Representations of tūpuna, ancestors, hold profound significance in te ao Māori, the Māori world. They embody customary cultural values including mana, tapu and mauri (prestige, sacredness and life force) and hold the ancestral ties of whakapapa. For centuries, representations of tūpuna were given form through whakairo (carving). The mediums of painting and photography were adopted from the mid-19th century for this purpose, with these new forms of portraiture congregating among or standing in place of whakairo in whare tūpuna (ancestral meeting houses) and their modern equivalents.

Ngā Taonga Tūturu: Treasured Māori Portraits brings together whakairo and oil paintings from the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, offering insights into the significance of tūpuna representations within te ao Māori. ‘Ngā taonga’ means many treasures while ‘tūturu’ signifies something permanent, true and original. This exhibition considers the inherent cultural values embodied and expressed within and through these taonga from a te ao Māori view.

One of the most prolific portraitists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Gottfried Lindauer’s paintings acknowledge the mana and self-determination of tūpuna through his respectful evocation of their likeness. They were widely commissioned by Māori and Pākehā (European New Zealander) alike. The portraits in this exhibition radiate outwards from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, representing iwi (tribe) and hapū (subtribe) from throughout the motu (island). Recalling a whare tūpuna, the gallery resonates with the mauri of these tūpuna.

Curated by Nathan Pōhio and Dr Jane Davidson-Ladd, Ngā Taonga Tūturu: Treasured Māori Portraits coincides with the naming of this gallery in honour of Apihai Te Kawau, paramount chief of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, whose son Te Hira Te Kawau appears in a portrait by Lindauer, pictured above.