E Hina e! E Hine e! Mana Waahine Maaori/Maoli of Past, Present and Future
14 September 2019 - 10 November 2021
Free entry
E Hina e! E Hine e! explores the contemporary relevance of female Maaori and Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) akua/atua (ancestors).
Focusing on our profound connections, and told through contemporary and traditional taonga (treasures), oratory, and visual storytelling, this exhibition celebrates the female essence.
We honour ngaa atua/akua waahine, the divine feminine, embodied in whenua/ʻāina (land), moana (ocean), wai (water), and ngaai tipu, ngaai kiirehe (flora and fauna), to emphasize the importance of mana waahine from time immemorial. Featuring female voices (koorero/moʻolelo) of waahine whom anthropologists and historians omitted from mainstream texts and resources, we seek to restore gender complementarity and balance.
The reclamation of the centrality of waahine/women is timely, because presenting (her) stories that manifest in our natural environment illuminates a pathway toward a more sustainable future, imbued with relationship.
Developed by Dr Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu (Kanaka Maoli), Dr Aroha Yates-Smith (Te Arawa, Tainui, Horouta, Takitimu, Mataatua), and curator Poutiaki Whakataki Maree Mills (Ngaati Tuuwharetoa), this exhibition draws from their research and collective commitment to hear, understand and act on these messages. The continuation of human life on this planet is, in their view, dependent upon it.
Image: Toi Tuu te Whenua, Whatu Ngarongaro te Tangata: People Come and Go but the Land Remains, Oil on canvas, 2019, Regan Balzer (Te Arawa, Ngaati Ranginui, Ngaati Kirihika, Ngaati Maniapoto)
Exhibition catalogue
Download: E Hina e! E Hine e! exhibition catalogue
[PDF file, 46MB, 63 pages, full colour]
Videos included in the exhibition
Parawhenuamea
Story and song performed by Dr Aroha Yates-Smith (Te Arawa, Tainui, Horouta, Taakitimu, Mataatua)
Video, duration 5 minutes, 2018
“According to at least one iwi tradition, Taane’s union with Hine-Tuuparimaunga, the mountain, resulted in the birth of Parawhenuamea. The term Parawhenua connotes silt rising up out of the ground with the water’s force.”
Dr Aroha Yates-Smith, 2019
Hineaahuone
Sand animation, duration 4:30 minutes, 2019
Dawn Tuffery is a producer and animator with Nimbus Media, a Hamilton production company specializing in telling stories through video. She enjoys the tactile, organic nature of stop-motion animation and its possibilities. This short film tells the story of Hineaahuone’s origin, this work is created with sand collected from Raglan beach, and shaped frame-by-frame with fingers and sticks.
Laka
Kanoelani Davis (Kanaka Maoli)
Video, duration 3:35 minutes
“Laka isn’t necessarily looked at as the forest itself by many because Laka is so associated with hula, but we are Laka and we are the forest.”
Kaneolani Davis, 2019
Produced and Directed by Dr. Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu
Filming, Editing and Co-Direction by Matt Yamashita of Quazifilms Media
Co-Produced with the Waikato Museum
Po’ele and Kumulipo
Maile Naehu (Kanaka Maoli)
Video, duration 3:51 Minutes, 2019
“Hawai’i was a very matriarchal society in that we recognized that all life came from Po’ele, the first female. There was of course Kumulipo, but there would be nothing if Po’ele didn’t come forth as well. We honour our different main akua wāhine as Haumea, as Hina, as Pele, as Papahānaumoku, but what is really interesting is that we’re seeing this kind of overlapping of all these akua wāhine and understanding that they may very well be the same female element in all of stories stemming from Po’ele herself.”
Maile Naehu
Produced and Directed by Dr. Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu
Filming, Editing and Co-Direction by Matt Yamashita of Quazifilms Media
Co-Produced with the Waikato Museum
Moloka’i Nui a Hina
Maile Naehu and Kanoelani Davis (Kanaka Maoli)
Video, duration 5 minutes
“Moloka’i is unique in that is the only island child of Hina. Hina is an akua wāhine that you hear of all throughout the Pacific. Either we call her Ina, Sina, Hine, or Hina. She is that same female akua that is very important in our story.”
Maile Naehu
Produced and Directed by Dr. Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu
Filming, Editing and Co-Direction by Matt Yamashita of Quazifilms Media
Co-Produced with the Waikato Museum
Moloka’i Nui a Hina – Creative Activation
Maile and Hanohano Na’ehu
Kanoelani Davis (Kanaka Maoli)
Video, duration 4:56 minutes
“My intention is to heal the planet one mo’olelo (story) at a time, one ‘oli (chant/prayer/rap) at a time, and one work of art at a time. Art has the ability to soften the heart and open the mind to discuss and start the conversation.”
Maile Na’ehu Naehu
Produced and Directed by Dr. Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu
Filming, Editing and Co-Direction by Matt Yamashita of Quazifilms Media
Co-Produced with the Waikato Museum