Te Māori 25th Celebration
victoria-university-of-wellington
Mon Sep 07 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Te Māori 25th Celebration
Monday, 7 September 2009, 5:12 pm
Press Release: Victoria University of Wellington
Te Māori 25th Celebration
Te Māori – the ground-breaking exhibition of Māori art that toured the United States will be commemorated and celebrated at a breakfast at the Waiwhetū marae in Lower Hutt.
It has been 25 years since the opening of Te Māori at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, on 10th September 1984. About 200 hundred guests have been invited to attend a breakfast to be hosted by the Minister of Māori Affairs, Hon Dr Pita Sharples, Mōrehu Kaumātua and the Te Māori Manaaki Taonga Trust.
A dawn ceremony of karakia will be conducted by noted tohunga where the Te Māori stone, the mauri or life-force of the exhibition will be taken into the cultural centre at the marae. Speeches of welcome and remembrance for those elders who have departed in the last twenty five years will be made by invited speakers.
“It will be a very emotional time I suspect” says Professor Piri Sciascia, Chairman of the Te Māori Manaaki Taonga Trust, and Pro Vice Chancellor Māori of Victoria University.
“We have lost so many of those who performed the ceremonies, both Māori and Pākeha – those who breathed life into the exhibition at that time. But we have seen such amazing progress as well, hence the celebration - it’s an opportunity to appreciate the transformational impact of Te Māori globally, and upon New Zealand. We value its legacy,” he says.
The four New Zealand delegations to the openings of the exhibition in New York, St Louis, San Francisco and Chicago, included talented younger members as well – one of whom was Pita Sharples, now the Minister of Māori Affairs.
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“We have seen Māori art grow and flourish, and we intend to commemorate the time of the exhibition here in New Zealand also,” says Professor Sciascia.
Called Te Māori: Te Hokinga Mai, the New Zealand exhibition showed in Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and finally ended in Auckland on the 10th September 1987, three years later to the day.
“Celebrations nationally and internationally have been organised for the next three years, and the interest is growing. This will include visual arts exhibitions, performing arts events, seminars involving the universities and wānanga, as well as events involving the contributing and exhibiting museums and art galleries. I trust that our people will add to the story that is Te Māori, and I am sure that a platform for the suitable advancement of the place of Māori art in our lives will be provided.”
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