Whai Wāhi emerges as a contribution to contemporary discourse around Te Tiriti o Waitangi – which remains a primary reference for artists, among others, in the negotiation of identity and relationships here in Aotearoa – and ideas extending from this. In this full-gallery, intergenerational exhibition, artworks from the 1970s to the present articulate expressions of mana motuhake, dissent, and an enduring will to engage in critical dialogue about our shared colonial past.

Anchoring the exhibition is the Treaty panel from Te Papa, redacted by artists and activists Te Waka Hourua on 11 December 2023. Brought into the gallery, the panel continues its work of calling for accurate representation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The panel is situated within the company of artworks that uphold related propositions, explicitly or more subtly signalling the need for change, and those affirming the continuity of connection to whenua and tūpuna.

Significant works by eminent Māori artists including Kura Te Waru Rewiri, Robyn Kahukiwa, Diane Prince, Emily Karaka and Ngataiharuru Taepa sit alongside a series of photographs by John Miller documenting watershed historical protests in Aotearoa. The exhibition includes selected works from Ngā Puhipuhi o Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection and others loaned for the occasion. In different ways, each artwork voices the need for remembrance and resistance.

Whai Wāhi also features new work by contemporary artists Madison Kelly and Melanie Tangaere Baldwin. Tangaere Baldwin’s Matakite (2023) asserts clear-sighted tūpuna knowledge and tino rangatiratanga that exists before and beyond the present moment, while Hine Whakawetewete (2025) embodies the potential for collective emancipation. Madison Kelly’s sound installation, Heed a tohu, cradle a branch (2025) (an extension of their work made for Whāia te Taniwha at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū), evokes the whakapapa of taniwha in relation to bodies of land and water, and timescales that go beyond the human. Extending beyond Aotearoa, the exhibition includes moving image works by Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation / Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) and Inas Halabi (Palestine), narratives of opposition to the displacement of Indigenous people in their own lands.

Whai Wāhi opens 50 years after the 1975 Land March, since the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal, and at a time when both the Tribunal and Te Tiriti are under what legal academic Dr Carwyn Jones has recently described as “sustained attack”, while the exhibition's title, Whai Wāhi, cites the seeking of space that underscores the efforts of movements pursuing the return of land and the right to be heard.

With thanks to Barbara Blake and the Ronald Woolf Memorial Trust for their generous support of this exhibition.

Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery summer closedown: 20.12.25 – 19.01.26