Titiro ki muri, kia whakatika ā mua | Look to the past to proceed to the future

Reading Room + Matariki Workshops organised by Hana Pera Aoake & Tautai Pacific Arts Trust

Summary

To celebrate Matariki, this Hōngongoi (July) we will be hosting a series of workshops and a reading room designed for tamariki and their whānau. Coinciding with the Hōteke (winter) holidays, this programme has been organised by Hana Pera Aoake and Tautai Pacific Arts Trust. These workshops will be focused around activities for the whole whānau and ways of acknowledging Matariki.

Across Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, Matariki is observed as a way of tracking time and the seasons, for instance in Hawai’i it is known as Makali'i while in Samoa it is known as Makali'i. These set of stars connect all the people of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa and invited artists and creative practitioners will be holding workshops that offer reflection over the past year, remember those who have passed and to think about the voyages across the great ocean made by all of us who call Aotearoa home.

We will also be co-hosting sister events and a sister reading space with our neighbours, Samoa House Library.

Images by Ralph Brown

Meet the Organiser

Hana Pera Aoake

Hana Pera Aoake (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Hinerangi, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Pikiao, Tauranga Moana, Poutini Ngāi Tahu) is an artist and writer based in Kawerau. Hana has published a book called A Bathful of Kawakawa and hot water in 2020 with Compound Press and has written for Granta, Metro, Artlink Australia and the New Internationalist. They have recently shown art at The Physics Room, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, the Aotearoa Art Fair (with Broker galleries) and are a finalist in the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Awards (2023). At the moment, Hana co-organises Kei te pai press with Morgan Godfery, and is the curator of the Sir James Fletcher Kawerau Museum.
They are first and foremost Miriama Jean’s mum.