Lynne Harata Te Aika

Re-indigenising the Ōtautahi-Christchurch Landscape in Aotearoa, New Zealand with New Forms of Māori Artworks Retelling the Narratives of the Local Ngāi Tahu People and Providing a Rich Cultural Backdrop for Art Education. (Keynote Lecture)

Abstract:

Lynne Harata Te Aika will share her experience and expertise in working for her tribal group Ngāi Tahu and her sub-tribe Ngāi Tūāhuriri in the rebuild and major anchor projects following the Christchurch City earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 which destroyed a number of buildings in her city. This tragedy also brought about an opportunity for her tribal people Ngāi Tahu  to lead and collaborate at a city wide, regional and national level with Ngāi Tahu artists and designers of the anchor projects to rebuild the city, navigating unexpected territories, shifting ground and finding new opportunities for cultural expression in a formerly monocultural city with buildings and architecture based on the dominant culture of the British colonials with almost no hint of existence of the indigenous Ngāi Tahu Māori people.

This created an opportunity for Ngāi Tahu and other Māori artists to create artworks that educate the wider community through retelling tribal narratives and revitalising traditional art forms and evolving new contemporary works. Schools, teachers, community organisations, the wider public and city visitors are able to learn and hear first-hand Ngāi Tahu narratives through guided walks about pre-European Māori culture and history, early contact encounters and the emergence of contemporary cultural artworks and artforms that are manifested in the anchor projects.

It took a series of seismic events to assist in the re-indigenisation of  Ōtautahi-Christchurch’s city landscape and raise the status of Māori indigenous artforms and centre Māori art education in the city.

Additional Resources:

Anchor Projects Christchurch

Turanga – the new Christchurch City Library

Te Pae – The CHCH Convention Centre

Parakiore – The Recreation and Sport Centre, to be opened in 2025

Kanakana – an important food resource (mahinga kai) is an inspiration for artwork

Artwork walking tours

A 2-hour inner-city walk, created by Lynne, tells stories through the artworks on buildings, walkways, landscaping, near waterways, children’s play areas, and within building interiors. Prior to the 2011 earthquakes there was very little visibility of Māori art works and carvings.

Language Revitalisation

• Article: Teachers need to embrace te reo Māori 'if serious about equity'

Language Revitalisation

Lynne shares background information to her presentation:

Colonisation & Cultural repression

Māori language and culture has been systematically repressed by our colonial English settler and post colonial NZ society for nearly 200 years. Our tribal group in Te Waipounamu the South Island were mainly settled on the East Coast. Language loss took place in one generation including suppression of our traditional practices and traditional arts.

Cultural revitalisation-Shifting from the Margins

A wave of language revitalisation from the 1970's -2022's  has assisted māori in reclaiming their culture. 5 generations of language and cultural loss (120 years) in my family to me. I have two sons and 3 grandsons so we now have 3 generations of speakers

Ngāi Tahu settled their 150 year Treaty  grievance with the Crown (NZ government in 1997)

Along with language revitalisation it was a platform for cultural revitalisation including our traditional and contemporary arts.

My tribal group wrote a strategy in year 2000 for language and cultural arts revitalisation. This was primarily for our own tribal group now some 85,000 people. Along with language revitalisation we established Arts collectives in traditional  weaving  and carving but also other contemporary artists collectives. From 2000-2010 we help revive some of our traditional art forms and grow the numbers of traditional weavers and carvers and contemporary artists. This was one of my strategic areas when I worked for our tribal group and I am still active in cultural initiatives with my family. I will source our original cultural strategy.

Seismic Opportunity in our City

Due to the Canterbury-Christchurch Earthquakes many of our city buildings and schools were destroyed/or severely damaged in 2010 and 2011.

This gave an opportunity for our local iwi Ngāi Tahu to participate in the rebuild of the city and provide cultural narratives inputting into the design and fit out of the anchor projects. We set up Matapopore our Arts Trust to oversee the narratives for the projects. The Trust operated 2014-2024.

We were able to create opportunities for our narratives to form part of the naming and commissioned artworks in these buildings. We partnered with Crown Entities and Local Council. Pre earthquakes there was a lack of visibility of any forms of Māori artworks in the city. This was quite a reversal from pre-earthquakes.

Evolving New Artforms and technology

Pushing the Boundaries- Most of the anchor projects have contemporary Māori artworks rather than traditional weaving and carving, which is an exciting phase in our development. 

I am a cultural leader in Ōtautahi from the home indigenous Māori (Ngāi Tahu) people of Christchurch. My involvement in art projects has been in retelling the cultural narratives and commissioning artworks  as part of the rebuild of our city and in selecting artists for our anchor projects in several large projects.

It has been my privilege to work with and create narratives to inspire our artists in their creative works.

Lynne Harata Te Aika

Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Awa. Lynne is from Ōtautahi-Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand

Kia ora my name is Lynne Harata Te Aika. I am Māori from Ōtautahi-Christchurch, Aotearoa – New Zealand.

My background is in Māori language and cultural revitalisation mainly in the school and university sector and also at a tribal and regional level.

I have worked as an education and cultural consultant and have coordinated a number of Māori language and cultural programmes for our tribal people, in the Ngāi Tahu region of the South Island of New Zealand,

I have considerable strategic leadership and governance experience including General Manager, Culture and Identity for Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, 2016–2020; Head of School Aotahi: Māori & Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury 2010–2015 and Head of School the College of Education Māori, Social and Cultural Studies 2007–2009.

My relevant governance role for this presentation was for Matapopore Charitable Trust 2014-2024 our tribal trust providing cultural narratives and naming documents for the Anchor Rebuild Projects in Christchurch following the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury Earthquakes and working with artists to retell these narratives in their artforms.  I was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2020  for Contribution to Te Reo Māori and Education.