Session Name: Re-engaging environmental knowledge. Sites and politics of heritage, spiritual care and medi(t)ation in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
1 - Careful Listening: Honouring the Treaty of Waitangi and following Māori guidance for a sustained and reciprocal relationship with the land
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
14:00 – 15:45 (GMT+7)
Presentation Abstract This presentation will explore my recent artistic projects repurposing or reclaiming Ōamaru limestone offcuts and presenting them alongside moving-image works filmed at a 'Nature Reserve' as a means to honour the land and the indigenous Māori people of Aotearoa New Zealand. I will foreground a few key principles of Aotearoa New Zealand legal foundation, Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi), and my position as a tauiwi (foreigner, non-Māori) navigating geopolitics, biculturalism, and cultural/environmental care as a contemporary artist. I will emphasise on Māori ancestral connection to their land (including bodies of water and forest) through a range of artistic explorations by Māori artists and elaborate on how this sociopolitical dialogue has influenced me to re-examine my own personal familial values and reevaluate the collective notion of Thainess. Through my recent projects, I will demonstrate my artistic attempts to communicate, to hear and converse with the land by employing digital audio production and elements of languages. As the land is Papatūānuku (Earth mother) in Māori philosophy, I will give examples of how I engage with a few specific places as in getting to know active, tangible, living beings; processes in establishing a connection and asking for permissions from local mana whenua (local authority or jurisdiction over land or territory); understanding my position as a guest or visitor and ways to reciprocate and give back to the land and the people.
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