Kiwi’s artwork goes on show in Scotland
Work celebrates Scottish and Ma¯ ori ancestry
Former Levin man and actor Mitch Manuel is turning heads as an artist now with an exhibition in Scotland that celebrates combined Scottish and Māori ancestry.
Woven Identities — Tartan Meets Koru opens at the Smith Museum and Gallery in Stirling, Scotland, on September 21, and runs for more than a month.
Manuel had won awards as a young man in the 1980s for roles in movies like Kingi’s Story, Kingpin and Mark II.
In 1987 he was awarded the Best Male Performance in a Dramatic Role at the Listener Television Awards for his performance as Kingi in Mark II.
These days he is a family man — a cool-store truck driver by day, digital artist by night.
Manuel’s inspiration for his latest work came from wanting to attend a family reunion in Rarotonga, which was cancelled due to Covid-19.
He had wanted to bring something new — his digital tartan/koru art to celebrate their Scottish side which he inherited from his mother Maara Brown.
The result was a collection of highend digital art celebrating not only his Clan Brown, but dozens of others clans as well. The twist was they all had mixed Māori and Scots ancestry.
Art critics fell in love with the work that fused ancient Māori kowhaiwhai and koru with clan tartans associated with each name, combining colours, multifaceted meanings and legendary pasts.
Repeated attempts to show his work in Aotearoa New Zealand proved fruitless. But he had a different response from the wellknown Scotland museum and gallery, and ever since he had worked closely with exhibition director Dr Heather Carroll.
The Smith, a well known museum and gallery in Scotland, will show Manuel’s work from September 21 to November 6, a solo collection of canvas mounted digital prints called: Woven Identities — Tartan meets Koru.
“I’m ecstatic and humbled by the opportunity. Gaels and mixed heritage with Aotearoa’s indigenous people should be celebrated and enjoyed,” he said.
He won’t be travelling to Scotland for this exhibition, but he’s adamant it won’t be his last.
“Who would have thought, a Māori lad from Levin would have an exhibition in Stirling Scotland?” he said.
Manuel said the New Zealand census doesn’t separate Scottish and Irish by ethnicity but more than a million Scottish and Irish, some with and without mixed ancestry, live in Aotearoa.
The museum’s website heralds Manuel’s work: “Woven Identities explores, celebrates, and expresses whakapapa (genealogical) and cultural connections between Māori and Scottish people”.
“Mitch draws upon the iconic visual symbolism of tartan and of koru, a traditional organic Māori shape that resembles an unfurling fern leaf. By combining these two deep-rooted visual forms of cultural identity through digital media, Mitch’s artwork tells the story of the links between Māori people and Scots.
“First inspired by his own (Māori-Scottish, Polynesian-Gaelic) mixed heritage, Mitchell began exploring Scotland and Aotearoa New Zealand’s shared experiences of colonialism through his digital art.
“Common themes of loss of land, cultural alienation and suppression, and subsequent resilience, perseverance, and triumph are embedded throughout their history but also woven into cultural imagery of tartan and koru.
“The artworks celebrate and echo the complexity, beauty, and uniqueness of identities forged from a variety of original encounters and leave their generational mark on many today.”
Manuel, who is now based in Lower Hutt, was described as an “innovative, multi-talented creative with a background in film and television, digital art, textile design, and fashion”.
The exhibition was supported by the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund. This fund is being delivered in partnership between Visit Scotland and Museums Galleries Scotland with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery players.
Woven Identities is part of the City of Stirling’s year-long events celebrating the 200th anniversary of tartan.
The link to the exhibition was at https://www.smithartgalleryandmuseum.co.uk/exhibition/wovenidentities-tartan-meets-koruby-mitch-manuel/