October 28, 2012
Toi Te Māori offers indigenous art view
One of the researchers behind a major study on Māori art is promising to it will offer a new way of looking at the subject.
Deidre Brown, along with Fellow Auckland University academics Jonathan Mane-Wheoke and Ngarino Ellis, has won a $635,000 grant from the Marsden Fund for the Toi Te Maori project.
Dr Brown says past overviews of Māori art had come from a western art historical or anthropological perspective, and overlooked Maori stories such as the role of women or the importance of group activity.
She says much of the three-year project will involve talking to Maori artists and makers, so their views become central to the project.
Dr Brown says as well as the project generating a book and other publications, she also hopes it will lead to a television series on Māori art.
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