Installation provides a portal into Aotearoa New Zealand’s history

Mon 14 Apr 2025

The title of Brett Graham’s installation, Tai Moana Tai Tangata, brings together the ocean that surrounds his homeland Aotearoa New Zealand — the moana — with its human inhabitants — tangata. The phrase is taken from a remark Ngāti Toa rangatira Te Rauparaha made to Te Wherowhero, who would become the first Māori King:

Ka pari te tai moana, ka timu te tai tangata
When the ocean tide rises, the human tide recedes

In the context of Graham’s five monumental sculptures, this title prefaces the meeting and conflict between two world views. Installed in the Gallery of Modern Arts's central Long Gallery for the eleventh Asia Pacific Triennial, the works speak to structures created by both the British and Māori during the New Zealand wars. Deeply researched to ensure that they directly address Tainui and Taranaki Māoris’ experiences of British occupation, each of these works is superbly crafted, with materials carefully selected to ensure a strong physical and spiritual resonance for Māori.

Watch | Brett Graham introduces Tai Moana Tai Tangata

Speaking directly to the ways in which the resources of the Tainui and Taranaki Māori were extracted to make wealth for the colonial powers during the New Zealand wars of the 1860s, Graham’s works provide a portal into the politics and philosophies of these Māori iwi, and how they responded — through a pact of solidarity — to the dark face of human greed and exploitation that they faced.

Using video and images, Graham situates these sculptures geographically within landscapes that are today dotted with the architectures of extractive industries. Linked by a haunting soundtrack, these works conjure the history of Aotearoa as it pertains to all colonial countries where power was forcibly taken from First Nations peoples with disregard for their centuries of custodianship over finite natural resources. In doing so, Graham’s installation issues a grave warning to the present, when extraction continues unabated and the ocean tide is rising through global warming and climate change.

Maungārongo ki te Whenua, Maungārongo ki te Tangata 2020

Carved in the renowned Ātiawa style, Maungārongo ki te Whenua, Maungārongo ki te Tangata 2020, purchased by QAGOMA, refers to both the displacement of Māori from their lands and the wagons of food and water that the Pai Mārire residents of Parihaka shared with land surveyors and road builders employed by the government to confiscate their lands. Such gestures of goodwill confused and frustrated government officials, who responded in 1881 by mounting military action against Parihaka.

In creating Tai Moana Tai Tangata as an ode to both the Taranaki Māori and his own iwi, the Tainui Māori, Graham resurrects the pact — known today as Te Kīwai o te Kete — forged between the two iwi (tribes) during the New Zealand wars. Transported to the banks of the Maiwar for the Asia Pacific Triennial, this pact finds renewed significance in creating space to consider local histories of encounter, violence and greed, as well as relationships of resistance and solidarity, and the resilience of culture.

Edited extract from the publication The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, 2024

Art that echoes history
Asia Pacific Triennial
30 November 2024 – 27 April 2025
Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)
Brisbane, Australia
Free entry