Moana Don't Cry

  • 22 July 2019

Te Tuhi  //  13 Reeves Rd, Pakuranga
On until 17 November, 2019

Opening: Saturday 31 August,  5pm – 7pm
5.30pm: Ritual performance by Ioane Ioane with Sila Ioane and Shannon Ioane
commissioned by Te Tuhi.

Francis Alÿs (BE/MX) // Charlotte Graham (Aotearoa NZ) // Ioane Ioane (WS/Aotearoa NZ) // Knitlab (Aotearoa NZ/KR) // Graeme Atkins, Alex Monteith, Natalie Robertson, Kahurangiariki Smith and Aroha Yates-Smith (Aotearoa NZ) // Tuan Andrew Nguyen (VT)
curated by Gabriela Salgado



“We sweat and cry salt water, so we know that the ocean is really in our blood.”  - Teresia Teaiwa


The exhibition Moana Don’t Cry approaches the ocean from a number of angles.

Faced with past and present threats to ocean life, the exhibition addresses the need to protect life as kaitiaki (guardians) with a duty of care for the planet entrusted to us. An ontological turn connected to indigenous spirituality and ways of doing becomes paramount, to counter narratives of loss articulated by the colonial logic of dispossession.

Across the planet, coastal communities acknowledge the ocean as a nurturing entity connected to femininity and motherhood, the fundamental source of life. This metaphor doubles as a scientific fact, given that the oceans not only feed us but also produce most of the oxygen we breathe. Within the moana, motherhood and breathing collapse into the fundamental agents necessary for the perpetuation of the species, calling us to radical action through relational political ecologies.

 

Image: Ioane Ioane
Va‘aalo Savaii, 2019 (install view) traditional Sāmoan canoe by Mulitalo Malu Tautua (Sāmoa) and Ioane Ioane
Photo by Sam Hartnett

 

Share this post