Matahi Brightwell | |
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Born | Gregory John Brightwell 22 July 1952 Masterton, New Zealand |
Other names |
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Occupation | Master carver |
Known for | Reintroducing waka ama in New Zealand |
Notable work | Sculpture of Ngātoro-i-rangi at Mine Bay, Lake Taupō |
Matahi Whakataka Brightwell ONZM (born Gregory John Brightwell; 22 July 1952) is a New Zealand master carver. He reintroduced the waka ama sport (outrigger canoe racing) in New Zealand.
His notable artworks include a sculpture in cliffside stone of Ngātoro-i-rangi at Mine Bay, Lake Taupō, carved from 1976 to 1980, which has been recognised as important to the district and local iwi. In 1985, he built the canoe Hawaikinui-1 in Tahiti, which he and others sailed to New Zealand to reflect Māori migration from Polynesia to New Zealand.
Brightwell was born in 1952 in Masterton, New Zealand. [1] [2] He is of Kāti Huirapa, Ngāti Toa, Te Roro-o-te-Rangi (Ngāti Whakaue), Ngāti Tunohopu and Rongowhakaata descent. [3] Brightwell was a pallbearer for James K. Baxter at his funeral in 1972, and participated in the Māori Land March in 1975. [4]
In 1978, Brightwell carved a tipuna whare (ancestral house) for Ngāti Toa at Takapūwāhia as well as an ancestral pouwhenua for the Kāti Huirapa hapū in the South Island. [5] In 1980, he completed a pouwhenua recording the whakapapa of Parekōhatu, the mother of Te Rauparaha, installed at Tawatawa Reserve in Wellington. [5] In 2022, Brightwell and his daughter Taupuru Ariki Whakataka Brightwell collaborated on restoring and re-designing this pouwhenua. [6] A tōtara sculpture he created in 1998 is held in the art collection at Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum. [1]
In February 2023, Brightwell lost artworks, sculptures, and waka when his Gisborne house was damaged during Cyclone Gabrielle. [7]
From 1976 to 1980, Brightwell worked with a team of four others to carve a 14-metre-high (46 ft) sculpture of Ngātoro-i-rangi into the cliffside at Mine Bay, Lake Taupō. [8] [9] [10] The sculpture is surrounded by smaller sculptures of tūpuna (ancestors) and kaitiaki (guardians). [8] [10] Brightwell's grandmother, Te Huatahi Susie Gilbert, had requested that he carve a sculpture of Ngātoro-i-rangi, and Brightwell had been unable to find a suitable tōtara tree. [8]
The sculpture was initially controversial, with a local councillor complaining that "outsiders should not be cutting into our rock". [11] Brightwell decided to leave the sculpture's eyes blank due to the negative reception. [8]
In November 2016, a blessing took place to recognise the importance of the Ngātoro-i-rangi sculpture to the Taupō district and local iwi. [8] Brightwell carved a smaller version of the sculpture on tōtara, Ngatoroirangi Iti, which was displayed at the Taupō visitor centre. [8] In 2019, Brightwell sought donations to support the restoration of some of the smaller sculptures as well as carvers who could take over maintenance. [10]
Brightwell has said that he sees waka carving as an artform akin to his sculptural carving. [3] A wooden paddle carved by Brightwell in 1994 is in the collection of the British Museum. [12]
In 1985, Brightwell built the 22 m (72 ft) double-hulled canoe Hawaikinui-1 in Tahiti, using wood from tōtara trees from Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tāne Conservation Park. [3] [13] To emulate Māori migration from Polynesia to New Zealand, he sailed it to Rarotonga and New Zealand under Tahitian captain Francis Cowan, arriving on 6 January 1986 at Ōkahu Bay, Ōrākei, after a three-month voyage. [3] [14] [15] He was awarded the Blue Water Medal, presented by Paul Reeves, for this achievement. [3] The canoe was subsequently displayed at the Musée de Tahiti et des Îles in Tahiti. [15] His time living in Tahiti also led him to encounter the waka ama sport, which he and his wife Raipoia brought back to New Zealand. [16] [17]
Brightwell founded the Mareikura Canoe Club shortly after, and travelled around New Zealand reintroducing waka ama to local Māori. [3] [18] The club has since developed into the nationwide Waka Ama Club organisation with over 80 clubs. [3] [19] For this work, Brightwell was bestowed with the Samoan chief's title of Avauli in 1998, was named Māori Sports Coach of the Year in 2002 and has been inducted into the New Zealand Waka Ama Hall of Fame. [3] [16] [20] In the 2022 Queen's Birthday and Platinum Jubilee Honours, Brightwell was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to waka ama. [3] [21]
Lake Taupō is a large crater lake in New Zealand's North Island, located in the caldera of Taupō Volcano. The lake is the namesake of the town of Taupō, which sits on a bay in the lake's northeastern shore. With a surface area of 616 km2 (238 sq mi), it is the largest lake by surface area in New Zealand, and the second largest freshwater lake by surface area in geopolitical Oceania after Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea. Motutaiko Island lies in the southeastern area of the lake.
Waka are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes used for fishing and river travel to large, decorated war canoes up to 40 metres (130 ft) long.
Ngāti Tūwharetoa is an iwi descended from Ngātoro-i-rangi, the priest who navigated the Arawa canoe to New Zealand. The Tūwharetoa region extends from Te Awa o te Atua at Matatā across the central plateau of the North Island to the lands around Mount Tongariro and Lake Taupō.
Arawa was one of the great ocean-going, voyaging canoes in Māori traditions that was used in the migrations that settled New Zealand.
In Māori tradition, Ngātoro-i-rangi (Ngātoro) is the name of a tohunga (priest) prominent during the settling of New Zealand (Aotearoa) by the Māori people, who came from the traditional homeland Hawaiki on the Arawa canoe. He is the ancestor of Ngāti Tūwharetoa and his travels around Lake Taupō and up onto the Volcanic Plateau are the basis of Ngāti Tūwharetoa's claim to those regions.
Tainui was one of the great ocean-going canoes in which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand approximately 800 years ago. It was commanded by the chief Hoturoa, who had decided to leave Hawaiki because over-population had led to famine and warfare. The ship first reached New Zealand at Whangaparāoa in the Bay of Plenty and then skirted around the north coast of the North Island, finally landing at Kawhia in the western Waikato. The crew of the Tainui were the ancestors of the iwi that form the Tainui confederation.
The New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute (NZMACI) is an indigenous traditional art school located in Rotorua New Zealand. It operates the national schools of three major Māori art forms.
Toi whakairo or just whakairo (carving) is a Māori traditional art of carving in wood, stone or bone.
Pākā Bay, formerly called Halletts Bay is a bay on the eastern shore of Lake Taupō, New Zealand, about 27km south-east of Taupō township. It was known as Hamaria, in the nineteenth century. and before that Paka. The early Māori explorer Tia built a tūāhu to signify he occupied the land and named the cliffs Taupō-nui-a-Tia. This name was later given to the lake by the occupying tribes that followed.
In Māori traditions, Tia was an early Māori explorer of Aotearoa New Zealand and a rangatira (chief) in the Arawa tribal confederation. He is responsible for the names of various features and settlements around the central North Island, most notably Lake Taupō. He might have lived around 1400.
Rangikaiamokura Wirihana Hetet is a Māori master carver of Ngāti Tuwharetoa and Ngāti Maniapoto descent.
Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II was a New Zealand Māori tribal leader of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi.
Lyonel Grant is a New Zealand Māori master carver and sculptor. Born in Rotorua, he affiliates to Ngāti Pikiao and Te Arawa. Grant identifies as Maori Indian.
Chris Bailey is a Māori sculptor and carver. Bailey studied Māori language and Māori material culture at the University of Auckland under Dante Bonica. He lives and works on Waiheke Island.
Tauranga Taupō is a semi-rural area located at the mouth of Tauranga Taupō River, on the southern shores of Lake Taupō in New Zealand's North Island.
Charles Eldon Fayne Robinson is a New Zealand Māori artist specialising in carving. Robinson has contributed to the carving of buildings on many marae in New Zealand as well as exhibiting his art in galleries and museums.
Te Rangiita is a small settlement in the Tauranga Taupō area of the Taupō District, New Zealand.
Werewere was a seventeenth-century Māori rangatira (chieftain) of Ngāti Kurapoto and Ngāti Tūwharetoa from the region around Lake Taupō, New Zealand. Werewere joined the dominant chieftain of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Tamamutu, on an expedition against Rotorua, but the two men clashed and Tamamutu expelled him from the Taupō region. Werewere settled at Motu-o-rūrū in Heretaunga, from which Werewere launched a successful raid on Taupō. He died peacefully at Motu-o-rūrū.
The Tūhoe–Ngāti Tūwharetoa War was a conflict which took place on the east coast of Lake Taupō in the central North Island of New Zealand in the mid- to late eighteenth century, between the Tūhoe iwi of Te Urewera and the Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi of Lake Taupō.
Clive Ernest Fugill is a New Zealand Māori tohunga whakairo, author and long serving kaiako whakairo of the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute. He affiliates to the Ngāti Ranginui iwi of Tauranga, and also has links to Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Rangiwewehi and Ngāti Tūkorehe.
Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell reintroduced waka ama or outrigger canoe to New Zealand from Tahiti