11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Te Whakawhitinga (stills) 2022 / Single-channel, 16mm-film transferred to digital HD video: black and white, sound, 11 minutes, Te Reo Māori (English subtitles) / Courtesy: The artist NOTES 1 ‘Jeremy Leatinu’u’ [artist profile], Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki , <aucklandartgallery. com/explore-art-and-ideas/artist/8431/jeremy- leatinuu>, viewed February 2024. 2 Since 2021, Leatinu’u has been a kaiako (teacher) of Te Reo Māori courses at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. Jeremy Leatinu’u’s early practice explored performance in the public choreography of simple actions and movements that engaged with Māori and Pasifika understandings of the complex nexus of time, place, language and people. 1 The clarity and simplicity of this early work is evident in Te Whakawhitinga 2022 in which the artist shares a slowly unfolding story of one man through a complex interweaving of history and experience, language and landscape, people and place. Part way through Te Whakawhitinga , one of the film’s two narrators, ‘Papa’, shares that Rongomātāne (the atua, or god, of peace and agriculture) is on one side and Tūmatauenga (the atua of war) is on the other. Te Whakawhitinga presents Papa’s journey between Rongomātāne and Tūmatauenga, by recounting his travel as a young man ready to take on the world, to the time of Te Pākanga Tuarua o te Ao (World War Two) and back to the present day. Just as Papa moves through time, the narration of his journey moves through generations, as it is shared by both the protagonist and his daughter. Their fictional story traces the decades of Papa’s adult life, together with the path of his ancestors in their travels from their northern homeland, to invade the lands of the South. While triggered by the events of World War Two, Papa’s journey south to enlist in the army was not — like that of his ancestors — for the conquest of the lands of another iwi (people/tribe), but of hearts, as he befriends fellow Kai Tahu soldiers, then marries, returning north with a family. The film is narrated in Te Reo Māori, a language that has increasingly informed Leatinu’u’s work and life. 2 Without an understanding of Te Reo Māori and the importance of names such as Rongomātāne and Tūmatauenga, some of the meaning of the film remains obscured — just as aspects of culture were to many of the artist’s generation, who were educated in English-speaking schools. The power and clarity of Leatinu’u’s narrative and Ian Powell’s cinematography amply compensate, however, and allow viewers to witness both the volatility and steadfastness of humanity and the landscapes that they inhabit. In many ways, Jeremy Leatinu’u’s Te Whakawhitinga is as much about the land as it is about Papa. Images of a slowly unfurling koru (fern frond) and sweeping vistas introduce audiences to the landscape as another character in the narrative, rather than as merely a backdrop. Filmed in black and white, soft white clouds move slowly across a sky punctuated by timber power poles, and inclement weather blows in from the mountains, echoed by the crashing of waves on a long stretch of beach. The importance of land and connection to place are also evident in the film’s title Te Whakawhitinga , which recognises the difficulty of leaving, but also of return. Time and distance often create irreversible change. Papa’s return, as an older man, is ultimately to the land, to the practice of gardening and digging the earth — or so he hopes. With Rongomātāne on one side and Tūmatauenga on the other, hopes are not always realised. RUTHMcDOUGALL NGĀTI MANIAPOTOSAFUNE, PU‘APU‘A, VAILOA, FALEATA, SĀMOA BORN 1984, TĀMAKI MAKAURAU (AUCKLAND), REGION, AOTEAROA NEWZEALAND LIVES+WORKS INTĀMAKI MAKAURAU (AUCKLAND) JEREMY LEATINU’U ARTISTS+PROJECTS ASIAPACIFICTRIENNIAL 138 — 139