By Isabel Gilbert-Palmer
Over the coming months, we’ve decided to share the enthusiastically received exhibition, Art Is Identity, which showed the work of a collective of artists brought together for the first time on Te Tara-o-te-Ika a Māui, the Coromandel Peninsula.
The notable initiative was supported by Creative Coromandel and curated by Isabel Gilbert-Palmer, Fiona Cameron (Chair of Creative Coromandel), and Raewyn Helms-Davis, all of whom worked together for the first time, breaking new ground in the exhibition space.
The exhibition opened in Kūaotunu on New Year’s Day, January 2025, and ran for eight days. Then it travelled over the hill to Hauraki House Gallery in Kapanga/Coromandel Town for a further week, becoming, in its originality, we believe, the first local travelling exhibition.
This edition of the Pānui proposes sharing a digital version of the exhibition for those who found visiting it during the first summer month of the year difficult, making it more accessible by putting it online. Perhaps in doing so, it will encourage those who did visit to remember what they saw and recall the new artists among the group, and recognise those whose creativity they were familiar with.
There were two outstanding guest-artists from beyond the Peninsula with creative connections and friends here: Ron Te Kawa and Sofia Tekela-Smith. Later, we will share some of their particular and outstanding achievements this year. With our unique selection of Hauraki-Coromandel artists, they were showcased side by side in their individual mediums. Some of these local artists, whakapapa here, belong to creative whānau, have won awards, and have been featured in prestigious national and international shows. All live a creative life, and together, they created a stellar show.
From this month until the end of the year, we will highlight the participants, and our first choice is a long-held historical and collaborative pair: the delightful, talented, and humble Louisa Humphry and Kaetaeta Watson.
Louisa is an original creative who works from home in a purpose-built studio in a sweet, sheltered spot in Thames, next to her house. A visitor will find her studio surrounded by a vibrant tropical garden lush with flowers, verdant giant foliage, and resplendent vines, altogether already suggestive of the essence and soul of the artist who lives, gardens, and creates here.
Kaetaeta, by contrast, once lived and worked in her studio in the Whiritoa village, a small eastern coastal community with infinite ocean views, pristine white sands, a lagoon, and high cliff faces. It is a quintessential natural Coromandel paradise for contemplation and the resourceful gathering of ideas and practices. Now she has established herself closer to family in Nelson, where, no doubt, the creative community has discovered this remarkable artist now living amongst them.
Their works are grounded in their Kiribati heritage, language, and culture, as well as their dedication to beautiful weaving, drawing on traditions and skills that are amplified by the new techniques and contemporary materials they use.
The work they showcased in the January exhibition is a model of their partnership, Decorative Kiribati fans made from Harakeke. Traditionally, pandanus leaves are used in Kiribati, but here in Aotearoa, taught by Māori weavers, they transfer their skills into using harakeke, which is easily accessible. Their trio of fans was woven in 2024, especially for their 2025 Exhibition at the Māngere Arts Centre, but had its first public showing at Art Is Identity.
Louisa described the fans as “a reflection of everyday life in the climate of Kiribati”, where the island’s inhabitants live a very simple existence with nature. Decorative fans, like these, are used at formal functions as ornate accessories for church gatherings, parties, weddings, and special occasions.
Kiribati is one of the world’s most vulnerable nations to the effects of global warming and has been described as the first country destined to lose all its land territory to climate change. It is no wonder that both Louisa and Kaetaeta feel an urgency in reviving, sharing, and maintaining the social and cultural heritage of their homeland through language, song, dance, and weaving.
Both women are Master Weavers and cultural leaders for Pasifika women, who have exhibited their work both at home and abroad, with a shared passion for the restoration of heritage art forms, especially Kiribati arts. Earlier this year, at Galerie Handwork (The Design Museum) in Germany., they showcased individual pieces, each accompanied by creative companion Sofia Tekela Smith, featuring a breathtaking range of handmade jewellery crafted from indigenously sourced materials to celebrate and highlight intrinsic traditions.
Otintaai, the female warrior costume created by Kaetaeta and Louisa, was purchased by Te Papa Museum.
Other notable national and international shows and achievements include the 2018 Asian Pacific Triennial with the Kiribati Project Team, Brisbane, and the 2019 Pacific Heritage category of the New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards. In 2020, the exhibition “Names Held in our Mouth” was held at Te Uru Gallery, and in 2021, Louisa Humphry received an Honorary Member of the NZ Order of Merit. In 2021, “Otintaai”, the female warrior costume created by Kaetaeta and Louisa, was purchased by Te Papa Museum. In 2023, the “Tibuta – Kinaakiia Ainen Kiribati” exhibition was held at Pātaka Art & Museum. And here in the Coromandel, they were part of the 2024 “Ringa Wera Ringa Hera” exhibition in Kūaotunu and the 2025 “Art is identity” in Kūaotunu and Hauraki House, Kapanga/Coromandel Town.
And coming up this month, in July, at the Māngere Arts Centre in Auckland, is an exhibition curated by Lagi-Maama Academy & Consultancy, titled Taimwanuokai: Forget Me Not. This special exhibition highlights over a century of Kiribati knowledge, skills and artistry from these master makers, Kaetaeta Watson and Louisa Humphry. Additionally, there are some collaborative pieces from two other well-known Coromandel artists and friends of Louisa and Kaetaeta, Chris Charteris and Lizzie Leckie.
Taimwanuokai: Forget Me Not | Māngere Arts Centre
The exhibition will open on Saturday, 19 July at 11 am and runs until 23 August, with workshops run by Louisa and Kaetaeta during the exhibition on various dates; see the Facebook link buttons below for more details.
