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Robin White: the Aratoi connection
Dame Robin White (Ngāti Awa) is very much in the news at the moment, with the publication of a book covering her 50 years of art, Robin White: Something is Happening Here, which coincides with a major exhibition of her work at Te Papa.
White’s connection with Aratoi goes back to 1999 when she arrived to live in Masterton from Kiribati where she had lived for 17 years. Her first visit had significant impact on her.
“I visit the Wairarapa Art and History Centre (now Aratoi), as I need to know the kaupapa of this place. There’s an exhibition of photos on there, of shearing gang rousies, all women and all Māori. Then I find a little room of taonga.”
In this way, Aratoi triggered White’s passion to discover the wairua of Wairarapa. She spent time at the Wairarapa Archive conversing with Gareth Winter. One story of his that resonated with her was the shooting of Japanese prisoners of war at the camp near Featherston in February 1943.
Visiting the site,
Aratoi’s Robin White celebration with Jill Trevelyan, Robin White and David Hedley. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
White was moved by the inscription on the memorial to the Japanese soldiers:
Behold the summer grass
All that remains
Of the dreams of warriors
“I went often to the little heritage museum in Featherston. The old guys who ran it had so many stories of the camp. One told me that the death of the Japanese soldiers happened because of a cultural misunderstanding.”
That disconnect between cultures was further reinforced when the day after they were planted, cherry blossom trees in the new memorial garden at the camp were ripped out.
The words on the memorial prompted White to create a work in response and the cherry tree incident cemented this. Summer Grass was painted on the back of old wallpaper found in her Masterton house when they moved in.
“We talk about papering over the cracks when we are covering up truths.” said White. “I felt that by turning the wallpaper over and painting on the back I was revealing the truth.”
The then director, Marcus Boroughs, wanted to purchase Summer Grass for Aratoi. To enable this to happen, White and her dealer Peter McLeavey halved the price and the commission so that Aratoi could have the painting which White said, “belongs in Aratoi”.
White’s Aratoi connection continues. She is the patron of the Friends of Aratoi and she generously contributes to fundraisers such as Little Jewels.
Aratoi hosted a conversation featuring Dame Robin White and Jill Trevelyan, co-editor of the new book. It was attended by about 135 people which shows the esteem our community holds for Dame Robin.
There are two of Aratoi’s Robin White works in the Te Papa exhibition, one of which is Summer Grass.
INTERNATIONALLY SPEAKING
Timely Pacific topic to be explored
‘The New Geopolitics: China, New Zealand and the Indo-Pacific’ is the timely topic to be explored at the next meeting of the Wairarapa branch of the Institute of International Affairs in Masterton on Thursday, June 16.
The speaker, Ford Hart, a former senior American diplomat, now lives in Wellington. He has made a study of the evolving Indo-Pacific geopolitical environment, China’s role in it, and challenges facing the United States, New Zealand, and other countries. During his
Ford Hart. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
career, he acquired extensive experience in Chinese, Asian, and national security affairs.
As he said, “Regional powers of all sizes – large, medium, and small – are engaging in new forms of co-operation to balance Beijing’s growing capabilities and different vision of the international order.”
The future of peace, stability, and prosperity, he said, hinges on the ability of all these countries, including China, to manage their competing visions and maintain a rules-based order.
During a 33-year diplomatic career, he was posted to the People’s Republic of China four times and he studied Chinese in Taiwan. There were other postings to the USSR and Iraq.
Hart was the National Security Council’s Director for China and Taiwan under President George W. Bush; Special Envoy for the Six-Party Talks on North Korean nuclear weapons, with President Obama according him the personal rank of ambassador; and, at the Pentagon, foreign policy adviser to the Chief of Naval Operations. His final posting was as Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau.
Hart is now retired from US Government service and his views are entirely his own.
• The meeting will be at
Rosewood, 417 Queen
Street, Masterton at 8pm on Thursday,
June 16. Tea and
coffee from 7.30pm.
All are welcome.
Non-members: $5 door charge. For more
information contact
secretary Aileen
Weston, phone: (06) 372 5741, email: aileen.
weston@orcon.net.nz
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