1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

a continuum, making irrelevant for Maori such Pakeha terms and concepts as “pre-European”, “post-colonial”, and “post-national”. Whatu AhoRua (Aweaving together o f traditional and conte pieces o f taonga), curated by the Maori art historian Rangihiroa Panoho in 1989, and shown at the Adelaide Festival in 1992 after its New Zealand seasons, set out “to demonstrate that a continuum exists between the Maori past and present and that traditional concepts, forms, and visual symbols play a major role in the development of work by contemporary Maori artists.” The Maori understanding of history, that the past is something you face, that it is the future that lies behind you, has come to determine how contemporary Maori art is defined. A 1990 exhibition Kohia ko Taikaka Anake, at what is now the Mus^jm of New Zealand: Te Papa Tongarewa, showcased Maori art in that sense^j^ / Representative Maori artists in Headlands included Saady Adratt, Shrnia Pnpim-Onvir ii Rnlph Hnterf, Pnrntpine Mntrhitt, Mirhnr l Pnrrirmvhni nnd Giiff~Wb&mg. the more traditional carver Lyonel Grant, and the centenarian matriarch Rangimarie Hetet, a traditional weaver, and far and away the country’s greatest living artist, though virtually unknown to Pakeha New Zealand. “What are the parallels between traditional and contemporary Maori art?” asks Cliff Whiting, the chairperson of Te Waka Toi and the new director of Maori art and history in the Museum of New Zealand: Te Papa Tongarewa. “In determining this question, we had to come to the reality that Maori art is really part of the whole. The very word art - what is it? We found that the word did not belong.” Thus, from a Maori perspective, work by present-day Maori artists, whether they are working in