The Ringatoi exhibition, presented by NZQA, is now at the National Museum Te Papa Tongarewa and features works from students across Aotearoa.
The exhibition features Māori artforms such as raranga, whakairo, uku, mahi-matihiko and mahi whakaahua (photography).
A group of students from Te Kura Taumata o Panguru in the Far North have used the opportunity to share the story of their homelands. The works, entitled Te Riu o Hokianga, speaks of their identity markers as outlined in the late Pā Hēnare Tate’s pātere or chant entitled Nau Mai ki Te Puna I Te Ao Mārama.
“I really wanted to teach the tamariki about artists from home,” their teacher, Bercic said. “Even though we come from a little small rural place in Hokianga, there is greatness that comes from here,” she said.
The artworks, on corrugated iron, speak of all the key landmarks around North Hokianga. The students took the words from the chant and used art conventions famously used by the late Ralph Hotere, also from Hokianga, to create their works.
“He really looked at landmarks, places, time and events and political events. It was really inspiring to them, especially now as we’re going through quite a lot of political events” she said.
Bercic says the students were elated that their art was being displayed at the national museum. Most of her students had never stepped foot in the museum before.
“They thought it was going local like Kohukohu or Rawene but then they realised it was down in Wellington at a bigger museum, at Te Papa, they were excited,” she said
The tauira will gain NCEA Level 1 internal credits but Bercic said the benefits went beyond just getting credits to the experience of exhibiting art at Te Papa.
The exhibition was judged by artist Mr G, and coincides with the 40th anniversary of Te Māori, the exhibition that catapulted Māori art into the international arts community when it toured the US in the 1980s.
The Ringtoi exhibition is now on at Te Papa Tongarewa and will end on September 27.