NGĀ HAU E WHĀ | THE FOUR WINDS

A new exhibition brings together four esteemed contemporary Māori artists; Graham Tipene (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Haua, Ngāti Manu); Professor Robert Jahnke ONZM FRSNZ (Ngāti Porou (Ngāi Taharora, Te Whānau a Iritekura, Te Whānau a Rakairoa); Israel Tangaroa Birch (Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tawake ki te Waoku, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rakaipaaka); and Anton Forde (Taranaki, Gaeltacht, Gaelic, English). This group exhibition, Ngā Hau e Whā / The Four Winds is symbolic of the coming together of people from all corners of the world and highlights the vibrancy and inclusivity of Tāmaki Makaurau. The four artists hail from iwi across New Zealand and have whakapapa connections to countries around the world. They present four converging creative currents, with each artist having made works inspired in different ways by the four winds.

Anton Forde’s material explorations in this exhibition honour the elemental forces of ngā hau e whā, evoking the winds as carriers of vibration, memory, and resistance. Forde’s works are carved from kōkawa (Taranaki andesite), Ngāi Tahu pounamu/jade, matā/obsidian, ōnewa/basalt, and recycled Australian hardwood. They reflect on the pūrākau (ancient legend) of Tāwhirimātea sending his wind children away in four directions, forming the northerly, easterly, southerly and westerly winds. Says Forde, “Here, we honour both our differences and the shared humanity that unites us all.”

Works are for sale, please enquire by email info@fordegallery.com or call Andrea 027 4486699.

April 24 to 29 2025 Preview Exhibition at pop up Föenander Gallery, Te Ara Walking St, Britomart Precinct, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland (next to The Store)

May 1 to 13 2025 Main Exhibition at Föenander Galleries, 1 Faraday St, Parnell, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

For centuries, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland has been a site of convergence. This is a place where people, ideas and energies from far and wide are drawn together by the winds: Te Hau Raki (the northerly), Te Hau Rāwhiti (the easterly), Te Hau Tonga (the southerly) and Te Hau-ā-uru (the westerly). Ngā hau e whā, the four winds, bring movement, transformation, and the dynamic interplay of cultures.

All those who settle in central Tāmaki Makaurau do so under the enduring manaakitanga (generosity and hospitality) of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the iwi who hold mana whenua (authority over the land and water). Their tribal name traces back to Whatutāhae, an early ancestress renowned for her manaakitanga. Over the generations, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei have continued to welcome diverse peoples, embracing new connections and possibilities for innovation – despite ongoing challenges to their mana whenua.

The tūpuna (ancestors) of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei had been based at Kaipara since they arrived on the Māhuhu-ki-te-rangi waka. Around 1740 they moved south to the Tāmaki Isthmus, under the rangatira (chief) Tuperiri. Through a series of skilful attacks, Tuperiri and his warriors toppled the Waiohua empire led by Kiwi Tāmaki, and secured take raupatu (rights to the land obtained by conquest in traditional warfare). Additional frameworks consolidated their mana whenua: take tupuna (ancestral rights to the land through intermarriages with Waiohua), tuku whenua (traditional land gifting), and ahi kā (rights to the land through unbroken occupation). They established settlements around the Waitematā and Manukau harbours. Their fishing grounds were plentiful in pipi, cockle, mud oysters, scallops, flatfish, mullet and sharks, sustaining their people and invited guests.

A matakite (visionary) named Tītahi lived on Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill) and foresaw the first Europeans to settle in Tāmaki Makaurau, years before they appeared. This was his prophecy:

He aha te hau e wawa ra, e wawa ra?

He tiu, he raki, he tiu, he raki

Nānā ī ā mai te puputarakihi ki uta

E tikina atu e au te kotiu

Koia te pou, te pou whakairo ka tū ki Waitematā

Ka tū ki Waitematā i oku wairangitanga

E tū nei, e tū nei!

Tītahi sensed that wind from the north was going to stir up change. While this worried him somewhat, he prophesied that Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei would grasp the coming opportunity. In 1840, the rangatira Apihai Te Kawau had this vision in mind when he sent a delegation north, to Okiato (Russell) – the first Pākehā government centre of New Zealand. He invited Governor William Hobson to relocate the capital to Tāmaki Makaurau.

Powered by the northerly wind, Hobson sailed to the Waitematā Harbour, to consider the lands offered. Pleased with the accessible port and fertile soil, he accepted a tuku whenua from the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei rangatira of 3,000 acres on Tāmaki Isthmus for the new capital – extending as far south as Maungawhau (Mt Eden). The rangatira envisioned a mutually-beneficial partnership, in which Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and the British settlers would share the riches of the land and water, exchange ideas and goods, build new education and health facilities, and participate in government together.

The European settlement of Auckland grew and thrived. Trade boomed as the new government capital also became the country’s main commercial port. By 1842, the year after Governor Hobson and the capital city relocated from Okiato, 2,895 Europeans had already settled here. Propelled by wind, ships from Scotland and England periodically deposited new waves of immigrants.

But the agreement with the British Crown was not coming to fruition the way Apihai Te Kawau and the other rangatira had expected. Through the machinations of the Crown’s legal system, which was entrenched with a land acquisition agenda, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei progressively lost small and large tranches of land. By 1855, they retained only 700 acres at Ōrākei.

Apihai Te Kawau asked Governor George Grey that Ōrākei ‘be reserved for our own use for ever and let us have a Deed for it so that it may be safe.’ Over the next century, portions of that land were chipped away for military and council use. For decades raw sewage was discharged into Ōkahu Bay, contaminating the fish and making those who lived in the papakāinga (village) there sick. A tragic event unfolded in 1952, when the council – wanting to beautify the area for Queen Elizabeth II’s visit – burned the papakāinga to the ground. ‘You can’t be here,’ the people of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei were told. Left homeless, they became wards of the state.

Yet this is a story of resurgence, not defeat. In 1977-8 Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei occupied their ancestral land at Takaparawhau (Bastion Point), part of the Ōrākei Block, for 506 days, protesting plans to build a housing development there. Led by visionaries including Joe Hawke and Sir Hugh Kāwharu, this action laid the groundwork for the return of land around New Zealand to its rightful Māori owners through the Waitangi Tribunal. In a generous act of manaakitanga, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei gifted Takaparawhau back to all people of Tāmaki Makaurau as a reserve, which they continue to maintain today, in partnership with Auckland City Council.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei remain optimistic about the future. They carry forward the vision of their tūpuna, who offered land for the capital city of Auckland, foreseeing a city that would lead New Zealand and attract people from around the world – ngā hau e whā. They recognise Tāmaki Makaurau is a tomokanga (entrance) to New Zealand and support people coming here to visit and or live, enriching the country. They are working to restore the natural ecosystems of the land and water, for the whole city’s benefit. They have established training programmes for Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei youth, preparing them to co-govern as the leaders of the future. They actively support artistic practices – even, and perhaps especially, when they provoke controversy – knowing that this is what Tāmaki Makaurau and New Zealand need to continue to evolve.

This exhibition, Ngā Hau e Whā, highlights the vibrancy and inclusivity of Tāmaki Makaurau. The four artists hail from iwi across New Zealand and have whakapapa connections to countries around the world. They present four converging creative currents, with each artist having made monumental works in support of the right of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei to occupy Tāmaki Isthmus and inspired in different ways by the four winds.

Israel Tangaroa Birch (Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tawake ki te Waoku, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rakaipaaka) is an educator and artist, renowned for his Painting With Light practice of intricate carved steel and lacquer works, which absorb and refract light from patterns that sit just below the surface of the picture plane. His works in this exhibition reflect the vitality of hau. They bend light and shadow like the shifting lifeforce of ngā hau e whā, while animating space through the movements of viewers and environment.

Anton Forde (Taranaki, Gaeltacht, Gaelic, English) has exhibited his sculptures across New Zealand, Èire/Ireland and the UK. His material explorations in this exhibition acknowledge the elemental forces of ngā hau e whā, evoking the winds as carriers of vibration, memory, and resistance, that honour both our differences as well as the shared humanity that unites us all. The works are carved from kōkawa (Taranaki andesite), Ngāi Tahu pounamu, matā (obsidian), ōnewa (basalt), and Australian hardwood. They reflect on the pūrākau (ancient legend) of Tāwhirimātea sending his wind children away in four directions, forming the northerly, easterly, southerly and westerly winds.

Professor Robert Jahnke ONZM FRSNZ Ngāti Porou (Ngāi Taharora, Te Whānau a Iritekura, Te Whānau a Rakairoa) is an artist and educator, well-known for his graphic and sculptural artwork. His triptych, Te Hau o Te Tai Rāwhiti, is inspired by hoe (waka paddles) that the people of Tūranganui-a-Kiwa Gisborne traded with the crew of the Endeavour, onboard the ship on October 10th, 1769. The hoe waka propelled iwi from Tūranga and Whareongaonga to an Endeavour fleeingthe area, after a visit marked by bloodshed. Jahnke pays homage to the living legacy of the hoe waka rhythms and patterns – which have featured on significant whare tupuna (meeting houses) and Christian churches in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, and also informed the compositional vocabulary of Gordon Walters’ influential minimalist kōwhaiwhai paintings. The triptych makes tangible the winds of history, while honouring the lives lost at the hands of the Endeavour crew, the innovation of the iwi of the Tairāwhiti, and the breath of artistic lineage.

Graham Tipene (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Haua, Ngāti Manu) presents a mana whenua perspective. He has applied his tā moko (traditional tattooing) skills to civic-scale sculpture, carved and painted works across Tāmaki Makaurau, bringing manaakitanga and cultural presence into public space. His works in this exhibition are embedded with iconographical and narrative references to the four winds passed down by his tūpuna.