Shared Aspirations, 2023
Installation view, Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Photos Justin Spiers
This solo exhibition was developed through the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Visiting Artist Programme, supported by Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa. Exhibition design by Speculative Architecture
Shared Aspirations has developed through Taloi’s continued studio-based engagement with her homeland. The exhibition focuses on processes of negotiation, delving further into how these transactions occur. The artist chooses to reconcile with archives inherited from her parents that document the turbulence of the 1960s and 70s pro-secessionist movements, participation in Bougainville ceasefire talks held at Burnham Military Camp in 1997, transitions towards a constitution and the wider peace process. Responding to the public/private nature of these archives and moving between the scenarios of a formal negotiation table, a casual side-event, family living room, and a village court reconciliation process Taloi provides a familial lens for viewing Bougainville’s recent history.
The artist has developed the exhibition in collaboration with her mother Marilyn Taleo Hatakul Havini, honouring the depth of her studio practice in the village of Ngalkobul, Buka. Marilyn’s recent paintings introduce viewers to her lived experience including sites of historical significance. Together, they trace a journey of environmental degradation and unresolved conflict – bringing into sharp focus the contrast between root causes of conflict and the picturesque beauty of Bougainville. Situating this exhibition in Ōtepoti honours the role that Aotearoa New Zealand played in the steps that led to a peaceful resolution of the conflict and revisits these ongoing relationships between communities across the Pacific.
U sunu niniga pan i tamlam i tamlemu ri Aotearoa, Nigantoana
With loving greetings from our people to your people of Aotearoa
U tsiki tsiki a nitotoa pipito haniga bei a amasala tru binaka ni mamur
LAND IS LIFE — to keep and care for, to inherit and pass on to the next generation
________
He rika toi nō nāianei tou a Taloi Havini (Nō te iwi Nakas, nō te hapū Hakō) e noho ana, e mahi ana ki Piripane, Ahitereiria. I whānau mai ia i Arawa i Te Whenua Motuhake o Pōkenawīri, ā, i nuku atu ki Poi Hākena i te tau 1990, i te pūrere atu o tōhona whānau i te tutūtaka atu o te puehu i te pakaka i waeka i Te Whenua Motuhake o Pōkenawīri me Papua Nūkini. E mahi taurewa ana ōhona mātua a Moses rāua ko Marilyn Havini, i te pakaka tou rāua mō te Tino Rakatirataka o tō rātau whenua taurikura.
I pakari mai a He Wawata ko Hōrapa (Shared Aspirations) i te honoka tākaekae tou o Taloi ki tōhona ūkaipō, ahakoa nō roto kē i tana tari. Ka aro atu te whakaaturaka nei ki kā tukaka kōrero whiriwhiri, ā, ka ruku atu hoki ki te huaka mai ō ēnei whakawhitiwhitihaka. I whiria nei e te rika toi ki te whakatairite i kā pūraka i tukuna ihotia e ōhona mātua e mau nei kā tukitukihaka o kā kauhaka riri whakakounu o kā kahuru tau 60 me te 70, te noho ki kā kōrero kātipuhi i tū ki te Pā Kawe-ā-Riri o Tauwhare Kākaho (Burnham Military Camp), kā nukuhaka atu ki te tito i tētahi kaupapa ture, ā, te hohou ā-whānui hoki o te roko taketake. Hai urupare ki te āhua tūmatanui, tūmataiti rānei o ēnei pūraka me te nuku hoki i waeka i kā āhuataka ōkawa o te paepae whakawhitiwhiti kōrero, o kā kōrero ōpaki i roto i te rūma noho o te whānau me te tikaka o te whakatau puehu ki kā kāika tūturu o te whenua, ka whakaratohia e Taloi te tirohaka ā-whānau hai titiro atu ki te tāhuhu kōrero nōnā tata nei o Te Whenua Motuhake o Pōkenawīri. Ko whakawhanakehia e te rika toi nei tēnei whakaaturaka ki te taha tou o tōhona hākui a Marilyn, he mea mihi ki āhana mahi toi i te kāika o Ngalkobul, ki Buka. Ko kā peita nōnā tata nei o Marilyn ka whakatūtakihia atu te kaimātakitaki ki ō Marilyn wheako ake, ā, ki kā wāhi tapu, kā wāhi whakahirahira o mua o te whenua.
Ko ā rāua mahi, ka whāia te whakaparahaka o te taiao me te riri kāore anō kia whakatauhia – Ka whakapuakina te rerekētaka i waeka i te take pū o te pakaka me te ataahua rirerire o Te Whenua Motuhake o Pōkenawīri. Ko te whakatūtaka o tēnei whakaaturaka ki Ōtepoti he mea whakarakatira i te wāhi i noho ai a Aotearoa ki te oraka toutaka o ēnei whiriwhirika tākata i waeka i kā hapori o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa.
