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Tangata Whenua
“‘Desna Whaanga-Schollum’s works drift lines of moko as mist over the land but deal with the real and current issues of land ownership and kaitiakitanga. Tangata whenua are very personal works, referring to Desna’s whakapapa, her ancestral homelands of Ngāi Tahu Matawhaiti in the Iwitea, Whakaki, and Tukemokihi rohe. Desna’s practice as an artist reflects the work she does with her hapū to restore the health of traditional waterways and lands.” Tryphena Cracknell, Guest Curator, Momo Kauae, HCAG, 2014
Click on thumbnails to enlarge
Location:
Whakaki, Iwitea, Tukemokihi
Iwi:
Ngāi Tahu Matawhaiti
Nga Aho practitioner:
Desna Whaanga-Schollum
Other participants:
Whakaki nui a Rua
Tangata Whenua
Photography is from our Sites of Siginificance mapping contract, for Te Tira Whakaemi o Te Wairoa, Treaty Claimant group. As a research assistant, my role included photography documentation, site visits, kaumātua (Cultural Advisors) and hapū consultation.
The artworks collect together images from a series of sites, and layer these over each other, each banner telling a narrative of an area. The moko faces floating over these are a comment on being Tangata Whenua, an integrated identity of taiao and people.
Sites of Significance recording: customary land use, customary occupation, maunga and awa. Sometimes sites will not be a mere single point on the landscape, but will include a number of interrelated areas covering a wider area. Kāinga, pā sites, urupā, mahinga kai, trails, cultivations and natural resource areas may form a complex of occupation and use, covering a significant area.
(Guide for Claimants Negotiating Treaty Settlements, n.d. p52).