art.wikisort.org - Artist

Robyn Kahukiwa (born 1938) is an Australian-born New Zealand artist, award-winning children's book author, and illustrator. Kahukiwa has created a significant collection of paintings, books, prints, drawings, and sculptures.[2]

Robyn Kahukiwa
Born	1938[1] Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality	New Zealand
Known for	Painting; Writing; Illustration

Life

Kahukiwa was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in 1938. She trained as a commercial artist and later moved to New Zealand at the age of nineteen.[3] Kahukiwa's early artworks were inspired by discovering her Māori heritage.[4]

Māori on her mother's side, Kahukiwa is of Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngāti Hau, Ngāti Konohi and Whanau-a-Ruataupare descent.

Career

From 1972 to 1980, Kahukiwa was a regular exhibitor at the Academy in Wellington.

In the 1980s, Kahukiwa gained prominence in New Zealand after her exhibition Wāhine Toa (strong women), which toured the country.[5] This exhibition drew on Māori myth and symbolism. One of the pieces, Hinetītama, is in the permanent collection at Te Manawa.[6]

Kahukiwa's work often deals with themes of colonialism and the dispossession of indigenous people, motherhood and blood-ties, social custom and mythology.[7] In a 2004 article, Kahukiwa implements "political activism in subject matter and method into powerful images that assert Māori identity and tradition."[8]

She is a "staunch supporter of Māori rights and the power and prestige of Māori women."[9]

Kahukiwa's works are influenced by Colin McCahon, Ralph Hotere and Frida Kahlo.[5]

In 2011, Kahukiwa was awarded with the Te Tohu Toi Kē Award from Te Waka Toi, the Māori arm of Creative New Zealand.[2]

Publications

• Taniwha (1986)
• Paikea (1993)
• The Koroua and the Mauri Stone (1994)
• Kēhua (1996)
• Supa Heroes: Te Wero (2000)
• Koha (2003)
• Matatuhi (2007)
• The forgotten Taniwha (2009)
• Tutu Taniwha (2010)
• Te Marama (2011)
• The Boy and the Dolphin (2016)
• Ngā Atua: Māori Gods (2016)

With writer Patricia Grace:

• The Kuia and the Spider (1981)
• Watercress Tuna and the Children of Champion Street (1984)
• Wāhine Toa: Women of Māori Myth (1984)

With Joy Cowley:

• Grandma’s stick (1982)
• Hatupatu and the birdwoman (1982)

With Rangimarie Sophie Jolley:

• The Blue Book (2014)

Awards

• 1994 LIANZA Young People's Non-Fiction Award (now known as Elsie Locke Award) for Paikea[10]
• 2011 Te Tohu Toi Kē | Making a Difference Award [11]

References

Further reading

• Eggleton, David Earth and Spirit: Robyn Kahukiwa's Mauri Ora! Exhibition Art New Zealand, 2002
• Panoho, Rangihiroa, Māori Art: History, Architecture, Landscape and Theory, Auckland: David Bateman Ltd, 2015

External links

• Works by Robyn Kahukiwa in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
• Robyn Kahukiwa: Artist, Writer, Illustrator The Sapling, 2017
• Hinetitama by Robyn Kahukiwa NZ History

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