Māori storyteller Irihipeti Waretini has created a new exhibition of photography, multimedia art and film centred around the Māori matriarchy. Māreikura - Ka rere te rongoā (the medicine flows) is happening now at the CBD’s Immigration Museum, until late February 2025.
The exhibition, which is Waretini’s first solo showing, features 15 striking photographic portraits of Māori women, all of whom have moko kauae – aka traditional chin tattoos. Also included is an intricately carved pou (pillar).
‘Māreikura’ is a te reo Māori term meaning matriarch or noble-born woman, such as those seen in the portraits.
According to Waretini, “moko kauae has direct systemic healing mechanisms for Māori and anyone who beholds us wearing it. “So naturally, it would be a key part of my first solo exhibition”, she says.
“When the missionaries and early settlers arrived in Aotearoa, they brought with them their culturally specific understandings of the role and status of women, which was and is very demeaning to the importance and status of the Māori Matriarchy within Māori society.
“Every opportunity we take to centre our Māreikura, we are returning to the ways in which we acknowledge the natural order of the universe, the interrelationship or whanaungatanga of all living things to one another and to the environment, and the overarching principle of balance, and securing an Indigenous future.”
Māreikura is free to attend for members and children. Tickets for adults are $15, or $10 for seniors. Read more about the exhibition over here.
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