What is your connection to Queenstown?

It’sabout returning, a response to an inner calling, towhere my mum is. I’ve never exhibited here in Tāhuna before but I went toprimary school here.  I came here with my parents and older brother when Iwas three years old and left when I was ten - a year after my Mum died in a caraccident on the Devil’s Staircase. I’ve returned to honour my mother with this beautiful exhibition: Karangaatu, Karanga mai – calling outward, calling inward.

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You’ve exhibited in Madison, Wisconsin, the Auckland Art Gallery,Christchurch Art Gallery, and Te Whare oRehua Sarjeant Gallery. What made you want to exhibit at Te Atamira?

InAustralia, America and Asia - printmaking is booming, and even in Englandprint’s its own thing. But we’ve always struggled with the hierarchy of printbeing somehow less in the critically acclaimed spaces here in Aotearoa, which is frustrating.  Te Atamira has already held some powerfulprint shows and that’s why we came here. It was ‘he tohu tēnā pea’ - perhaps asign to me that finally there’s a space that advocates for print - asprint, and elevates it as print, not just as a cameo or a bit of print with abunch of other stuff.

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You’re a founding member of Toi Whakaata, the Māori PrintCollective - tell us more about the collective.

Weestablished Toi Whakaata in Whanganui in 2006, to identify and connect Māori printmakers at the time and explore the ideaof what Māori print is. Consequently, we started to develop aMāori approach to printmaking, and we’ve been showing together eversince.  We have a core group of seven but it fluctuates. We work in a veryfluid whānau manner – there’s no membership fees, and once you’ve been once,you’re in. It’s a matter of making prints and joining the conversation – beingcommitted to that.  We’ve had quite a presence at the annual PrintopiaFestival for the last three years in Auckland; presenting and runningworkshops and we see it as a time to come together andwānanga as a rōpū. 

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Toi Whakaata will celebrate two decades next year – how has Māoriprintmaking evolved?

Over that time, we've explored, discussed and debated: what is Māori print; where does it sit within a Māori arts framework; and then beyond that, within the New Zealand arts framework?  It's not just putting a Māori pattern in there. It's reframing the processes, the language and the narratives around making prints. Because of the discussions we've had, a lot of us have changed the way we think when we're making. We started to think: what am I actually doing here, in terms of connecting our process to whakapapa, our narratives; like our creation story, our whenua and our Atua. We started to think about the materials we were using -  what's the whakapapa of this material? Oh, this is paper, it comes from Tāne Mahuta and he was a part of our creation story and brought light into the world as webring light to our work. So, we start thinking in those ways, rather than thinking: I'm just going to put something on the paper.

Each of our members have individual practices but I can see the effect Toi Whakaata has had on each member as their work has developed over the years.  The revelations can be obvious or subtle but they are there. 

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Is this what you set out to achieve with Toi Whakaata?

On reflection, yes, the fact that we are delving into the deeper narrative of print from a Māori perspective and are still coming together to support one another in our ongoing mahi whilst developing our own individual careers, yeah there is a need and we are fulfilling that need. Thecore of our aspirations lies in our name; the name Toi Whakaata means to reveal to light. So it’s that “aha” moment when you have the components pressed tightly together, the plate and the paper, then they are passed through the press, then you separate them, and then you reveal what is created as light floods in. 

So Toi Whakaata is a process to reveal to light and encapsulates the process of our group - we are becoming a household name in that space as a Māori print collective.  But it’s taken a long time, and this show is part of that legacy now.  

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How did you get to where you are now? 

I majored in printmaking at Taupo Quay School of Fine Arts in Whanganui graduating in 2002, and completed my Masters in Māori Visual Arts at Massey University in 2022. Whanganui is also where the Central NZ print council was established and not long after that in the same print studio, we established Toi Whakaata under the mantle of Toi Māori and the  guidance of Gabrielle Belz and my print mentor Marty Vreede.

I have always had and maintained a print practice, even after having my son and establishing a teaching career in secondary school art where I was HOD at Rangitikei College for 10 years. These days, I continue to educate but as an art educator at Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui. Printmaking is the core of my making practice and informs much of my approach, but I am also into mixed media and explore other aspects of making and presenting work and ideas.  A Māori approach to print practice continues to inspire my making and sharing of knowledge and creativity, while education is what drives me to make and contribute.  As we move into our 20th year as Toi Whakaata in 2026 we reflect back on how far we have come and look forward to continuing the journey together.  Our next project is a national wananga to be held at Te Kowhai Print Trust in Whangarei later in the year. 

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Footnote:

Edwards is Trustee on Te Atinga - Contemporary Maori Visual Arts committee under Toi Maori, a founding member of Toi Whakaata and a member of Toi Tuwharetoa as well as the Chair of the Kate Gray Memorial Trust. She advocates for education through visual arts whilst continuing to exhibit regionally, nationally and internationally.  Most recently Edwards was commissioned to make new work for the inaugural show at the opening of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery,Whanganui and has work in The Auckland Art Gallery, Christchurch Art Gallery and Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery. 

Toi Whakaata - Maori Print Collective members; Gabrielle Belz, Faith McManus, Alexis Neal, Vanessa Edwards, Jasmine Horton, Maude Davies, Nyle Turuwhenua, Natalie Couch, Sam Farquhar, Charlotte Graham, Emma Kitson, Judy Gordon, Paora Tiatoa, Keatly Hopkins, Simon Kaan.