COMMUNITY X KYLIE
Kylie Kwong celebrates the individuals helping to grow a stronger community. This month, we meet award-winning New Zealand artist and Ngāpuhi woman, Lisa Reihana.
Lisa Reihana.
Lisa Reihana made a profound impression on me years ago when I first met her through my wife Nell. Lisa is formidable; her energy is powerful, courageous, calming, respectful, healing, exquisitely sensitive and grounded, all at once. Lisa is one of those people who enhances all of those privileged enough to cross her path and I just love the way she loves her family so fiercely.
There is a phrase in te reo M¯aori, which refers to the sacred power of women: mana w¯ahine. All women possess this power but some positively radiate it. Lisa Reihana is one of those women; speaking to her is as uplifting as it is energising.
It’s a power she also brings to her art, which she began creating in the 1980s. Today, Reihana is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated artists, working across multiple disciplines, including film, photography, sculpture and more, to create bold, immersive experiences.
“My English grandmother was a costume designer,” says Reihana. “She worked for the opera company in Wellington and created beautiful costumes. I was always around her and my mum when they made clothes for us… My father was
a very practical person and always making and fixing things. So the transition into the art world for me wasn’t about being a painter – I’m not great at painting, I’m not even good at drawing. But those philosophies of recycling, combined with making things and sharing them with people, has always been really central to me.”
The philosophies and ideas she refers to stem from her own heritage and upbringing. Reihana’s father is Ng¯apuhi from Northland. Her mother is Welsh and English, arriving in post-war Wellington as a teenager. Reihana’s work regularly explores ancient M¯aori and Polynesian culture – and the subsequent impact and ongoing tension of colonisation, from a distinctly feminine perspective.
“I have three sisters, who I love dearly. I never really thought about feminism because I just thought that’s how the world was… There wasn’t a difference between boys and girls in my family because we were all female. That has very much influenced the types of stories that I’m interested in retelling and the place that I come from. It’s very feminine,” Reihana explains.
As a child, Reihana regularly travelled around country to connect with wh¯anau [family] and learn about Aotearoa. But at school, she says there was a total absence of M¯aori history or language.
“It was a different time when I was a wee kid and first going to school,” she recalls. “Culturally, New Zealand is quite a different place now than it was in the 1970s. You couldn’t learn te reo M¯aori at school. It wasn’t an official language. The point we are at now is quite different.”
That absence of local history and a love of learning triggered a desire to know more. And as Reihana headed to art school, she found herself surrounded by new voices and perspectives that she hadn’t previously encountered.
“Becoming involved in art introduced me to activism that was happening in the 1980s. It was at a time when M¯aori were advocating for M¯aori content on television… I was around a lot of really important film and media people – Barry Barclay, Merata Mita and Don Selwyn adapted Shakespeare’s plays into te reo M¯aori. Deliberately choosing them so that people who know Shakespeare could hear M¯aori and understand what they were saying. Trying to create links for audiences and, at the same time, putting it at a level that gave it the mana [respect] that they were seeking.”
Those ideas continue to influence her work today, including her most significant installation to date, in Pursuit of Venus [infected], which took more than 10 years to complete and has seen her travel the world to exhibit it, including taking part in the Venice Biennale in 2017.
Reihana’s list of accolades is extensive and she admits her international success has opened more than a few doors, including filming her most recent project for the 2020 Biennale of Sydney at Sir Peter Jackson’s 3D studio in Wellington.
But for Reihana, it remains about the experience – and the people. “I’ve met so many wonderful people. There’s just fabulous people everywhere and any time that you have with them is a blessing. In M¯aoridom, the idea of staying humble is important. I have felt really proud of pulling off large, complicated projects. Only I know how much work they have been.” lisareihana.com
“Culturally, New Zealand is quite a different place now than it was in the 1970s. You couldn’t learn te reo Māori at school. It wasn’t an official language.”