Zarahn Tūwharetoa Southon: HĪTORI

Inspired by both my Māori Samoan and European heritage, my still life series explores traditional themes within an Aotearoa historical context. My ancestry extends from the 17th-century Jewish quarter in Amsterdam to the shores of Taputapu Atea and Apia in Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. 

The still-life aesthetic and compositional devices I employ combine elements of the Memento Mori and Vanitas art traditions. It is an art tradition crafted in Renaissance Europe to remind viewers of life's transience, beauty, and the certainty of death.

During the Covid lockdown, my children and I created a historical diorama of the Pā at Te Pōrere located in our rohe of Ngāti Tūwharetoa in the Tongariro National Park of Te Ika-a-Maui, Aotearoa. The pā at Te Pōrere was the site of the final battle of the New Zealand Wars on October 4th, 1869.

For several years, the diorama sat in my studio with a hundred carefully painted Māori resistance fighters, kūpapa, and constabulary soldiers frozen in battle. While drawing and painting the many layers of each painting, the figurines seemed to break the diorama prison and invade the Dutch-inspired vanitas arrangements.

Placed amongst the tablecloths, food, cutlery, and plates are toy soldiers and chiefs, figures with names such as "Fighting Mac," Captain Saint George, and Peita Kotuku, among others, long forgotten.

For me, traditional art practices are a reminder of the importance of history. Whether through whakapapa, teacher lineages, or family trees, placing yourself within the greater arc of history is important for understanding the present. This lesson should be applied to art in its many forms or even to a new era in politics. In the words of the great Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, "History is cyclic and not linear"; therefore, by looking to the past, we can forge new creative forms and paths for what lies ahead.

Nā Zarahn Tūwharetoa Southon