Mana te noki Karena (née Martin)
Fiona Clark, Artist
About the Work
This
work
is
from
Fiona
Clark’s
ground-breaking
project
‘Te
Iwi
of
Te
Wāhi
Kore’
which
can
be
translated
as
‘the
people
with
nothing’
and
relates
to
traditional
Maori
fishing
grounds
in
North
Taranaki
and
the
threats
posed
to
them
by
sewage
and
the
synthetic
petrol
plant
at
Motunui.
Clark
produced
a
series
of
104
photographs,
of
which
the
Sarjeant
Gallery
purchased
10
images
for
the
collection
in
1986.
In
2017
the
Dowse
Art
Museum
wrote
about
the
55
images
from
the
series
in
their
collection:
It “acknowledges the historical confiscation of the vast majority of iwi (Ngātiawa and Te Atiawa) land along the coastline north-east of Mount Taranaki. The series positions kai moana as one of the community’s last remaining culturally significant environmental assets: not only a food source, but a taonga that brings pride and prestige crucial for undertaking manaakitanga.
These photographs also became an important political tool. In the early 1980s the entire ‘Te Iwi o Te Wāhi Kore’ series of 104 photographs was presented numerous times, most significantly for the Motunui-Waitara Treaty of Waitangi Claim (Wai-6) to assert iwi as kaitiaki of their ancestral land. Using contemporary photographs as evidence was an innovative approach, as claims could not relate to historical occurrences at that time. The photographs showed how the exploitation of the local foreshore and seabed was unlawful under the Treaty of Waitangi, because it stopped iwi carrying out their responsibility and right to care for and use their taonga.
… While the photographs from the original ‘Te Iwi o Te Wāhi Kore’ series assisted in gaining interim measures to alleviate the pollution of the local foreshore and seabed, little has been done to deal with the issues properly. In the twenty-first century, these photographs, along with Clark’s newer work, become a new kind of evidence – showing a way of life that has almost disappeared and could be entirely lost. Clark has continued to work for this cause through her photographs and lobbying, forming relationships with the children and grandchildren of the people she collaborated with in the 1980s. As a result of these bonds, she continues to work as part of the local community, highlighting environmental issues to help save this unique coastline.”
- Dowse Art Museum exhibition ‘Fiona Clark: Te Iwi o Te Wāhi Kore’ 15 Jul 2017 – 5 Nov 2017
It “acknowledges the historical confiscation of the vast majority of iwi (Ngātiawa and Te Atiawa) land along the coastline north-east of Mount Taranaki. The series positions kai moana as one of the community’s last remaining culturally significant environmental assets: not only a food source, but a taonga that brings pride and prestige crucial for undertaking manaakitanga.
These photographs also became an important political tool. In the early 1980s the entire ‘Te Iwi o Te Wāhi Kore’ series of 104 photographs was presented numerous times, most significantly for the Motunui-Waitara Treaty of Waitangi Claim (Wai-6) to assert iwi as kaitiaki of their ancestral land. Using contemporary photographs as evidence was an innovative approach, as claims could not relate to historical occurrences at that time. The photographs showed how the exploitation of the local foreshore and seabed was unlawful under the Treaty of Waitangi, because it stopped iwi carrying out their responsibility and right to care for and use their taonga.
… While the photographs from the original ‘Te Iwi o Te Wāhi Kore’ series assisted in gaining interim measures to alleviate the pollution of the local foreshore and seabed, little has been done to deal with the issues properly. In the twenty-first century, these photographs, along with Clark’s newer work, become a new kind of evidence – showing a way of life that has almost disappeared and could be entirely lost. Clark has continued to work for this cause through her photographs and lobbying, forming relationships with the children and grandchildren of the people she collaborated with in the 1980s. As a result of these bonds, she continues to work as part of the local community, highlighting environmental issues to help save this unique coastline.”
- Dowse Art Museum exhibition ‘Fiona Clark: Te Iwi o Te Wāhi Kore’ 15 Jul 2017 – 5 Nov 2017
Measurements
Image 282 x 282mm
Media
cibachrome print
Description
Colour photographic portrait showing a Maori woman wearing gumboots and walking amongst stones on the sea shore. She is wearing a knitted cardigan, a black and white head scarf and a hand knitted woollen blanket wrapped around her middle. She is carrying a wooden staff and a kete (woven flax basket). In the distance behind her is Mount Taranaki.
Credit Line
Collection of the Sarjeant Gallery, Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui. Purchased, 1986
Collection Type
Permanent collection
Acquisition Date
08 Jan 1986