Waitangi artist shares Palestine travels
Waitangi artist Paitangi Ostick is set to share her experience of travelling to Palestine in the Middle East, in a new web-series.
He Ao Kotahi (The One World Project) will release Pai in Palestine on July 12.
The 10-episode series features Ostick interviewing local people, and sharing stories from her travels.
She hopes it will raise awareness about Palestinians ‘‘being refugees in their own country’’.
Ostick says series producer Paula Jones, who has travelled several times to Palestine, had been looking for someone to accompany her for another trip.
‘‘She says she was searching online for a female artist, then female tattooist, then female carver, and I came up every time. ‘‘So she said it must be you.’’ Ostick spent just three days with Jones, before organising to meet her in Palestine in August 2016, after working in Germany.
‘‘I kind of see it like an exchange for the arts,’’ Ostick says about her time in Palestine.
‘‘It was a connection of Maori people and Palestinians through the arts.
‘‘I had to learn how to dance the dabke (a traditional dance) and I did that really bad, then I taught them the poi and they did that really well.
‘‘I met young painters, musicians, and Bedouins.’’
Ostick, who has a moko kauae (traditional Maori facial tattoo), says she has always had an interest in other indigenous women in the world who have traditional tattoos.
She says she wasn’t sure if she would meet anyone with tattoos, until she met Nanny Saba, a Bedouin (a nomadic tribe) with faint facial tattoos.
‘‘Her’s was not only on the chin, but across the cheek bones and through the forehead.’’
Ostick spent 12 days travelling through Palestine, where the people have been made refugees by the Israeli Defence Force.
‘‘In Hebron, I visited the Palestinian Children’s Art Centre, which is set up for therapy.
‘‘Every family, every child has seen someone killed or lost someone in their family, so the subject matter is quite violent.’’
Ostick asked one of the children what her dreams were and she drew a picture of a beach with trees.
‘‘She basically drew my backyard. It was beyond their comprehension that I could freely walk on the beach.’’
The first episode will be live from 8pm on July 12, with a new episode released each week for 10 weeks.
They will also be available to view on demand.
To view the free web-series visit: www.heaokotahi.co.nz