Paper short abstract:

Action breathes vitality and coherence into cultural histories, thus co-creating one’s movement between meaning and understanding. I draw on the ideas that senior Maori artists have shared with me through the making of the exhibition and catalogue Turuki Turuki! Paneke Paneke!

Paper long abstract:

'Wrong is an addictive, repetitive story; right is where the movement is' is a compelling idea and Paul Hawken's recent book Blessed Unrest (2007) charts radical and brilliant ideas, inspirational strategies and hidden histories that recognize how grassroots organisations and larger networks of people re-imagined relationships to planet Earth. He potently describes how things are starting to go right in the world.

In Appiah's Whose culture is it? (2006) is a radical and timely telling of the extractive practices of collectors and keepers of art and antiquities across the ages, yet raises the notion that we can also re-imagine relationships and their powerful connections to cultural objects, in ways that we do not practise today. He asks that we recognize other ways to view cultural treasures in the twenty-first century.

I will discuss how inspirational ideas are vital to the way Maori 'stewards' and artists see a place in the world of cultural exchange including relationships, with ancestors, with humanity and with the planet. And, that the biggest movement in present history has more to do with the ability of human culture to rise above the addictive repetitive stories of wrong and focus on what is going right. I draw on my understanding of ideas that senior Maori artists have shared with me through the making of the exhibition and catalogue Turuki Turuki! Paneke Paneke! 24 May-24 August 2008 Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.