The exhibition
Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki should be momentous in many ways. With more than 300 works by 112 Māori artists, it will be the largest exhibition in the institution’s 132-year history. Developed at every step by Māori, it aims to revisit and reinvigorate the concerns of artists active in the past 70 years to bring greater visibility to Indigenous storytelling.
The bilingual title makes this immediate. “It’s a reassertion of the place of Māori culture that the Indigenous voice of this country is one that is standing tall and standing strong,” says the museum’s Māori art curator Nigel Borell (who has