Huhana Smith
Head of School of Art Whiti o Rehua,
Massey University, Pukeahu Campus Wellington
contact: huhana.smith@massey.ac.nz
Te Rae #2, 2013, oil on linen, 750 x 500 mm each canvas/2500 x 1500 complete
Huhana is a visual artist, curator and principle investigator for a research team who collectively engages in major collaborative, trans-disciplinary, kaupapa Māori and action-research projects for Māori lands and waterways. In recent years, her research team has investigated freshwater decline into the marine for Māori water/coastal lands and related biodiversity.
Korero Tuku Iho shed, Kuku, Horowhenua. Part of an exhibition by Kei Uta Collective, 2017.
Read more about Kei Uta and Te Waituhi ā Nuku here.
Huhana’s art practice overviews this iwi and hapū engagement, and her own involvement in these projects. Currently, she is co-principle investigator for climate change research that addresses the concerns for coastal Horowhenua to Kāpiti regions in Māori land tenure.
Exhibition at the School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington, showing graph cycles on window and image of river mouth by Martin Manning behind, 2016.
Huhana actively encourages the use of mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge systems) as research methods with sciences. She is an advocate for art and design’s visual systems when combined in exhibitions as research techniques. Such exhibitions expand how solutions might integrate complex issues and make solutions more accessible for local communities.
Huhana is a founding member of the Kei Uta Collective, part of Te Waituhi ā Nuku: Drawing Ecologies. Read more about the work Kei Uta do here.
Media and interviews
https://www.thebigidea.nz/stories/staying-conscious