Source: Corban Estate Arts Centre
Gallery Spotlight
Witipū invites us to reconsider a term that has long been used to describe wāhine Māori who are unwavering, formidable, and unapologetically present. Rather than accepting inherited assumptions, this exhibition reclaims Witipū as an affirmation of mana, resilience, wisdom, and the many ways strength is embodied.
Across painting, sculpture, and mixed media, the artists reveal the breadth and complexity of wāhine Māori experience. Here, wāhine emerge as phases of the moon, as kaitiaki grounded in their tūrangawaewae, as holders of whakapapa and mātauranga, as leaders navigating multiple worlds, and as storytellers who reinterpret Māori narratives through the enduring lens of mana wāhine.
Complementing the visual works is an original creative writing contribution by Terri Te Tau ‘Pareaku’s Paddock’. Her text draws together the themes carried within each artwork, creating a narrative that connects the exhibition as a whole and offers another way of understanding the many meanings of Witipū.
This exhibition was first presented at Te Manawa Museum, Te Papaioea by curator, programme developer, and senior audience engagement facilitator Roma Pōtiki. Coinciding with the Toioho ki Āpiti 30 Year Celebration at Te Pūtahi a Toi, this exhibition was part of the symposium programme in June 2026.
Now in Tāmaki Makaurau at the Homestead Galleries, Corban Estate Arts Centre, Witipū brings together artists:
- Erena Baker-Arapere (Te Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toi Rangātira, Ngāti Raukawa)
- Huhana Smith (Ngāti Tukorehe, Raukawa ki te Tonga)
- Mari Ropata-Te Hei (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Raukawa, Te Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangātira)
- Rongomaiaia Te Whaiti (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Ngāi Tahu)
- Terri Te Tau (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne ki Wairarapa)
- Karangawai Marsh (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Maniapoto).
Huhana Smith’s embroidery Rakaunui (2026), framed by Ciaran Banks, is a statement to zoom out and view the bigger the picture, perhaps with a Witipū view. This approach allows more than one kaupapa to be held at once and to coexist while navigating mana thematics [1]. The audience is invited to step between levels and dive into multiple stories in Smith’s installation work Ngutu Tā: He mara kai mo ngā ringaringa pukumai. This might be accessing the work through tracing the handblown glass vessels that contain extra virgin olive oil back to her whenua. Further making connections between the offerings presented on her Tūahū that reference maramataka and the cycles of the mara through her wool weed mat.
Erena Baker-Arapere, Tūmatarau series: Ōtane Terri Te Tau (2026). Image: Sam Hartnett
Erena Baker-Arapere’s Tūmatarau (2026) photographic portraits, powerfully portray the face of each artist in the exhibition. Witipū is a collective of artists whom through wānanga came together developing a connection beyond what the audience can measure in the exhibition. Through this deep learning, the series shows Baker-Arapere responding to maramataka through a profoundly personal reflection of the artists relationship to Hina, capturing light and dark to present each artist’s chosen moon phase. The works drape down the wall in te pō which quickly closes the gap between the portrait and viewer. By weaving together tikanga and technology, Baker-Arapere manifests each artist’s presence in the space [2].
Confronted by Baker-Arapere’s portrait of Korekore Whakapiri namely Rongomaia Te Whaiti, a family resemblance begins to appear. Identity as a construct Te Whaiti has asserted as something that can shift and change using technology and language as a method of expression [3]. This relationship with identity and media leans into her portrait painting Lady with the horns (2026), a whakapapa of mana wāhine. Constructing her great-great-great grandmother from a photograph, Te Whaiti challenges archives of wāhine Māori representation, focusing on mana enhancing sovereignty as a language of identity. Her hands are replaced with strands of hair that trace a DNA and mauri that stretch into our time. The squares liken to data, like codes of information ready to transform into language.
Mari Ropata-Te Hei, Tōhaunui (2026). Image: Sam Hartnett
We learn that Witipū take on more than one form through Terri Te Tau’s short story Pareaku’s Paddock (2026) that weaves together the artists and artworks in the exhibition. As a written work this adds another life cycle to the exhibition through the voice of Te Tau. There are connections that we begin to make that tie each artist together, like Pareaku finds tīrairaka tail feathers that is an ode to Karangawai Marsh’s mate series. However just as you begin to think you can understand the gaps between the words or emotional truth, the reader is quickly redirected [4]. Perhaps affirming that Witipū cannot be defined to any set of conditions or one definition, constantly adapting to change.
Pūrākau contain insights into Māori ancestors and the world around them with every iwi story being one of creation and of whakapapa. Karangawai Marsh uses everyday materials including recycled MDF and cable ties to present the pūrākau of Maui’s pursuit of immortality. Finished with meticulous precision and at an impressive scale, her three tukutuku panels Te Rere a Mate series; Kuaka, Tīrairaka and Mātātā (2026) are a commanding and permanent presence. This series of work leaves no doubt that the tīrairaka spoke up for Hine-nui-te-pō dignifying the threads of mana wāhine in pūrākau that speak to our everyday [5].
The intention of Witipū goes beyond understanding the translation so this text follows the same protocol. In conversation with Mari Ropata-Te Hei during her visit to Tāmaki Makaurau, she emphasised the importance of learning te ao Māori through a visual language. This is the monumental task Witipū as an exhibition takes on. Her artwork Tōhaunui (2026) is made from copper wire intricately constructed into an apron that belongs to someone with bold elegance. She embodies light in between the tangible copper form which asks us to read deeper. The expression ringa tōhau nui then leads from the visual to language, showing the audience how to think about the navigation between tikanga and manaakitanga.
Witipū is the totality of mana wāhine living in every stream of practice through reclamation and empowerment. As a student relearning whakapapa, being shown this perspective recentres my understanding of the multiplicity of wāhine Māori. This exhibition runs until Saturday 10 October at the Homestead Galleries, Corban Estate Arts Centre and can be viewed from Monday to Saturday from 10am until 4pm.
Karangawai Marsh, Te Rere a Mate series (2026). Image: Sam Hartnett
Artists
Erena Baker-Arapere (Te Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toi Rangātira, Ngāti Raukawa)
Erena Baker-Arapere is an artist and senior lecturer in Māori Visual Arts at Toioho ki Āpiti, Massey University. Her photography practice explores portraiture and commemoration through tikanga Māori, considering the medium’s role within customary ritual and contemporary Māori experience. She is also a member of Mataaho Collective, producing large-scale fibre installations.
Karangawai Marsh (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Maniapoto)
An artist and lecturer in Māori Visual Arts at Toioho ki Āpiti, Massey University. Karangawai’s practice centres language revitalisation, mana tangata, and intergenerational knowledge through visual arts and cultural transmission. Karangawai also founded RaRau Mai, a full immersion arts programme for Māori-speaking whānau.
Mari Ropata-Te Hei (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Raukawa, Te Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangātira)
Mari Ropata-Te Hei is a senior lecturer in Māori education programmes at Toi Kura, Te Pūtahi a Toi – Massey University, and a BMVA and MMVA graduate. Her installation practice explores tikanga and manaakitanga on the marae, challenging colonial narratives and honouring collective responsibility.
Terri Te Tau (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne ki Wairarapa)
Fiction writer and artist Terri Te Tau’s research is centred around connections between indigenous knowledge systems, speculative fiction and the environment. She completed a PhD in Creative Arts from Massey University in 2015 and is a member of the art collective Mataaho. Terri has been appointed as the Te Herenga Waka—International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) and Creative New Zealand Emerging Māori Writer in Residence for 2026.
Huhana Smith (Ngāti Tukorehe, Raukawa ki te Tonga)
Huhana is Professor at College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington. She co-leads multidisciplinary, Māori-led collaborations for freshwater, wetlands/saltmarshes, and climate change concerns with Kuku, Horowhenua. Via indigenous research methods, artistic sensibilities, design, scientific data and mapping technologies, her visuals expand solutions for Te Taiao. She is a member of artist group Te Waituhi ā Nuku: Drawing Ecologies.
Rongomaiaia Te Whaiti (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Ngāi Tahu)
Rongomaiaia is an artist and academic at Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts, Massey University where she holds the position of Kaihautū Toi Māori. Her work engages kōrero tuku iho as a living framework through which to address contemporary cultural, political and artistic discourse. She is a board member of Toi Māori Aotearoa and Footnote New Zealand Dance, and serves on Te Ātinga Contemporary Māori Arts Committee.
Text by Java Bentley, Curator, Homestead Galleries, Corban Estate Arts Centre, 2026
References
[1] Cassandra Barnett, Kura Te Waru-Rewiri, “Huhana Smith Kura Te Waru-Rewiri,” in 25 Years of Toioho Ki Āpiti, ed. Cassandra Barnett and Kura Te Waru Rewiri (Auckland: Massey University Press, 2023), 82.
[2] Cassandra Barnett, Kura Te Waru-Rewiri, “Erena Baker-Arapere Rewiti Arapere,” in 25 Years of Toioho Ki Āpiti, ed. Cassandra Barnett and Kura Te Waru Rewiri (Auckland: Massey University Press, 2023), 264–265.
[3] Cassandra Barnett, Kura Te Waru-Rewiri, “Rongomaiaia Te Whaiti,” in 25 Years of Toioho Ki Āpiti, ed. Cassandra Barnett and Kura Te Waru Rewiri (Auckland: Massey University Press, 2023), 297–299.
[4] Terri Te Tau, “Writing into the Present Moment and into the Unexpected”, workshop presented with Satellites and Spoor Books, Te Tuhi, Auckland, September, 2026.
[5] Karangawai Marsh, conversation with artist, 2022–2023.
[6] Mari Ropata-Te Hei, conversation with artist, 2026.
Huhana Smith, Ngutu Tā: He mara kai mo ngā ringaringa pukumai (2026). Image: Sam Hartnett
Homestead Galleries & Gallery Shop
Monday–Saturday, 10am–4pm. Closed Sundays and public holidays.
2 Mt Lebanon Lane, Henderson, Auckland. 09 838 4455. info@ceac.org.nz. https://www.ceac.org.nz