Poroporoaki ki a Dr Arnold Manaaki Wilson

MEDIA STATEMENT

Hon Tariana Turia & Hon Dr Pita Sharples

Maori Party Co-Leaders

3 May 2012

Poroporoaki ki a Dr Arnold Manaaki Wilson, Ngāi Tuhoe, Te Arawa.

Hinepūkohurangi, uhia te tara o Taiarahia!

E hora ki te riu o Whakatāne, kia tāmate ai ngā tangi o ō tamariki o Ngāi Tūhoe, e auē ana i te mamae!

Tūhoe, Tarāwhai, ngā waka whānui o Mātaatua, o Te Arawa, e tangi ki tō koutou mate ki a Arnold Manaaki Wilson kua tīraha mai rā.

Ko te Tōrangapū Māori tēnei e poroporoaki atu nei ki a ia, tērā tohunga, tērā pūkenga, tera kaiako, tera kaiārahi i tō tātou iwi i te ao hurihuri ki te ao mārama!

Arnold, ko koe tētahi o ngā tohunga toi i kawe mai i ngā taonga tipuna ki te ao hou, puta atu ki te ao whānui! Nāu te mātauranga tuku iho mai i te ao kōhatu i whakairo ki te matauranga Pākehā, kia kānapanapa te taonga toi Māori ki te tirohanga o ngā iwi katoa.

Nāu hoki tō mātauranga i whāngai ki ngā tauira toi, mā rātou hei kawe tonu atu ki ngā taumata e tika ana.

Ināianei kua moe koe, kua ngaro koe i te tirohanga tangata. Ko ngā taonga i waiho mai i a koe hei maumaharatanga ki a koe, ake tonu atu.

Haere, haere, haere atu rā.

The Māori Party joins with Tūhoe and Te Arawa, and Māori people far and wide, in grieving at the loss of Arnold Manaaki Wilson, the famed artist and art educator who passed away yesterday.

“Arnold was a pioneering artist, who refined his ancestral artistic traditions with academic study, and led Māori art into the modern art world,” said Co-leaders Tariana Turia and Dr Pita Sharples.

“His art reflected his own life’s journey, from Rūātoki, where he was born, to the Elam School of Fine Arts at Auckland University, where Arnold became the first Māori to gain a Diploma of Fine Arts with first class honours in sculpture,” said Dr Sharples.

“He then trained as an art teacher under the legendary Gordon Tovey and, along with contemporaries including Ralph Hotere, Fred Graham, Para Matchitt and Selwyn Muru, Arnold explored new horizons of Māori art and developed a new appreciation of contemporary Māori culture,” he said.

“The professional and public awards and accolades Arnold received were fully deserved – the Tā Kingi Ihaka Award from Te Waka Toi in 2001, recognition by his peers as Ara Whakarei in 2002, an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon Award in 2007, an Honorary Doctorate from AUT in 2008 and, in 2010, Membership of the NZ Order of Merit.

“But Arnold was also a family man, a tribal kaumātua, a mentor and friend to many, and our sympathies go out to all who will miss him the most,” said Dr Sharples.

“E te rangatira, haere ki ō tīpuna, haere ki te Pō, haere ki te Pō!
ends

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