On Further Thought is a series of talks which address significant moments — published texts, exhibitions, art works — in local art history from the 1990s and 2000s. The emphasis is on the act of re-reading, and on reflection itself as a productive form of research that helps us to navigate the present and energises our future art histories. We are particularly interested in research that acknowledges a changing of one’s mind, addresses misconceptions, and attends to the archive as a site of lively reclamation or transformation.

Emerging in response to local writer, arts programmer and curator Emma Ng’s prompt towards the formation of “an art history that can take us somewhere new” (Rattling the Shelves, Satellites Archive, 2024), the intention of this series is to deepen and expand our understanding of local and regional art histories, with a focus on those that may be insufficiently represented art history curricula and dominant exhibition-making practices. A further point of reference is Moana Jackson’s 2020 essay ‘Where to next?’: “[We] developed an intellectual tradition in which the world around us was as ordinary and as extraordinary as tapu....In this intellectual tradition we learned that memory and hope might seem fanciful but they can sometimes lead to new realities.”

July through November, six speakers present a talk which revisits an art historical moment that they have some personal connection with, and critically reappraises this from where they stand now. These speakers don't all identify as art historians. Rather, the propositions come from a range of practitioners whose work has brought them into contact with the discipline and the wider contemporary arts sector. As a whole the series is intended as a contribution to the future of our multiple art histories in Aotearoa.

Each presentation will be introduced, and followed by a brief critical response from Te Pātaka Toi director Abby Cunnane. In the interests of maintaining an open space for frank and spontaneous kōrero, the talks will not be recorded live but will be published as papers subsequently.

A Foundation for Debate — Matariki Williams

This talk will locate the Te Waka Hourua intervention in the Te Papa exhibition, Signs of a Nation, within an art historical canon. What were the moments leading up to the redaction, what followed and what legacy has the work created? The artistic assertion of the act from Te Waka Hourua challenged the immediate reaction from the museum and government officials, while further commentary in the media from Aroha Harris and Tina Barton reinforced the determination of the redacted panels as art. By situating the work within activist and artistic history in Aotearoa and overseas, what more can be learned from the work? By reading this act as both institutional critique and artistic prompt towards meaningful discourse around te Tiriti o Waitangi in this moment, what other institutional structures are also being redressed?


Matariki Williams (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Hauiti, Taranaki, Ngāti Whakaue, Te Atihaunui-a-Pāpārangi) is a curator, writer and editor in the arts and cultural sector. In 2024-2025, Matariki held the Oroya Day Fellowship in New Zealand Art History in the Art History programme at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington focusing on the continuum of Māori art practice, and is currently teaching Te Tohu Tiaki Taonga pilot programme at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. Previous roles include as Senior Historian, Mātauranga Māori at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and Curator Mātauranga Māori at Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand. She is a committee member for Te Hā o Ngā Pou Kaituhi Māori - National Māori Writers Network. Matariki lives and works in Whakatāne.