Artist gets Arts Foundation nod
‘‘I feel like there are enough of us within the creative spaces to tell our own stories. . . we don’t need other people telling our stories for us, we can tell them pretty good ourselves. ’’ Tia Barrett
The radiant pounamu stone, found exclusively on the South Island is a treasured tā onga in Mā ori culture and for one Waikato artist, it has become her prime spectacle.
Waikato based freelance artist Tia Barrett (Ngā i Tahu, Waitaha, Ngā ti Mā moe, Ngā ti Maniapoto, Ngā ti Tamainupō ) has channelled her whakapapa (heritage) to explore art through a Te Ao Mā ori lens.
Pounamu comes in ‘‘many different colours, shapes and forms’’ Barrett said which has been the inspiration behind her most recent work.
As a freelance Mā ori artist Barrett utilises the mediums of photography and Mā ori moving image.
‘‘We as Mā ori whakapapa to whenua, we whakapapa to our environment and we whakapapa to pounamu specifically,’’ she said.
Born in Christchurch, Barrett was interested in the creative arts from an early age.
It was while taking a ‘‘experimental film paper’’ at The University of Waikato that Barrett’s true passion for storytelling through the eye of a camera was unlocked, and she hasn’t looked back since.
‘‘I was really into drama and acting as a young person, and then I went to Waikato University...I took a film paper and that is when I became more interested in filming and being behind the camera rather than in
front of it,’’ Barrett said.
Barrett recently completed her masters at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) where she experimented with the concept of ‘‘filming through the lens of pounamu’’.
Tracing her roots back to Te Wai Pounamu (South Island), in her latest work Barrett has created a series combining her Mā tauranga Mā ori (Mā ori knowledge) and contemporary art.
The solo exhibition, He Pounamu Ko Ā u, seeks to depict
‘‘what a pounamu would see’’.
The ‘‘intergenerational’’ piece of work has earned the up-andcoming artist a nod from The
Arts Foundation – Te Tumu Toi in their 2023 Springboard awards.
‘‘It’s a re-imagining what a pounamu would probably see, I’m not filming pounamu stone itself, I am creatively thinking about if I am pounamu, what would it see?
‘‘There is a mana behind that as well, because through seeing through the lens of pounamu, I see myself as pounamu.’’
Being recognised by The Arts
Foundation – Te Tumu Toi had been very validating, Barrett said.
Art has been about autonomy, she said, and controlling how stories are told and by whom.
Her focus going forward is to continue to develop her craft using the $15,000 grant and mentoring expertise she has received through the award.
‘‘I really enjoy telling our pū rakau, in the past we [Mā ori] were predominantly the content on film for non-Mā ori, I think it’s more powerful for our own people to tell our own stories, and that’s what inspired me to become the film-maker rather than the being in front of the camera,’’ she said.
‘‘I feel like there are enough of us within the creative spaces to tell our own stories... we don’t need other people telling our stories for us, we can tell them pretty good ourselves.’’
Barrett’s solo exhibition, He Pounamu Ko Ā u, will open in June.