A Sense of Place and Identity in Aotearoa New Zealand

This presentation focuses on a few contemporary artists who use textiles to express connections with place and sense of self, in the Land of the Long White Cloud , Aotearoa New Zealand. It is a subjective selection, representing both established practitioners and emergent voices, people who are approaching concepts in textile media from varying viewpoints and sources, including cultural, geographical and material relationships. Being an island nation, in the southern part of the South Pacific, this is a land in which various waves of migration have occurred, beginning with the original settlers, the Maori. According to current archaeological evidence the first wave of planned colonisation occurred by Polynesian people approximately 1000 years ago.2 These ancestors of the present day Maori, made long voyages in large canoes, bringing with them animals and plants for domestic needs and progressively discovering, utilizing and adapting the rich natural resources of birds, sea life, and plants which enabled continued survival in the cooler climate. Subsequent migrations occurred from the 1840\u27s onward, predominantly from the British Isles; people collectively referred to by the Maori the term, Pakeha. Gold discoveries in the 1860\u27s brought many Chinese immigrants who established themselves as traders and market gardeners, with migration from people of the Pacific Islands from the 1950\u27s onward. My own family benefited from the \u27open door policy\u27 of the 1970\u27s, which saw many Europeans and Americans escaping the pressures of industrialized, crowded states for what was perceived as a \u27rural paradise\u27 in the South Pacific. Further immigration from Asian countries from the mid-1980\u27s onward has again changed the cultural profile of the country