Four Māori have been recognised among Aotearoa’s most outstanding artists this year, named 2024 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureates on Friday evening.
Designer Carin Wilson (Ngāti Awa, Tūhourangi), composer Horomona Horo (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou, Taranaki), multidisciplinary artist Lonnie Hutchinson (Ngāti Kurī ki Ngāi Tahu, Samoan) and actor-director Miriama McDowell (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) were acknowledged for their outstanding practice and significant impact on their art form and Aotearoa.
Each receives a $35,000 financial gift.
They were recognised alongside four other new Te Tumu Toi laureates: Samoan playwright Victor Rodger, writer Alison Wong, composer Claire Cowan and painter Saskia Leek.
Carin Wilson
Influential designer and sculptor Carin Wilson’s career has been dedicated to advancing Māori design principles and culturally relevant practices in architecture and furniture making.
His work encompasses a wide range of mediums, from handcrafted furniture to large-scale public art installations, often inspired by his deep connection to Māori narratives and the natural environment, Te Tumu Toi says.
“I didn’t grow into any particular discipline, all I knew is I discovered an inner voice and I wanted to create. And I had to find my own way to do it. So I’ve been doing what I do for about 40 years now,” Wilson says in an award video.
His advocacy for Māori representation in design has been central to his career.
“We as Māori and Pasifika people, we do not think in silos, we think across those disciplines. We freely engage with each other,” he says.
He is a co-founder of Ngā Aho, a national network of Māori design professionals, and has been honoured with the title Kāhui Whetu for his commitment to Māori artistry.
Wilson has served as the president of the Craft Council of New Zealand and held positions on the World Crafts Council and the Designers Institute of New Zealand.
Wilson received the Tumu Toi laureate Design Award.
“He continues to advocate for mana whenua and community collaboration in projects, championing a deep understanding of the spaces and places in which his work sits.
“His legacy is fit for a Laureate,” the judging panel said.
Horomona Horo
Horomona Horo is a composer and musician known for his expertise in taonga pūoro, blending traditional sounds with diverse genres, as well as helping promote and preserve ancestral voices.
Mentored by Dr Hirini Melbourne, Dr Richard Nunns and Hinewirangi Kohu-Morgan, he has carried forward their vision of the renaissance of the traditional craft across more than two decades.
“When I started playing taonga pūoro it gave me the underpinning of being involved in a movement for your people. I started loving music and I started loving my own voice through culture.”
He is a recipient of the Pūmanawa APRA Silver Scroll Award and was the inaugural winner of the Dynasty Heritage Concerto Competition, which celebrates the performance of traditional Māori instruments.
Horo’s performances have taken him to stages all over the world.
He received the Te Tumu Toi laureate Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Award, which acknowledges outstanding Māori and Pasifika creatives within the arts.
“Award-winning Horomona is a master taonga pūoro composer, performer, educator, and Aotearoa’s best known international practitioner,” the judges said.
Horo says he’s deeply touched to receive this acknowledgment.
“To be recognised as a laureate is a beautiful blessing. At least my tamariki know the hard work pāpā has done over the years is actually being recognised. You know, people do see.”
Lonnie Hutchinson
Lonnie Hutchinson is a leading multidisciplinary artist whose works comment on aspects of indigeneity, colonisation and the complexities of identity.
“My work, which is mainly exhibition work, usually is whakapapa-based. If it isn’t about my Samoan whakapapa or my Māori whakapapa... it can be about the whakapapa of things.”
For more than three decades, she has created powerful installations, including her signature cut-out work.
“Since I was a child I always made things. I remember I was in the garage - I would have been only 9 or 10 - and it was there that I thought I’m going to be an artist. That’s what I’m going to be - an artist.”
Hutchinson has shared her love of art with young people.
“I was teaching young men or boys - a lot of them were Pacific or Māori - and they were ‘oh we’ve never had a brown teacher before miss’. That just gives you mana when you’re with boys,” she says.
“It just showed me how much alofa they had.”
Hutchinson was awarded the Tumu Toi laureate My Art Visual Arts Award.
“I’ve never even actually thought about myself winning a laureate,” she says.
“I actually didn’t tell anybody for about 24 hours. I thought I’d just keep it to myself, and just dance around and sing my 80′s songs around the house.”
The judges praised her artistry.
“Her works have been acquired by public institutions and private collectors, but it is her contribution to public art that has had a lasting impact on communities.
“Having completed major public commissions in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland and Kirikiriroa/Hamilton, it is Lonnie’s work across multiple sites as part of the Ōtautahi/Christchurch rebuild that has helped transform the city.”
Miriama McDowell
Miriama McDowell is an award-winning actor, director and writer dedicated to uplifting Māori and indigenous voices through her storytelling, with a career that has spanned more than two decades.
“I started doing theatre when I was figuring out who I was. The minute I started doing work on the stage, everything else fell away and I really understood, even at a young age, the power of discovering something where you can truly be in the moment.”
A graduate of Toi Whakaari drama school, she further honed her craft at the prestigious École Philippe Gaulier theatre school in France.
Her directorial debut with the play Ngā Pou Wahine for Taki Rua Theatre earned her the 2015 George Webby Most Promising New Director Award.
Later, she co-directed a Pasifika version of Much Ado About Nothing at the Pop-Up Globe, which became a major success, attracting over 100,000 audience members.
“Something shifted for me when I started to direct theatre rather than just being an actor. That was really the time when I started to find my voice.”
McDowell received the Tumu Toi laureate Sir Roger Hall Theatre Award.
“Miriama is a multi-hyphenate practitioner who excels onstage and behind the scenes,” the panel said.
“She is constantly working to grow her performance practice, incorporating te reo Māori into her writing, and forging new ground with her intimacy coaching.”
McDowell says the recognition is hugely motivating.
“The laureate award it just makes me want to keep going,” she says.
“You know the thing about being in this country is that you don’t have to stay in your lane. I work on screen, I direct on screen, I direct theatre, I write, I teach.
“And I really love that about being an artist in Aotearoa.”