Waipawa: ‘The perfect place for people to encounter toi Māori’

Heidi Brickell: A koru is a trajectory (detail), 2024. Photo / Cheska Brown
This weekend a group of seven toi Māori artists, from across the country, will gather in Tamatea, Central Hawke’s Bay to wānanga, create, and exhibit their work.
Paerangi: Waipawa is a development opportunity, facilitated by Te Tuhi’s Papatūnga programme, for artists of varying career stages to show work outside of a traditional gallery context, connecting with each other and local communities in the process.
Heidi Brickell, Zena Elliott, Tracy Keith, Neke Moa, Maraea Timutimu, Nephi Tupaea, and John Turi-Tiakitai will all spend a week at Pukehou Marae in wānanga, then exhibit their work in a variety of spaces in Waipawa over the weekend of October 19 and 20.
The exhibition’s title, Paerangi, refers to the place where land and sky meet, also called the pae of Ranginui in te ao Māori. Paerangi curator Karl Chitham says the horizon is a space without time or boundaries, which implies unlimited possibilities.
“The exhibition will bring artists and communities together in unconventional spaces to experience moments of discovery, innovation, and potential – not to mention to spend time in Waipawa exploring all its potential, too. With mediums including painting, textiles, weaving, kelp, and ceramics, it’s impossible to predict what visitors will experience.”
Karl says Waipawa is “the perfect place for people to encounter toi Māori”.
“This is such an exciting project that is about connecting artists and art with communities in unexpected ways,” he says.
“Small towns like Waipawa have amazing communities. I am really excited to hear the conversations that this project sparks.
“There are so many hidden gems in Aotearoa, places like Waipawa where people tend to drive straight through rather than stop and spend some time. This project is all about discovery – finding contemporary Māori art in unexpected places gives people an opportunity to explore a place they may not know, or for locals to experience familiar places in a fresh way.
“We have worked with staff from Central Hawke’s Bay District Council to identify spaces we think will be really different for the artists to experiment in.
“The Central Hawke’s Bay Museum will be a bit of a hub over the weekend, and where we will have the opening event on Friday night at 6pm – we would love the local community to come along to that.”
There will be exhibition pieces in the Elm Bar, PJ’s Cafe, Creative Fusion and Central Hawke’s Bay Municipal Theatre. There will be a map of the exhibition, with all of the spaces on it, that you can pick up along the way or you can go to the Te Tuhi website for more information.
Each of the artists will be in their exhibition space between 10am and 3pm on both Saturday and Sunday to talk about their work with the public.
Paerangi: Waipawa will be open Saturday, October 19 and Sunday, October 20. More information about the locations and the artists are available on the Te Tuhi website.