Manos Ross Nathan (20 December 1948 – 2 September 2015) was a New Zealand ceramicist. Born in

Rawene Rawene is a town on the south side of the Hokianga harbour, in Northland, New Zealand. State Highway 12 passes to the south. The town lies at the apex of a peninsula. A car ferry links it to Kohukohu and the northern Hokianga. History Rawene ...

Hokianga The Hokianga is an area surrounding the Hokianga Harbour, also known as the Hokianga River, a long estuarine drowned valley on the west coast in the north of the North Island of New Zealand. The original name, still used by local Māori, is ...

, to Eruera and Katina (née Toraki) Nathan, he was of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

(

Te Roroa Te Roroa is a Māori iwi from the region between the Kaipara Harbour and the Hokianga Harbour in Northland, New Zealand. They are part of the Ngāti Whātua confederation of tribes. In the early 19th century Te Roroa fought a series of wars wit ...

Ngāti Whātua Ngāti Whātua is a Māori iwi (tribe) of the lower Northland Peninsula of New Zealand's North Island. It comprises a confederation of four hapū (subtribes) interconnected both by ancestry and by association over time: Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa, Te ...

and

Ngāpuhi Ngāpuhi (or Ngā Puhi) is a Māori iwi associated with the Northland region of New Zealand and centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands, and Whangārei. According to the 2018 New Zealand census, the estimated population of Ngāpuhi is 165, ...

) descent on his father's side and Greek (

Cretan Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

) descent on his mother's side. Nathan was raised in Wekaweka, and subsequently moved to

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

with his family in 1955. He completed a Diploma of Textile Design at Wellington Polytechnic School of Design in 1968–70. In 1986, along with Baye Riddell, he founded Ngā Kaihanga Uku, the national Māori clayworkers' organisation 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. In 1989, he travelled to the United States on a Fulbright grant to visit First Nations Native American potters. A reciprocal visit took place in 1991 and he continued to foster links to indigenous peoples with a clay tradition in the Pacific and in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. He was a foundation member of Te Atinga, the Visual Arts committee of

Toi Māori Aotearoa Toi Māori Aotearoa (English: Māori Arts New Zealand) is a charitable trust that promotes Māori traditional arts and Māori artists, both in New Zealand and overseas. Much of Toi Māori's funding comes indirectly from the government, through C ...

. Nathan exhibited widely around the world and was actively engaged with cultural exchanges with indigenous peoples of Japan, Australia, the Pacific, the United States and Canada. He was awarded many honours during his career. He was inducted into the College of Creative Arts Toi Rauwharangi (

Massey University Massey University ( mi, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa) is a university based in Palmerston North, New Zealand, with significant campuses in Albany and Wellington. Massey University has approximately 30,883 students, 13,796 of whom are extramural or ...

) Hall of Fame in 2010, along with textile designer

Avis Higgs Avis Winifred Higgs (21 September 1918 – 14 October 2016) was a New Zealand textile designer and painter. Education Higgs was born in 1918 in Wellington into a family of artists. Both her great grandfather and her grandfather were highly re ...

Death

Nathan died of leukaemia on 2 September 2015; he was survived by his wife, Alison, their four children and one grandchild. Work by Manos Nathan is held in New Zealand and international collections, including the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

, the

Ethnological Museum of Berlin The Ethnological Museum of Berlin (german: Ethnologisches Museum Berlin) is one of the Berlin State Museums (german: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), the de facto national collection of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is presently located in t ...

, the

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

and the

Dowse Art Museum The Dowse Art Museum is a municipal art gallery in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Opening in 1971 in the Lower Hutt CBD, The Dowse occupies a stand-alone building adjacent to other municipal facilities. The building was completely remodelled in 20 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nathan, Manos 1948 births 2015 deaths New Zealand people of Greek descent New Zealand potters New Zealand Māori artists Te Roroa people Ngāti Whātua people Ngāpuhi people People from the Hokianga People from Wellington City Deaths from leukemia Deaths from cancer in New Zealand