From the collection: new exhibition wall displays artworks from the Pātaka collection

Launched with the opening of our Autumn exhibition season last Friday, a new space at Pātaka offers an ongoing opportunity to showcase taonga from the collection.

Pātaka Art+Museum’s collection reflects the rich artistic and cultural narratives of Porirua and Aotearoa New Zealand. Registrar Lotte Kellaway reports that with more than 22,000 objects – many inherited through the amalgamation of Porirua Museum and Page 90 Gallery in 1998 – the collection has continued to grow through generous donations and strategic acquisitions.

The word 'pātaka' literally means 'storehouse', and Pātaka remains dedicated to recording and caring for our many histories.

The first work on display in our new space is Viaduct Stakeholders, 2001, by Emily Karaka (Waikato, Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Te Kawerau ā Maki, Ngāti Tamaoho, Te Ākitai Waiohua, Te Ahi Waru, Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Hine), which was purchased for the collection in 2001.

Emily Karaka is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading political painters. Her text-driven, vividly coloured works confront land rights, tino rangatiratanga and environmental justice. Viaduct Stakeholders was one of several works in Karaka’s Claims Wai 423 and 357 series.

The painted diptych responds to the intensifying commercialisation of Tāmaki Makaurau’s waterfront in the lead-up to Auckland hosting the America's Cup in 2003. Emily suggests the encroachment of commercial interests along the waterfront affects many iwi, or an ‘Iwis Congress’ ‘ki Tāmaki’, which are named in the painting Ngāi Tai, Waiohua, Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāti Whātua and Te Kawerau ā Maki. Dollar signs and gold tones signal the profit-driven development around Quay Street and Britomart.

Viaduct Stakeholders is displayed in the area directly behind the Ngāti Toa exhibition Mutumutu ki Mukukai. Although Emily isn’t Ngāti Toa, the work echoes the importance of protecting our waterways.

The concept for a dedicated exhibition wall is one result of our team seeking new ways to better share the collection, including some long-term digitisation goals.

We're excited about this opportunity to share more of the collection, especially because there are items that even we are only just discovering. We’re also looking forward to visitors' reactions and feedback to the artworks on display, and thinking we'll probably glean more understanding by showing them publicly. Often, people come forward with questions and recollections when we show items with a local or social history perspective. So we'll also be constantly adding to our own knowledge of what we care for.

The changeover for our new collection space will align with our main gallery programme, so the works will change out every three or four months. We’ll be aiming for the artworks on display to showcase the different areas of focus in our collection, for example, Māori art, Moana art and Porirua social histories.