Whenua Mai, Whenua Atu - an Exhibition By Nyle Turuwhenua

Whenua Mai, Whenua Atu
An Exhibition by Nyle Turuwhenua
20 June - 08 July
Community Gallery Space, Franklin Arts Centre

Opening event: Saturday 20th June, 10am, All Welcome

Other events: Saturday 20th June, Live painting in the gallery
Wednesday 08 July, Live painting in the gallery

Whenua means both land and placenta, our first source of nourishment, later returned to Papatūānuku, binding us to place, tīpuna, and belonging. From first breath to last, we remain connected to the whenua.

Within this exhibition, manu appear as tīpuna and kaitiaki, planting life into the soil. Plants emerge from kete whakairo and pīkau, a deliberate reworking of the colonial notion that land can be owned or contained. Where pots once symbolised control, these woven vessels reclaim the autonomy of whenua, living, breathing, and impermanent. Made from the earth itself, they too will one day return to it.
Through these works, whenua is revealed as both origin and destination, a living relationship in which we are never apart from the land, but of it.