The relationship of Māori with photography is a complex one. On one hand, it has been used as a colonising tool to ‘other’, feeding into harmful and reductive colonial stereotypes to appease a colonising gaze. In contrast, it has also been adopted as a symbol of mana and re/claimed to maintain whakapapa connections in a visual form other than the customary whakairo. Using an image of an unidentified wahine attributed to the American Photographic Company as a starting point, Tini will discuss the complex histories of tangata whenua in relation to photography, and recontextualise the ways we view such images – historic, present and future – through a te ao Māori perspective.

Matt Tini (Waikato, Ngaati Tiipa, Ngaati Mahuta, Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungunu) is an artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. His practice is an exploration of self, reflecting on his experiences with decolonization and affirming his Māoritanga. Working across various media such as photography, video, textiles and installation, Tini playfully challenges notions of authenticity and embraces the complexities of being Māori in a contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand. Tini is a Lecturer at Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University.

This series of talks, developed in collaboration with artist and educator Caroline McQuarrie, brings local contemporary lens-based artists into dialogue with A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa. Each artist has been invited to offer their response to particular photographs. Drawing on their own approaches, whakapapa and interests, these artists offer fresh and varied insights into the political, social and technological dynamics of photography and its implicit relationship to settler-colonialism in Aotearoa.