He Toa Takitini

He Toa Takitini

The second in a series of three moving image exhibitions curated by Tina Makereti, on the social history of childhood in Aotearoa / New Zealand, He Toa Takitini focuses on cultural diversity. How are kiwi childhoods shaped by different cultural groups coming together? This theme is explored across a range of historical and contemporary film and television footage, from newsreels to music videos.

Magic Playgrounds: Historical Images of New Zealand Childhoods exhibition two, He Toa Takitini, explores the joys, frustrations and contradictions of New Zealand’s diverse cultural landscape.

A recent report quoted on Radio New Zealand stated that 72% of us agree that New Zealanders pride themselves on being accepting of cultural diversity, but how does this compare to our historical perspectives? Our collective culture/s are defined on the playground, as exemplified in excerpts from the documentary New Zild - The Story of NZ English (2005). New Zealand children grow up with social studies and action songs, and our classrooms range in cultural hue from the very light to the multi-coloured. But growing up culturally “different” in Aotearoa is not always easy, as shown in excerpts from documentaries like Children of the Migration (2004), and Asia Downunder: Stories Our Mothers Told Us (2009).

Highlights of He Toa Takitini include short films, music videos and animation, ranging from the historical to the very recent. Often, the way we make contemporary music, art and film about our culture and heritage reflects the historical story. Could the wise-cracking satire of Bro’ Town’s The Wong One (2004) exist without the history of migration, racial discrimination and playground taunts that most New Zealanders of colour have encountered? The tensions of our cultural heritage and ever-increasing plurality will be explored, however, this exhibition is primarily a celebration of strength and vitality in our diversity.

Exhibition curator Tina Makereti is The Film Archive’s 2013 Curator-At-Large. She is a writer with a background in Social Anthropology and Māori Studies. Makereti has won several awards for her writing, including the Nga Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards Fiction Prize in 2011 for her short story collection, Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa (Huia Publishers, 2010) and the Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing (Non-Fiction) in 2009.

He Toa Takitini opens Thursday July 25, at 5.30pm. All welcome. The curator will be present, refreshments provided.

The exhibition will run from July 26 through September 7, 2013. The third exhibition in the Magic Playgrounds: Historical Images of New Zealand Childhoods series will explore the notion of social equality and will open on September 11.

ENDS

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