Moana Tipa & Associates Ltd

Ngai Tahu, Kati Mamoe, Ngati Kahungunu & Celtic decent ~
arts facilitator, community arts writer, art maker.

w ā n a k a … learning in the dark

an exhibition of paintings & sound

MOANA TIPA painter / researcher

MARA TK song writer/composer

KATI MAMOE, NGAI TAHU,

NGATI KAHUNGUNU, NGATI MANIAPOTO, TAINUI CELT

Waanaka - Learning in the Dark (2016} is three bodies of work: Whakatātūtū – (Measure the Depth) 2015 a Learning Connexion Adv. Dip graduation exhibition with Dr. Peter Adsett), Waanaka - (Learning in the Dark) - 2016, and the acapella sound track Aku Moutere (Mara TK). The works navigate aspects of landlessness, loss of land and the political persuasion of John Locke, now 349 years old, that continues to influence land law in Aotearoa NZ.

Wanaka - Learning in the Dark deals with death in the spirit of the land and hastily erected for sale signage on pristine shore front land in the Southern High Country begging the question ‘Whose laws are operating here?

I visited Wanaka in winter 2016 to walk ancestral lands with a view to read and understand the link between the wairua of the land that tipuna (mothers and fathers of history once lived within. Escorted by local historian Mr.Ritchie Hewitt of Wanaka to waahi tapu - sacred sites, the outcome - whatever that was, would inform work to complete the Whakatātūtū series.

Mr.Hewitt's research of Maori life and history in that area, triggered a further deluge including the work of Fulbright Scholar, Dr Ann Brower and her publication in 2008 Who Owns the High Country? Her work reveals the continuing influence and ideologies of John Locke, the 17th century writer, political theorist and philosopher, 349 years after it was written.

Dr Brower states “… according to Locke, improving and working the land creates a moral right to ownership…” (for lease-holders). She also asserts… “bureaucratic pathologies and not the law had governed land reform. The bureaucrats, not ministers, and not judges, were directing the biggest land carve-up in New Zealand’s short history”.

By 2006, twenty-two land tenure review processes had been ‘settled’, meaning by that time, 58% of Crown land holdings in the Southern High Country had been transferred into private ownership, subsidised by taxpayers at a cost of $18.5 million.

What are those figures in 2017?

TEXT ON WORKS & LYRICS (AKU MOUTERE)

Whose 17^th Century ideas / Treatise continue to influence legislation in these lands (Nā wai ngā whakaaro, me ngātuhinga ō nehe rā, i whakaawe ai ngā hanganga ture ki ēnei whenua?)

Whose words sown like seed still bloom and enslave? (Nā wai ngā kupu whakapononga - i ruia ano nei he kakano - e puawai ai?)

Appeal to Heaven, release the curse that enslaves; the Wind that renews already stirs! (Me inoi ki te Rangi, kia wetekina nga kupu whakapononga, e tawiri ana Te Hau whakamohou)

a k u m o u t e r e - m y i s l a n d s

mara tk / vincent olsen-reeder / mark vanilau

Kei hea aku moutere? Where are my islands

i tauwhiro ra i ahau that nurtured me?

Taku waka te whiua My canoe has been cast

ki te koro Parata e into the throat of the Parata

E te Kaihautu O great Captain

Whatungaro te whenua i a taua The land is lost to us

Kia mahara ki te wa o te ora Remembering the times I was alive

Titaha ki tai Now, swaying at sea

Pae ki uta whilst the land is stable

Ua ia tagata ese There’s a stranger

I o’u laufanua in my home

Ua tulia i matou i a’au I’ve been outcast into the ocean

Ma ua fai o’u matafaga Sharks inherit these shores

E kore te uku, e piri ki te rino Clay doesn’t stick to iron

Engari te uku e mau ki te kiri But it does stick to skin

Kia mahara ki te wa o te ora Remembering the times I was alive

Titaha ki tai Now, swaying at sea

Pae ki uta whilst the land is stable

WORKS LIST:

Roll back the stone
Charcoal wash / untreated canvas
Untitled
Charcoal & acrylic wash /untreated canvas
Untitled
Charcoal wash / oil stick / untreated canvas
Untitled
Charcoal wash / oil stick / untreated canvas
Untitled
Charcoal wash / oil stick / untreated canvas
Untitled
Charcoal wash / oil stick / untreated canvas
Whose words?
Oil stick / graphite / acrylic wash
Sown like seed
Oil stick / graphite / acrylic wash
Appeal to heaven

Oil stick / graphite / acrylic wash

References:

Fullbright Scholar, Dr. Ann Brower – Who Owns the High Country (Craig Potton Publishers 2006)

Ann Brower Whither the Crown’s interest in South Island high country land reform

http://igps.victoria.ac.nz/publications/files/2341fe6ef62.pdf

J. McFarlane: Lincoln PhD thesis 2011: Cutting up the high country: the social construction of tenure review and ecological sustainability – chapter on Ngai Tahu perspective https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10182/4134/McFarlane_PhD.pdf?sequence=3

Yale Law School – Lillian Goldman Law Library

The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (March 1, 1669) (the Colonist Blueprint)

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/nc05.asp

J.D. Lewis: Carolinas Lords Proprietors 1668: Anthony Ashley Cooper – Lord Shaftesbury - the Fundamental Constitutions (Colonist Blueprint) John Locke – Political theorist / philosopher

http://www.carolana.com/Carolina/Proprietors/aacooper.html

Johnathan Bennett: John Locke - The Second Treatise of Government

http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/locke1689a.pdf

David Armitage, Harvard University: Carolina & the Two Treatise of Government

http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/armitage/files/armitage-locke.pdf

Morag Barbara Arneil BA. MSc. John Locke: All the World was America http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317765/1/283910.pdf

John Quiggin Australian Economist: John Locke – Against Freedom

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/06/locke-treatise-slavery-private-property/

John Quiggin: Zombies Stalking the land – dead ideas still walk amongst us

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9702.html

Kenan Malik: John Locke and the Not Quite so Glorious Revolution -

https://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/john-locke-and-the-not-quite-glorious-revolution/