News
Nga Te Kore / From the Void - Indigenous Design forum
Posted 27 03 2018
in News
Te Tau-a-Nuku
Na Te Tau-a-Nuku - From the Maori Landscape Architect’s Ropu
Nga Te Kore / From the Void - Indigenous Design forum - “Nei te reo taawhiri o Aoraki Matatuu, o Aotearoa whaanui tonu e rere atu ana ki a koe e te aumangea. The winds of welcome sweep down from the peaks of our mountains, traversing expansive oceans and unknown landscapes to greet you.”
On the weekend of March 2nd – 5th, Ngāi Tūāhuriri and Ngāti Wheke hapu hosted Ngā Aho and welcomed over 120 guests (including around a dozen Landscape Architects) onto Maahunui II, the Ngāi Tūāhuriri marae at Tuahiwi in North-Canterbury, for a truly unique event for all those who work, live and are inspired by the indigenous design world.
Nā Te Kore was the 2nd International Indigenous Design Forum hosted by Ngā Aho in collaboration with local mana whenua (those who hold territorial rights). This year’s forum was focused on expanding the horizons and showing how a new light can emerge even from the darkest of voids; which given the earthquakes of 2011, was a topic at the forefront of practitioner’s minds, especially those based in the home city of Ōtautahi/Christchurch.
A total of 35 speakers – with Patrick Stewart, Maree Mills and Hirini Matunga as keynotes – presented over the four days, where it became evident that both the successes and challenges that indigenous practitioners are facing have a very small degree of separation across the world.
Nā Te Kore saw representatives of First Nations: Maori, Aboriginal, South American, Samoan, and Cook Island, and Pakeha cultures come together to share their multi-faceted approaches to embedding indigeneity in their work as Landscape Architects, Architects, Engineers, Planers, Visual Artists, Resource Managers and more besides.
The next international Design Forum will be in 2020.
Images courtesy of Mapihi Martin-Paul