Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award is a biennial portraiture award in

Aotearoa ''Aotearoa'' () is the current Māori-language name for New Zealand. The name was originally used by Māori in reference to only the North Island, with the name of the whole country being ''Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu'' ("North Island and South ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, hosted by the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata in partnership with the Office of the Kīngitanga. The award is named for the Māori King, Kiingi Tuheitia; it was launched in August 2020 and was first presented in 2021. The award is preceded by a competition, encouraging Māori artists to create portraits of their tūpuna (ancestors) in any visual medium. A panel of judges selects finalists from the competition entries and these works are shown in a three-month long exhibition, hosted by The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata and timed to coincide with

Matariki ), signalling the Māori new year., litcolor=, observedby=New Zealanders, nickname=, official_name=, alt=, image=M45 Pleiades Pbkwee (cropped to core 9 stars).jpg, relatedto=, date2022=24 June, date2023=14 July In Māori culture, Matariki is the ...

. The plans were following the closure of the inaugural award competition exhibition in August 2021, the exhibition toured the country for two years, followed by a second competition. A second competition was presented in 2023.

In te reo Māori the word portrait is the word whakaahua, so you break that down whaka - meaning to cause, and ahua - to create something that describes the ahua, the nature, the personality and story of a person. So that doesn't necessarily mean an exact description of a face. (Graham Hoete aka Mr G 2023)

In addition to showcasing across Aotearoa emerging Māori artists through it is also intended to hold a role in recording and naming ancestors from various Māori

hapū In Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief and normally opera ...

and

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

, and their stories.

2021 competition

The inaugural competition in 2021 attracted 128 entries; 50 finalists were selected and exhibited in the award exhibition. The judging panel selected a first prize winner, a runner-up and awarded 13 Honourable Mentions. The judges were Sir Derek Lardelli,

Kura Te Waru Rewiri Kura Te Waru Rewiri (born 1950) is a New Zealand artist, academic and educator. Art historian Deidre Brown described her as "one of Aotearoa, New Zealand's most celebrated Māori women artists." Background and education Te Waru Rewiri is the ...

and

Lisa Reihana Lisa Marie Reihana (born 1964) is a New Zealand artist. Her video work, ''In Pursuit of Venus nfected' (2015), which examines early encounters between Polynesians and European explorers, was featured at the 2017 Venice Biennale. Early life ...

2023 competition

The 2023 competition had 96 entries and 43 finalists. The judges were Steve Gibbs, Mr G (Graham Hoete) and Lisa Reihana. The winner gets a NZ$20,000 prize and runner-up gets a NZ$2,500 prize. Judges commendations and the winners were announced on May 24 2023. One of the entries, ''Heke Mai'', by Robert Pritchard-Blunt was created using

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

(AI) and

Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in raster ...

and is a picture of his maternal great-great-grandmother, Rakapa Rakapa Tarapiipipi of

Ngāti Hauā Ngāti Hauā is a Māori people, Māori iwi of the eastern Waikato of New Zealand. It is part of the Tainui confederation. Its traditional area includes Matamata, Cambridge, New Zealand, Cambridge, Maungakawa, the Horotiu district along the Wai ...

. The winning entry by Stevei Houkāmau was partly inspired by time she spent on a

Native American reservation An Indian reservation is an area of land land tenure, held and governed by a federally recognized Tribe (Native American), Native American tribal nation whose government is accountable to the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs and not ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

and learning about blue corn seeds that had been with people for generations. The work is about her great-great-grandmother Hinemaurea and the wider family also. Hinemaurea was the daughter of Raramaitai and married to Te Aotaki, they had five children including Ruataupare, who was married to Tūwhakairiora (a

Ngāti Porou Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Porou is affiliated with the 28th Maori Battalion and has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi in New Zealand ...

chief).

Hinemaurea was seen to have great mana and has two existing
marae A ' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan), ' (in Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term a ...
named after her, including our marae in
Wharekahika Wharekahika or Hicks Bay (officially Wharekahika / Hicks Bay) is a bay and coastal area in the Gisborne District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is situated 150 km east of Opotiki and 186 km north of Gisborne city, along State ...
, Hicks Bay. (Stevei Houkāmau 2023)

References

{{reflist New Zealand art awards 2020 establishments in New Zealand Māori culture