Join us for a panel discussion chaired by Associate Professor in Art History at Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington, Peter Brunt, with guest curator Hamish Coney, artist Mark Adams, and Ngāti Hinemihi kaumātua Jim Schuster, who will review the contents of Hinemihi: Te Hokinga – The Return and offer their insights into the past, present and future of the whare whakairo and its makers.

Jim Schuster (Tūhourangi) works as an Adviser to Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga as a marae restorer around Aotearoa and the world. Born and raised in Rotorua into a family that has maintained and practised Māori Arts and Crafts for generations, Schuster’s great great grandfather Tene Waitere, was a principal kaiwhakairo (carver) on Hinemihi o Te Ao Tawhito. With his wife Cathy, Schuster has conducted workshops on marae, in schools, tertiary institutions, and museums all over Aotearoa to pass on their skills, and he is also a lead advocate for the Hinemihi whare, in the role of Te Maru o Hinemihi Pakeke: Tūhourangi Representative.

Mark Adams has established a distinguished practice in photography, exploring his first-hand experience of and response to New Zealand’s cross-cultural and colonial history. Since the 1970’s Adams has worked with large-format cameras to produce images that document and share complex stories related to whakairo (Māori carving), tatau (Samoan tatoo), and historical sites in Aotearoa, among other pertinent topics. He has exhibited widely across Aotearoa and internationally since 1972, and continues to work from his studio in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Hamish Coney is an Auckland-based writer and arts advisor. He has a particular interest in the intersection of cross-cultural thinking in the arts, with a view towards placing Māori art concepts and production at the centre of the broader discourse within New Zealand art history. He has a BA in Art History from the University of Auckland and has built a deep working knowledge of New Zealand art as the founding managing director of the auction house Art + Object (2007–2018). He writes a regular arts column for newsroom.co.nz and is a trustee of Artspace Aotearoa, Auckland.

Dr. Peter Brunt is Associate Professor of Art History at Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington where he teaches and writes on modern and contemporary art from Te Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa. His published work includes several essays on the work of Mark Adams, including a chapter on his friendship with the Sāmoan tattooist Sulu'ape Paulo II and painter Tony Fomison in the forthcoming book, Mediating Modernism: Indigenous Artists, Modernist Mediators, Global Networks (Duke University Press, 2022). Brunt also co-curated the UK's first major show to explore Oceanic art, at London's Royal Academy of Arts in 2018.