Ringa Toi

[Screen shows students and guests entering and walking around the exhibition space. The music playing in the background is a karakia]

[Streme Clark from Pukehoke High School speaks to the camera]

Streme: The opening was really beautiful. I think it was special.

It really brought us all together as Māori. Just to celebrate something like this.

[Screen shows guests taking a seat and hearing from a speaker]

[Taipuna Leon Kipa] from Waitakere College speaks to the camera]

Taipuna: I've never been to Te Papa, and to be in an exhibition at Te Papa,

it’s crazy and I woke up like 2.30 this morning just to get here with my mum.

[William Sauaso-Rasch speaks to the camera]

William: Why things like this are important is it really showcases how talented we are.

And I feel like there's almost a stereotype in other places, that we aren't what we actually

are, which is talented, smart, brainy.

[Screen shows close ups of student artwork, Ava is speaking in the background]

Ava: I feel really proud. It's actually really cool to see it up

[Ava Rule from Pukekohe High School speaks to the camera]

Ava: Because obviously we do a lot of work and then it kind of just ends up on your board.

It doesn't really get seen. So it's cool to see it hung up for people to see.

[Jacob Paul from Ōtāhuhu speaks to the camera]

Jacob: The wood was actually just sitting in our workshop. It was just laying around and it

had a massive knot at the top bulging out.

[Screen shows a close-up of Jacob’s carving]

Jacob: And I saw this like story about one of my tupuna, nd that's what it represents. This is one of my tupuna here. He's a warrior from back home, from Te Teko.

[Patrick Lemeki from Rosmini College speaks to the camera]

Patrick: The overall inspiration for my piece was to educate people of my generation about

our past and about where we are in the present.

[Screen shows a close-up of Patrick’s painting]

Patrick: Because I think that it's important that, you know, without knowing your past, knowing your heritage and present, you don't know where you're going in the future.

[Screen shows a close-up of an image. Te Tiale is speaking in the background]

Te Tiale: I decided to do this photo because I felt really distant to my heritage.

[Te Tiale Tulafono from Pukekohe High School speaks to the camera]

Te Tiale: This is my nephew in the photo, I decided to photograph him just because he's always asking questions about where we're from. My dad got gifted with these vaka from his uncle who made them, and I decided to put it in the photo just to show his connection to his past.

[Taine Hinga from Rotoruna Boys’ High School speaks to the camera]

Taine: So this painting was named Ūkaipō. And this painting is about me trying to reconnect with my roots, since I believe that I am somewhat disconnected from my roots.

I'm trying to find my way back to being Māori.

It's really cool because this is the first year that we've ever done this for boys’ high, and to get one of my paintings submitted in the first year we done it is pretty, pretty mean, I guess.

[Screen shows a korowai]

[Taipua speaks to the camera]

Taipua: So here we have ‘Te Kākahu Oneone’ loosely translated ‘The Cloak of Soil”. Here we have a tāniko pattern that I inherited from my grandmother. She is a kaitāniko and each of these little crosses represent the mycelium fungus and microbes in the soil.

Here we have hoheria, which is lace bark, pīngao, and neinei. Those are all plants of the forest.

This piece represents the importance of the ngahere and the soil.

[Ava speaks to the camera]

Ava: Yeah I love my family. So there's like pieces with my uncle and my cousins and then also me and my nana. So it was kind of like exploring the connection between him and his family. And then obviously where we all connect back to at our marae and our maunga.

[Screen shows a close-up of a reimaged Monopoly board]

[Steme speaks to the camera]

Streme: Tūrangawaewae to me is our land, and then I just thought about how our land is not really ours anymore. So that's why I put everything in Māori. And then these houses are a representation of the Queens monopoly over it.

[Patrick speaks to the camera]

Patrick: I think the main purpose of art is to convey a message to people. I also think it is powerful for giving you like a sense of identity and also connecting you with like you know, your heritage and future at the same time.

[Screen shows the students standing in front of artworks]

[Taipuna is speaking in the background]

Taipuna: Get in there and find something that you're interested in. So you have the longing

to want to keep on doing it.

[Taine speaks to the camera]

Taine: Just go for it. Really. Straight up your artwork is what you see it as and like, you can spread your own spin on everything if you just share with everyone.

[William is speaking in the background while the screen shows close-ups of artworks]

William: Don't hold back, do it. Literally do not worry or care about anyone else and what they think. If you don't know them personally, why take what they think personally?

Just do it. You do not want to be restrained from other people. You know. Live your life the way you want to live it.

And so this is the outcome, as I'm here with my work on a wall in Te Papa Museum, so thank you so much.

[Video ends]