by Ralph Hotere (1931–2013)
Acrylic and ink on paper
731 x 528mm
1972
Source: Christchurch Art Gallery
Ralph Hotere began using text in his paintings during the early 1960s, and it has since become an important element in his work. His ‘Te Whiti Series’ of the early 1970s, which includes text from a wide range of sources, relates to issues surrounding Pakeha confiscation of Māori land. Te Whiti drawing-painting incorporates a Māori lament that refers to the First Taranaki War and the ensuing confiscation of Te Atiawa land at Waitara by the colonial government in 1860. (...)
— https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/collection/2000-22/ralph-hotere/te-whiti-drawing-painting
On 5 November 1881, following more than a decade of dispute over the confiscation of Te Atiawa land in Taranaki for European settlement, 1,600 government troops entered the prosperous settlement of Parihaka which lay on flat land between the mountain and the sea. The troops encountered 2,500 local people led by spiritual leaders Te Whiti-O-Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi, who met the military advance with creative acts of passive resistance including singing, skipping, and the offering of food.
Over the next 18 days, under the direct order of Native Minister John Bryce, the armed constabulary sacked the village and violently ejected more than 1,600 people. A six-pound Armstrong gun was mounted on a nearby hill and trained on the settlement. Te Whiti-O-Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi were arrested, and after six months in jail in New Plymouth, were imprisoned in the South Island.
(...)
The story of Parihaka has had a profound effect on New Zealand artists, and continues to be explored in song, theatre, literature and the visual arts. It is said to have inspired Gandhi's later acts of passive resistance, through two Irishmen who had visited Parihaka and later recounted the story to him. In 2000, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū acquired an important work on paper by Ralph Hotere from his 'Te Whiti' series, through the estate of artist Bill Sutton. Hotere's 'Te Whiti' works—and many others by artists including Colin McCahon—were commissioned for an exhibition curated by James Mack at Waikato Art Museum in 1973.
The text Hotere uses is drawn from a lament that marks the beginning of the 'days of darkness' of the Taranaki injustices.
"E kore e pouri tonu Waitara I whakamamaetia i nga ra i mua ra…
Darkness will not always cover Waitara / That was caused to suffer pain in days gone by…"
The lament was recorded by Te Rangi Hiroa in his book The Coming of the Maori (1949). Hiroa recalled that the lament was often performed in the 1890s by members of a drum and fife band established by Te Whiti's followers at Parihaka.
Writing at the time of the Parihaka: The Art of Passive Resistance exhibition in Wellington in 2001, curator Greg O'Brien noted that Hotere's 'Te Whiti' works were originally intended as studies towards larger paintings, which were in the end, not realised: the outlined lettering was to be replaced by stencilled text in the canvas versions. (...)
— https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/blog/behind-the-scenes/2014/11/parihaka-day
- Armed constabulary field force at parihaka
- Te Whiti leaving Parihaka under arrest, November 5, 1881.
- Parihaka Attack
- Parihaka ploughing campaign begins, 26 May 1879
- Invasion of pacifist settlement at Parihaka, 5 November 1881