Paemanu: Ka Nohoaka Toi

Ngāi Tahu artists have transformed CoCA Gallery. On a recent visit I was captivated by the rock art images drawn on the walls. The drawings, by Ross Hemera, are inspired by ancient rock art. Fascinating pieces of sculpture and projections also rim the gallery walls and interior.

Ngāi Tahu artists from Aotearoa and around the world have come together to create the exhibition Paemanu: Ka Nohoaka Toi.

The exhibition coincides with celebrations marking twenty years since Te Kerēme, the Ngāi Tahu Claim, was settled.

Nohoaka Toi capsule project Tīrewa is a framework on which to hang artworks, responding to the idea of Nohoaka and Kaihaukai – engaging with Ngāi Tahu food practices and community. #paemanu #nohoakatoi, Photo by Daniela Aebli. Posted by CoCA – Centre of Contemporary Art, 11 October 2017.

Curated by senior Paemanu artists, the exhibition takes the form of a nohoaka, a seasonal site for gathering food and other natural resources. There are 72 nohoaka (or nohoanga) within Te Waipounamu. Rights to the nohoanga are part of the Ngāi Tahu Claim settlement.

Artists in the exhibition include Ross Hemera, Areta Wilkinson, Simon Kaan, Lonnie Hutchinson, Peter Robinson, Neil Pardington, Rachael Rakena, Fayne Robinson, Ranui Ngarimu, Nathan Pohio, Louise Potiki Bryant, Martin Awa Clarke Langdon, Kiri Jarden, and many more established and emerging Ngāi Tahu artists.

Paemanu: Ka Nohoaka Toi is at Toi Moroki Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA) until Sunday 26 November 2017.

Find out more

• See photos from the exhibition on CoCA’s Instagram
• Booklist of Ngāi Tahu exhibition artists and their works
• Find titles about Ngāi Tahu art
• Find titles about New Zealand rock art
• Find titles about Mahi Toi (Māori art forms)
• Ngāi Tahu artists occupy CoCA for major new exhibition (Scoop, 18 August 2017)
• Te Kerēme – Ngāi Tahu Land Claim

We do things differently

Every now and then a book comes along that packs a big enough punch that I feel as if I’m flying through the air. We do things differently: The outsiders rebooting our world has me landing feet first with the feeling I can walk into the future.

Travelling across four continents author Mark Stevenson sets out to meet people who have created, and are using, extraordinary new ways to help our world.

“I had one over riding criterion for inclusion in my itinerary. The innovators had to be succeeding right now in the real world. Whatever their idea, I wanted to be able to touch it, meet the people making and benefiting from it… It had to be working and I had to be able to see it working.”

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Want to learn more?

• League of Pragmatic Optimists
• The Atlas of the Future

*both of the websites above recommended by Mark Stevenson.

More from Mark Stevenson

• An Optimist’s Tour of the Future