Ilam Campus Gallery

George Atai French (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha), Mia Ata Marama Anderson (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whakaeke), George Brunton (Ngāti Maru, Whakatōhea), Ana Krakosky (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Rarua)

Nō Kurawaka Tātou

All things, including art objects, carry whakapapa, a layered history detailing their existence and origins. This stems from Māori cosmology, where whakapapa first unfolded from Te Kore (nothing), through to Te Pō, (gestation and iteration), and finally to Te Ao Mārama (the world of light and physical form). This sequence precisely describes the process of artistic creation.   

Māori trace their whakapapa back to Papatūānuku because Hineahuone, the first wahine, was formed from uku and red earth at Kurawaka. In forging Hineahuone, Tānemāhuta cemented the notion that the act of creation instills whakapapa. Objects forged by human hands therefore carry an imprint, connecting the creator's whakapapa to their creations. Māori art-making both extends whakapapa and asserts identity, irrespective of Māori language fluency. Thus, the exhibition title 'Nō Kurawaka Tātou' emerges – we are all from Kurawaka, and so by extension are the objects offered in this show.   

In the lifetime of tohunga whakairo Pine Taiapa, there was well-founded concern that Te Reo Māori may not survive his generation. His friend and mentee, artist Sandy Adsett, notes that Taiapa was motivated to contribute to toi Māori as another way to preserve, assert and take pride in our whakapapa. 

‘The art is important for us, because I worry that our language may go. But we’ll still have the language of art to identify us as a culture and to say the stories and tell the stories that we needed.

Savanna Hunter | Chiquita Dean | Lucia Daamen-Shanahan

De-Sir

The exhibition title draws on Experimental Jetset’s concept of de-sign ‘the idea of questioning and unpacking the assumptions embedded within design’. DeSir showcases three typefaces created by Savanna Hunter, Chiquita Dean, and Lucia Daamen-Shanahan to challenge traditional design histories. By focusing on feminist and decolonial perspectives, the work investigates how women's labour and Indigenous knowledge systems have been historically marginalised or erased from the typographic record. Each project uses contemporary type design as a tool for historical inquiry, reimagining narratives through embroidery-inspired forms, reinterpretations of early European printing, and speculative Māori visual languages.

Visitors can engage directly with these ideas through three keyboard stations, each featuring one of the typefaces. As visitors type, their words are projected onto a shared wall, allowing the three typefaces to overlap and interact. In doing so, typography becomes something to experience rather than simply observe. Type is embedded in everyday life. Ultimately, this becomes a political act capable of reshaping how society remembers and records creative contributions. Through this collection of researchdriven work, the designers position design as a critical method for questioning power and authorship in visual culture.

Savanna revives letterforms from 15th-century theology textbook printed by Anton Koberger. Her work inserts a contemporary female perspective into the traditionally male narrative of early European printing, addressing the systemic absence of women in the “cradle of printing”.

Chiquita speculates on what Māori typography might look like if it had evolved through mātauranga Māori rather than the roman alphabet. By developing a character-based visual language, the work imagines an alternative typographic future for te reo Māori.

Lucia explores the visual language of cross-stitch embroidery, challenging its marginalisation as “domestic labour”. By translating this traditional domestic craft into a digital typeface, she elevates a practice historically associated with women’s work into contemporary design culture.

Together, these three projects demonstrate how typography can operate as a form of critical design practice.