A major body of new work that considers the whenua from the vantage point of the moana.
Cora-Allan (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Tumutumu, Niue – Liku, Alofi) reflects on her recent two-week voyage by sea around Aotearoa, from the bottom of Te Waipounamu to Te Tai Tokerau in the north. Using whenua-pigment, hiapo and other resources from the ngahere, she documented the shapes and views of the whenua of Aotearoa from the perspective of the moana. Cora-Allan was accompanied by her pāpā, Kelly Lafaiki (Niue – Liku, Alofi) who recorded the journey in a journal through notes and pictures, and artist Emily Parr (Ngāi Te Rangi, Moana, Pākehā), who captured the personal interactions of father and daughter in two moving-image works that sit alongside this exhibition. Encountering Aotearoa responds to the legacy of colonial mapping and recording practices, building on Cora-Allan’s research into the artists and botanists aboard the Endeavour during its maiden voyage in 1769.
