of Pacific Arts held in Apia, 33