'Ngā Hokohoko: Cultural Transference

Ngā Hokohoko: Bicultural Transference grounded in Te Ao Māori, strengthening connections to past makers, tīpuna, known and The exhibition Ngā Hokohoko explores the unknown. kaupapa of hokohoko—exchange, trade, barter—within the contemporary jewellery In contrast, Preston and Bern articulate their community in Aotearoa. It proposes hokohoko love of making through natural materials such as a framework for bicultural dynamics and as shell, native seeds, found objects and fibre, features the work of Pauline Bern, Matthew with silver and gold accents, to communicate McIntyre-Wilson (Taranaki, Ngā Māhanga and their cultural location in Aotearoa. Moa and Titahi), Neke Moa (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu, Sheehan both centre on pounamu, however Ngāti Porou, Tūwharetoa), Alan Preston, Joe their practices emerge from divergent Sheehan and Areta Wilkinson (Kāi Tahu, Kāti perspectives. Exhibiting the work of these six Mamoe, Waitaha). As seen through the practice artists together activates a conversation. Ngā of several of the most innovative jewellers Hokohoko presents an essential, nuanced from the past 40 years, Ngā Hokohoko charts understanding of indigenous materials and connections and contrasts in materials and practice, reflected in the work of Māori and pivotal influences such as mātauranga Māori Pākehā makers. and Pasifika adornment. This exhibition distils ideas from a talk Ngā Hokohoko embodies this kaupapa, from Preston and Wilkinson presented in 2016 at Wilkinson’s luxurious gold Hine-Āhua and the Schmuck jewellery symposium in Munich, Huiarei (2013) to Preston’s Pāua Chain (1994), Contemporary Jewellery Aotearoa New and demonstrates how we have shared ideas, Zealand: Māori, Oceanic and International materials and techniques. Māori makers such practices underpinning Fingers development as Wilkinson and McIntyre-Wilson both explore for 40 years. Their lively presentation was a mātauranga Māori through precious metals, tūturu kiwi-iwi PowerPoint, complete with like gold and silver, rather than customary hongi and waiata, exchange of jewellery pieces Māori materials such as pounamu and bone. and quirky slides displaying New Zealand. It These makers communicate their whakapapa also showed the longstanding friendship of by engaging in knowledge and processes the jewellers, interwoven with tikanga Māori. This was a groundbreaking moment for New ‘jewellery marae’. It has remained a focal there were only a few Māori and Pasifika Japan. It featured jewellery of our time that Zealand jewellery, making public this unique point, as a retail store and a gallery to exhibit practitioners working in the contemporary demonstrated “resonant symbols of identity, dynamic and bicultural whakapapa. work, invigorated by both graduates, local, jewellery community, such as Inia Taylor and for a generation who wanted to understand and international jewellers. The contemporary Chris Charteris. themselves as citizens of Aotearoa a bicultural In their talk, Preston and Wilkinson referenced jewellery community in Aotearoa is a tight nation”.3 the wider social and political history of New knit group. Connections and relationships are In the same period, our colonised silence gave Zealand, presenting everything from former made and reinforced over the years— way to turbulent changes. New Zealand was The work from this exhibition has subsequently Prime Minister Rob Muldoon in The Rocky a whakapapa of layered relationships, ideas, bombarded from within and without; we were raised questions around what it means for Horror Picture Show, to the Rainbow Warrior and discussion. Opportunities and mentoring finding ourselves and our identities, cutting the Pākehā makers to use indigenous materials bombing and anti-Springbok tour protests, are provided by generous established makers, apron strings to ‘Mother England’. The 1970s and design forms, yet Bone Stone Shell was showing how contemporary jewellery was facilitated through Fingers. saw Māori assert mana motuhake through the juncture of a burgeoning contemporary shaped by this cultural and political history. The hīkoi and protest. During the 1980s, Pākehā jewellery whakapapa. Not until the 1990s duo presented a distinctive bicultural approach During the late 1970s and early ‘80s, New nationalism was defined by our anti-nuclear were contemporary Māori jewellers making and context. Completing the tikanga, the kiwis Zealand contemporary jewellery practice stance and anti-Springbok tour protests. an impact, when new jewellery graduates in the audience stood and sang a waiata with had a particular emphasis on materials such These upheavals were in many ways divisive, such as Wilkinson were beginning to present the presenters. Wilkinson reflects: as bone, pāua, pounamu, and stone, and but the disruptions also had a unifying effect, indigenous perspectives. acknowledged the adornment traditions of particularly the 1981 Springbok rugby tour that …the audience were treated to a Māori and Pacific peoples. Aotearoa had an brought Māori and Pākehā together standing Tūrangawaewae (1998), ten years on from non-eurocentric view of adornment aesthetic that manifested an identity, self- against the apartheid regime in South Africa. Bone Stone Shell, was the third jewellery practice presented in a unique way… defined and located here. While emulating the biennale held at The Dowse Art Museum. we demonstrated our tikanga and this criticism of preciousness from contemporary Simultaneously, the exhibitions Bone (1981) Curated by Māori artist Richard Bell, collective identity and that was Māori European jewellery practice, the shift in and Pāua Dreams (1981) were held at Fingers, Tūrangawaewae focussed on the concept 1 and Pākehā together. Aotearoa was to natural materials. As writer important precursors to the later Bone Stone of identity, both personal and national. The and curator Damian Skinner has noted, “They Shell (1988) that was commissioned by the exhibition questioned whether we had a Also, all of the jewellers in Ngā Hokohoko turned to natural materials and the example Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. However, definitive jewellery identity. Bell was earlier have connected at leading contemporary of Māori and Pacific adornment to transform the only Māori maker to be included was inspired seeing Bone Stone Shell in Sydney, New Zealand jewellery gallery Fingers in the international critique of preciousness into Taylor. A defining moment for New Zealand but sought to include a more diverse pool various ways: as exhibiting artists, teachers something unique and distinctive to New contemporary jewellery, this exhibition of makers including Māori and Pasifika and students. Since the co-op beginnings Zealand”.2 Māori and Pasifika practice were and catalogue travelled throughout New practitioners such as Charteris, Wilkinson and in 1974, it has played a central role as the inspiration for Pākehā makers, but at the time Zealand and internationally to Australia and Pacific Sisters. Since this time, the whenua for contemporary jewellery has continued to I was doing my own version of Pacific knowledge through a creative process that dimensional pieces in precious metal. Wilkinson strengthen through more Māori graduates and adornment. The reason that I had made produced a new body of work, Whakapaipai– and Adams also spent time with the taonga, perspectives from makers such as Moa and it was to bring attention to that work Jewellery as Pepeha (2013). This work formed a giving attention by handling and taking them McIntyre-Wilson. that’s in the museums, why aren’t people major part of her PhD in Creative Arts. outside into Te Ao Mārama. Through this making contemporary adornment that process, the artist demonstrates a continuum This journey can be seen in the work of relates to these pieces…5 In 2010 the artist embarked on a fellowship of making and learning from taonga made Preston, whose career spans more than 40 with the Museum of Archaeology and by tīpuna. These concepts and techniques are years. He grew up fascinated by the Pacific Preston’s cultural understanding and respect Anthropology at University of Cambridge, informed and reinterpreted in the present. She jewellery in Auckland Museum; during the for tangata whenua is evident. Working visiting several times until 2017. The museum says, “… there was a consolidation and even 1980s he used natural materials such as pāua alongside jewellery lecturers Wilkinson and collection houses a number of Kāi Tahu a self-motivated strategy to really articulate a and pearl shell, and his jewellery paid homage Bern at Unitec Institute of Technology, he taonga that the artist researched. Wilkinson Māori methodology in terms of my practice that to resplendent Pacific breastplates. For Preston, was always generous with his time, expertise and her partner, photographer Mark Adams, included kōrero from others.”8 a love of pacific adornment was solidified and manaakitanga. Wilkinson states, “As an utilised a cyanotype photogram process through a number of trips: a visit to Fiji in 1979, Adjunct Professor, Alan was like the kaumātua, that records shape and she acknowledges a Moa Hunter Fashions (2017) is a series of work then Papua in 1980 for the Festival of Pacific not only for the jewellery students but the potential transference of the taonga. Wilkinson selected for the 9th Asia Pacific Trienniale of Arts, and lastly with fellow jeweller Warwick Design School also.”6 emphasises that she makes the images in Contemporary Art at Queensland Art Gallery Freeman to Fiji in 1983. He states: collaboration

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