Lesson Content

1. Meet Johnson Witehira

   Johnson Witehira is an Aotearoa New Zealand artist, designer, and academic, who is on a mission to bring Māori culture into all aspects of New Zealand life, focussing on decolonised approaches to teaching art and design. Witehira himself says he “spends most of my time thinking about how we, Māori, did things in the past, and how we might apply our mātauranga (knowledge) to contemporary problems.” 

   According to “Johnson Witehira | Semi Permanent,” 2013, Witehira has presented this topic throughout New Zealand and internationally, with his design projects and writing on indigenous design significantly being published in Visible Language, The Graphic Design Reader (Bloomsbury), AIGA Eye on Design, Novum Magazine, and Monocle.

   

   Johnson Witehira, Māori alphabet blocks

2. According to Witehira, 2014, Witehira’s “kaupapa (mission) as both an artist and designer is to bring Māori visual culture back into the lives of all Māori. This is done through careful consideration of how indigenous culture, design and technology intersect.” He discusses how we once created all the things in our world; the clothes, buildings, vehicles and tools. However, nowadays, everything is made for us, and if we’re lucky, we get to decorate. Witihira wants to put Māori back in the driver's seat, so they’re active participants in creating the tools and the world we want to live in.

   Johnson Witehira’s Half-Blood was an exhibition that challenges the history and myths associated with both Māori and Pākehā identity through two playable digital artworks. According to Objectspace, 2016, the works, projected side-by-side in the gallery space, presented two narratives. These included the arrival of Māori and the arrival of Pākehā in Aotearoa New Zealand. The audience are invited to take up the controls and navigate a Pacific or British character through the alien landscape, with each forced to overcome challenges in their newly-discovered worlds. For Māori this included taming the harsh environment, while for Pākehā, it was taming the savages.

   

   Johnson Witehira, Maoriland Adventure, 2016

Maoriland Adventures

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   Pākehā taming the 'savages' in Johnson Witehira's Maoriland Adventure

More work by Johnson Witehira

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   Johnson Witehira's digital art work exhibited on digital billboards in Times Square, New York.

Let's do something!

Citations