![\"King](\"https:\/\/rnz-ressh.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/s--rpRwQ8VX--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1684887117\/4L8IFFN_RNZD0356_jpg\")
<\/p>\nKing Tuheitia opens the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award exhibition at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Angus Dreaver<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Houk\u0101mau of Ng\u0101ti Porou and Te Whanau-a-Apanui said her winning piece named,\u00a0Kia Whakat\u014dmuri te haere whakamua<\/i>, is a mihi to her ancestress Hinemaurea.<\/p>\n It looks nothing like a traditional European portrait, instead a large chain of carved beads made of uku or clay hangs along the gallery wall. She said it represented the links of her whakapapa.<\/p>\n “It’s that whole idea kind of like a tokotoko [staff] where you would run your hand down through it and it would tell the story of my whakapapa, [and] the people within it. Every piece is like a piece of its own artwork but also it’s like an entity in itself, so the carving tells the stories.”<\/p>\n Houk\u0101mau’s partner Jamie Berry was also among the finalists. Houk\u0101mau said it was nice that their work would be displayed together, but was slightly hesitant to tell her that she had won.<\/p>\n “When I first found out I was excited and I really wanted to tell her, but I also felt a little bit stink because I’d won. But as she said if I won the we both win.”<\/p>\n The exhibition’s opening.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Angus Dreaver<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Award judge Lisa Reihana said it was a lovely but tricky challenge to select a winner from among the 43 finalists.<\/p>\n She said Houk\u0101mau’s mahi was almost like rosary beads or touchstones, and it was quite different from the other entries.<\/p>\n “It’s a very very beautifully well crafted work, the quality of the uku… when you are thinking about your t\u016bpuna or tangata whenua you are using material of the earth is really beautiful.”<\/p>\n Artists used a range of mediums to portray their t\u016bpuna, from paint and photography, to carving, ceramics, harakeke and even AI technology.<\/p>\n Reihana said that was part of the challenge the judges laid before the artists.<\/p>\n “As a group of judges we were very clear that we wanted people to imagine their t\u016bpuna in many different ways.”<\/p>\n The exhibition’s opening at the National Portrait Gallery in Wellington.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Angus Dreaver<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fellow judge Graham Hoete – aka Mr G – said the awards were an opportunity for artists to redefine the word portrait.<\/p>\n “In te reo M\u0101ori the word portrait is the word whakaahua, so you break that down whaka – meaning to cause, and ahua – to create something that describes the ahua, the nature, the personality and story of a person. So that doesn’t necessarily mean an exact description of a face.”<\/p>\n Hoete said seeing so many talented artists on display showed that M\u0101ori art and portraiture were thriving.<\/p>\n All the finalists work will be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in Wellington until August, they will then tour the country.<\/p>\n Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Angus Dreaver<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n VIA RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" M\u0101ori artists are redefining what a portrait looks like at this year’s Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award exhibition. Wellington based artist Stevei Houk\u0101mau has been named the overall winner and taken out $20,000 in prize money. Kiingi Tuheitia was on hand as the karakia rang out to officially open the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4840,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4838\/revisions\/4840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"King](\"https:\/\/rnz-ressh.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/s--H1UUMwKp--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1684887122\/4L8IEJY_RNZD0372_jpg\")
![\"King](\"https:\/\/rnz-ressh.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/s--B2KDjsQe--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1684887117\/4L8IG62_RNZD0327_jpg\")
![\"King](\"https:\/\/rnz-ressh.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/s--xOSvdgaT--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1684887122\/4L8IDYU_RNZD0416_jpg\")