Missing Mahia te Mahi: “We’re too busy doing the work”

Wintec | Te Pūkenga journalism student Sarah Morcom spoke to Hollie Tawhiao about the Kirikiriroa visual art community, and doing the mahi.

Featuring in and curating RAMP Gallery’s current exhibition Mahia te Mahi is Hollie Tawhiao, former manager of the gallery, but she couldn’t be at the opening. The reason being a poetic reflection of the exhibition’s message. 

Mahia te Mahi means “to do the work”, and the exhibition aims to celebrate the effort and dedication that wāhine Māori artists put into their carving work. However Tawhiao had to miss the opening on Thursday, as she is in China to put forward a sculpture on behalf of Creative Waikato, as a part of Kirikiriroa Hamilton and Chengdu’s sister cities relationship. 

“It’s just so ironic and incredibly fitting that we do a show called ‘do the work’, dedicated, and organised by wāhine who actively do the work, and most of us can’t make the opening because we’re too busy doing the work”, Tawhiao said. 

A few other women who were heavily involved in the organisation of the exhibition also couldn’t make the opening. Margaret Aull who coined the name for the event, and who Tawhiao described as “phenomenal”, was down in Wellington to be on an art’s panel.

Tawhiao was devastated to miss the opening.

“I would absolutely be there if it wasn’t for literally being in another country”, she said. 

However, Tawhiao is proud of the work that the artists have contributed to the planning of the event. The exhibition will feature the works of six wāhine, and is running from June 15 to July 20. 

“This means so much for me”, Tawhiao said. 

“I respect these women to the nth degree, I respect Tamsin, and I just love RAMP”.

Dr Tamsin Green is RAMP’s current curator as of this year. She has already put on some successful exhibitions this year, and is excited about Mahia te Mahi. 

“The Kaupapa for this exhibition is about the tikanga of women doing carving work, and the history of that”, Green said.

Green said that while Kirikiriroa has some wonderful galleries, there still aren’t quite enough spaces to share the mahi that local artists do, and the art they create. 

This exhibition, like many of RAMP’s previous ones, is an opportunity for appreciation of artistic dedication, Tawhiao said. 

“I think RAMP is a really good catalyst for people who want to be projected into the art world”, she said.

She explained how many people who feature in RAMP’s exhibitions seem to take off with their art career almost immediately after. 

“When I started, and this was something set up by Wendy [Richdale] and Linda [Wilson], my very first show I had in there was Lizzy and Rudy Robinson-Cole, who are now humongous Auckland artists.

“We often get shows from people just before they really take off”.

Tawhiao said that Wintec | Te Pūkenga is much the same in that Wintec’s education style seems to see potential in people, and help them live up to it. 

“Wintec has the freedom and the flexibility to take risks, and I think that’s what RAMP does as well. That’s what I love about it”.

Although she had an extensive tertiary education at multiple institutions, Tawhiao strongly believes that Wintec allowed her to reach her potential more than any other University or Polytechnic. She completed her masters at Wintec, and loved every minute she said. 

She feels the same about the Kirikiriroa art’s community as a whole. 

“I’ve been doing art my whole life like everywhere else, Auckland, Perth, and everything was great and I could do everything that I do now over there, But it never really took, it didn’t catch, and then I came here and within two years I’d already been in two exhibitions.

“It’s effectively that absolute cauldron of free range creativity”.

Tawhiao has carved three Tahaia and three Toki for Mahia te Mahi. She has transferred her pieces to the gallery, and is currently in China.