Life of tireless advocate profiled in exhibition
The life and legacy of Hōri Kerei (H.K.) Taiaroa and his wife Tini Kerei Taiaroa will be explored at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery exhibition "H.K. Taiaroa: 'Kua marara hoki ngā mana o tōna kaha ki runga i te katoa'."
The title is a quote from his personal manuscripts and can be interpreted in English as "His authority and strength is dispersed to all".
The exhibition will include contemporary artworks, archival materials, taoka tuku iho (heritage treasures) and existing works by Māori artists.
H.K. Taiaroa was born at Ōtākou, on the Otago peninsula, in the 1830s or early 1840s.
He was the son of Ngāi Tahu chief Te Mātenga Taiaroa and Mawera of Ngāti Rangiwhakaputa.
He married Tini Kerei, a respected and intelligent community leader and they had six sons.
H.K. Taiaroa served as a member of the House of Representatives for the Southern Māori district from 1871 and was also a member of the Legislative Council.
He was instrumental in petitioning the government to establish a committee to look at "unfulfilled promises to the Natives in the Middle Island", what the South Island was referred to as at the time.
This led to the establishment of the 1879 Middle Island Native Purchases Royal Commission of Inquiry.
He travelled across Te Waipounamu speaking to kaumātua to gather knowledge as evidence for this inquiry, creating what is now known as the "Taiaroa Map".
The commission was not completed due to its funding being halted by a new government.
However, his faithful records of knowledge shared by kaumātua became a fundamental piece of evidence to the success of Te Kerēme — the Ngāi Tahu claim.
H.K. Taiaroa wrote extensively and his unpublished personal writings became important sources in the revitalisation of Kāi Tahu tikaka (customs), place names and te reo Māori.
The exhibition features artworks by contemporary Māori artists Taiaroa Royal and Ephraim Russell.
In 1878, H.K. Taiaroa and his family moved into Te Awhitū, a large house he had built at Taumutu near Lake Ellesmere, one of his father's ancestral places.
Taiaroa Royal said he was inspired by H.K. Taiaroa's personal writings to create an audiovisual presentation reflecting on his thoughts while standing on the coastline at Taumutu.
The exhibition also features works by Ralph Hotere, Fiona Pardington and Gottfried Lindauer as well as taoka such as a kete woven by Tini Kerei Taiaroa.
The Dunedin Public Art Gallery is presenting the exhibition in collaboration with descendants of H.K. Taiaroa through the Riki Te Mairaki Ellison Taiaroa Whānau Trust and Te Rūnaka o Ōtākou.
Trust chairwoman Michelle Taiaroa said the exhibition presented a look into a turbulent yet special time in the city's early years.
"Generally known as a Scottish city, I have always known it to be much more than that. We invite the public to share in the life of our tipuna."
• The exhibition opens on Monday.
sam.henderson@thestar.co.nz
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsroom
2 hours ago
- Newsroom
Book of the Week: Art sticks it to Ruth Richardson
Over four decades, commencing in the early 1960s and on a librarian's salary, Wellington-based autodidact Walter Cook amassed a world-class collection of late 19th and early 20th century ceramics and glass which he donated to the National Collection, soon to become Te Papa, in 1992. Cook's intention in gifting his collection of nearly 400 pieces to the nation was not without political intent. In a 2012 RNZ interview, he described the gift as 'the way I, an ordinary, powerless person, could give the fingers to Ruth Richardson and every value she stood for – that neo-liberal atomised self-interest. Because I don't believe in that at all, and our cultural institutions stand as evidence that there is community and there is common purpose'. His collection is documented across 400 pages of meticulously catalogued, referenced and illustrated applied arts, in Towards Modernism: The Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa by Justine Olsen. It's an elegant love letter to the joys one collector found, and chose to share, among the forms and colours found in Art Nouveau glass, Scandinavian teapots and biscuit jars by the irrepressible British designer Susie Cooper (1902–1995). Olsen, Te Papa Tongarewa's curator of Decorative Art and Design, explores the works of iconic designers in Cook's collection – Cooper and Clarice Cliff, William De Morgan, Keith Murray, Christopher Dresser and Royal Copenhagen stars Inge-Lise Koefoed and Berthe Jessen. Olsen deftly teases out wider contexts and readings for many of the decorative pieces. Among her favourites is 'a tall Tenera Vase by Danish designer Berthe Jessen in 1963 … It's a delicate yet lush design. The vase encapsulates the story of how Royal Copenhagen developed a fresh approach to design by hiring young women artists straight from art schools across Scandinavia. It has that art to industry approach'. Cook, born in 1941, was raised in a fertile theological and creative environment. His father, George, was an Anglican curate and his mother, Hinehauone Coralie Cameron, was a talented artist and printmaker. The Te Papa collection holds a number of her woodblock prints: they are reminiscent of those by leading mid-century figures such as A Lois White and Adele Younghusband. Young Walter's fascination with collections and museums was ignited as a four-year-old after a visit to the Wanganui Museum with his mother to see 'a cabinet of curiosities'. He 'returned home and started my own museum, and from then on, museums became places of pilgrimage – sites of an ultimate reality to which I could only aspire'. As a teenager he frequented Wellington's second-hand stores and bookshops, building his knowledge and developing an early love of English Art Nouveau artist Aubrey Beardsley and the philosophy of poet and designer William Morris, godfather of the English Arts and Crafts movement. Cook began collecting Art Nouveau as 'a way of touching the reality of Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites in far off New Zealand'. His first purchase in 1961 was a Tudric hot-water jug by Liberty & Co dating to around 1903 from the shop Gallery 36 on Vivian Street, Wellington. This, he said, 'initiated me into the addictive habit and thrill of hunting quarry in secondhand shops'. From this point Cook the collector worked his way through the 20th century as design trends became evermore progressive and future-facing, racing towards the modernism and the utopian optimism suggested by the book's title. From the Empire-infused fascinations with Japonisme and the classical forms of Royal Doulton and Moorcroft to the fusion of Medieval fancy and Art Nouveau of Tudric pewter and Minton 'Secessionist' ware, Cook looked to more flamboyant movements that flowered in the Art Deco years after WWI when Susie Cooper, Charlotte Rhead and Truda Carter, along with Clarice Cliff, were leading figures in the design world. New Zealand design enters the picture in the second half of Towards Modernism in the form of the creamy and minimalist forms of Crown Lynn vases by Ernest Shufflebotham, which continue to be highly sought after by 21st century collectors. Today much of this collecting has moved online, and that cagey, gregarious milieu of collectors and specialist dealers known as the trade is now defunct. Towards Modernism acts as their requiem, following the collector's quest among the shelves of tony antique dealers and bric-a-brac emporiums alike for a prize piece of Minton or an unusual example of Scandinavian design at Paddy's Market or a long-departed 'Curiosity' shop. Collector-centric shops, happy hunting grounds for Cook and his cohort, such as Odds & Ends, Mr Smiles and Willbank Court Antiques, from whom Cook acquired a fine high-fired Ruskin Pottery sang de boeuf (bull's blood) squat vase (1912) in 1985, emerge as vital arms of the transmission of information, enthusiasm, gossip and referrals. In 1972, Cook paid just $3 for the lovely Watcombe Pottery Palm pot with its distinctive shimmering green glaze from Marsden Antiques in Wellington, one of the few originals still trading, now in Featherston in the Wairarapa. Cook spotted another rare treasure in 1983 in a junk shop on Ponsonby Road. It was a Sea Urchin form double-spout jug by Christopher Dresser from the 1880s. Cook paid $18 for it; it is now valued at around $3000. In my experience as a collector, and in engaging with them as fellow travellers and clients over a decade as managing director of an auction house, these singular individuals are united by a desire to wring sense from the conveyor belt of the quotidian and divine. They are driven by the taxonomic urge: the need to comprehend and order the culture around them. The most dedicated and inspired, such as Cook, end up making good on those aspirations. Towards Modernism: The Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa by Justine Olsen (Te Papa Press, $75) is available in bookstores nationwide. The full review by Hamish Coney was published at the indispensable literary site edited by Paula Morris, New Zealand Review of Books.
NZ Herald
2 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Numerous errors found in new Ministry-funded maths resources
The first page of errors that have been corrected include wrong answers, some off by significant margins. The listed answer to one problem was 1,024 and had to be changed to the correct answer of 19,875. A financial mistake in one of the books, supplied by 'Maths - No Problem' was off by $1000. In a separate workbook, the number four in te reo Māori was labelled rua, the word for two, instead of whā. A mistake involving te reo had to be corrected. In a statement, acting Ministry of Education curriculum centre leader Pauline Cleaver said as students and teachers have engaged with materials throughout the year, a 'small number of minor errors' were identified. 'These have now been resolved, and updates are being shared with schools via Tāhūrangi [the curriculum centre].' Cleaver added it was 'not uncommon' for minor errors to be spotted in the first print run of new educational resources, and while suppliers regularly review and update materials, schools are also encouraged to report any issues. From this year, Years 0-8 schools have been able to order Ministry-funded maths resources to support them to teach the revised mathematics and statistics curriculum. It comes after the Government's directive to teach an hour a day of reading, writing and maths in its policy to 'teach the basics brilliantly'. The issue was raised by the Ministry of Education in a recent bulletin for school leaders, which regularly lists updates about changes in the education sector. In this, it wrote it was aware of 'some errors' in the maths resources being funded by the Ministry of Education. 'Our resource providers regularly review their print and digital resources to correct any errors that have been reported, and to ensure accuracy,' the bulletin added. It is asking school leaders to inform the ministry of any potential further errors. A dedicated reporting channel has been provided to support schools through any issues that may arise. The Ministry of Education is promising to continue to keep schools informed, and has said any future updates or corrections will continue to be documented. Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament's press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.
Otago Daily Times
3 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
A fine undertaking
A new hearse for undertakers Hugh Gourley, built in Dunedin by A. Roberts and Son motor body builders. — Otago Witness, 4.8.1925 Johnnies teacher off to Oxford A very fine specimen of the motor body builder's art is to be seen in the new motor hearse which has recently been built to the order of Messrs Hugh Gourley Ltd by Messrs A. Roberts and Son, of Dunedin. This hearse, which is fitted with a Chandler chassis, is the most modern and up-to-date of its kind in the city. The John McGlashan College pupils and staff, and Mr James Begg, representing the Board of Governors, assembled in the dining hall after school yesterday afternoon to say good-bye to Mr J.A. Dunning, the 1925 Rhodes Scholar, who is leaving the staff to proceed to England. Mr Gilray, the head master, spoke of the great honour Mr Dunning had won and of the great experience he would have at Oxford. He recounted his successes in the Honours Degree Examination, and in cricket and hockey, in both of which he had represented Otago. On behalf of the pupils, P. McSkimming, the head prefect, presented Mr Dunning with a writing case, and Mr Gilray handed him a silver cigarette case, engraved with the college arms, the gift of the staff. Mr Begg spoke of the great honour the college had in having two Rhodes scholars on its staff, and said he looked forward to the time when it would boast of Rhodes scholars of its own. Dunedin's modern wharf Improvements have been made on the waterfront in several directions. A further 200 feet of the Rattray St wharf has been completed, thus providing another berth for oversea steamers with a low water depth of 25ft. The timber for the remaining 400ft is in hand. The total length of the wharf when finished will be 1630ft. The new concrete storage shed at Kitchener St wharf is nearing completion. The asbestos roofing is nearly all in place, and the doors are ready to be placed in position. The concrete floor is finished and provides an area of 156ft by 82ft. Taonga may be used for swaps The Otago Museum has been fortunate to receive as a presentation from Mr D. Teviotdale his whole collection from the Shag River mouth with the exception of his greenstone and stone shanks of composite fish hooks. This is the most valuable collection from a single locality, existing in New Zealand, many of the old Māori weapons and remains of weapons belonging to a very early period. The majority of the remainder probably belonged to the same period, but that is not quite certain. Much of the material is on display, but a great amount of duplicable material is stored in the basement and Mr Teviotdale has given his consent to the Museum authorities to use duplicates for exchange purposes. Already it has been possible to add material to the European bronze age collection through these exchanges. A handle of a schist patu, found at Waiau Forks, South Canterbury, has been presented to the Museum by Mr T. Thomas Pashby, of Morven. It is the handle of a weapon in stone, limited in distribution to Canterbury and Otago, but it is closely allied with patus found at the Chatham Islands. Mr I. De Beer has presented to the Otago Museum a fine collection consisting of classical vases, ethnographic articles (the larger part being from the Western Pacific), material from Santa Cruz, and valuable material of other descriptions. League cracks code in venue war At the Caledonian Society of Otago, two tenders were received for the use of the society's ground for the football season for the next five years — 1926 to 1930 (inclusive). The Otago Rugby League offered £525 per season for the five seasons, and the Otago Rugby Union £300 per season, plus 25% of the takings from First Grade flag matches. The committee decided to accept the Rugby League's tender. — ODT, 7.8.1925 Compiled by Peter Dowden
