The relationship of Māori with photography is a complex one. On one hand, it has been used as a colonising tool to ‘other’, feeding into harmful and reductive colonial stereotypes to appease a colonising gaze. In contrast, it has also been adopted as a symbol of mana and re/claimed to maintain whakapapa connections in a visual form other than the customary whakairo.In the second episode of ‘In Response’, artist Matt Tini discusses the complex histories of tangata whenua in relation to photography, and recontextualises the ways we view such images – historic, present and future – through a te ao Māori perspective.Tini asks such questions as, who were these images intended for? Who keeps the mauri alive of the tipuna represented in the early photographs? How are their stories being presented?This episode is part of a series of recorded talks in response to the exhibition A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa, at Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, from 1 February to 15 June 2025. The series ‘Through a Contemporary Lens: Artists in Response’ invited local artists to offer their response to particular photographs and was developed in collaboration with artist and educator Caroline McQuarrie. Recorded 17 April 2025.

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