TITLE: Amiorangi (2021)
MATERIAL: Kōkōwai - Te Rarawa, Muka - Whakapara, 300gsm archival cotton rag.
SIZE: 297mm x 420 mm

Rongomai Grbic-Hoskins
Ngāti Hau, Ngāti Hao, Ngāti Moroki, Ngāti Pākahi and Ngātiwai

Rongomai is an emerging curator and student of Māori Aute, raised in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her developing approach to these practices is shaped by her understanding of the world as dynamic whakapapa relations. She sees relational engagement with non-human others, including taonga, as generative. Such an understanding is bound by the underpinning concepts and processes of tapu, mauri, utu and mana, encompassed by Te Ao Māori. Since completing her studies, she has focussed on contributing towards Māori centred curatorial and research practices in the museum and gallery sector. She has held curatorial assistant internships both nationally and internationally, going on to work at Toi O Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery and Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand. She has been a taura (apprentice) of Nikau Hinin's since 2021.

This work reflects the culminations of mātauranga pertaining to Toi Māori that I have been privileged to learn over the last two years. Through the Toi Ngāpuhi Tai o Hī Tai o Hā wānanga, I was taught how to process muka by Makareta Jahnke - which has enchanted me ever since. During this wānanga I also learnt about kō (ochre), and have since spent time with Te Warahi Hetaraka, his whānau and Nikau Hindin ruminating on the force of this taonga. This has been encompassed by the kaupapa Te Uru Aute - where I have been learning the practice of Māori aute over the course of the last year alongside my tuakana Nikau. In time I hope to produce works with aute. For now - as my aute practice develops - I have felt moved to continue to make. Nei ngā hua ō ēnei whare wānanga, ēnei kura huna, arā, ēnei purapura.