






Kia Tuturu Series 2023
Indian ink on Hahnemuhle Bristol Board
Presented at collaborative exhibition "Kia Tuturu" with artist Raukawa Kiri at Drive Thru Gallery, Newtown, Wellington during July 2023
Gallery Text:
Te whenua, te reo, te tiriti. This trinity of take is the foundation of Māori resistance. Yet when the sword of imperialism struck it was not land, language or sovereignty that suffered the first blow – the first casualties of colonisation were Māori sexuality and spirituality, expressed through art.
Before the dismemberment of our land and the disintegration of our language, our carvings were disfigured and their ure and teke mutilated by over-zealous missionaries, enraged by our veneration of tūpuna atua and our celebration of our bodies and our sexuality. Missionary Henry Williams was possessed by an almost manic obsession to prove Māori were ‘depraved and devoted to the work of the Wicked One’ and ‘governed by the Prince of Darkness’ (Ozzy Osborne was in fact born in 1948). Williams was aghast at the sexual prerogatives of wāhine Māori, exclaiming ‘I cannot think that females anywhere are faster within satan's grasp than these’. It would be comforting to think of these actions as the excesses of a less enlightened era, yet settlers continue to mutilate the genitals of our carvings in the present day, with recent attacks in the Manawatu and Tāmaki Makaurau.
The imposition of Victorian values on hōkakatanga, aitanga and onioni – sexual desire, sex as a divine act of creation, sex as a physical expression, has had damaging and enduring impacts on the hauora and wairua of tangata whenua. A generation of mana wāhine and takatāpui activist scholars have expounded our ancestral truths: Māori expressed their sexuality freely, openly and flexibly – the body was not something to be ashamed of, sex was something to celebrate, neither sex nor pregnancy necessitated marriage much less shame, polyamory was the prerogative of rangatira, same sex relationships were māori, that is to say, a normal part of life on these lands, and gender fluidity could be traced to spiritual and ancestral origins.
Languages speak volumes about the priorities of a culture. Consider then that Māori have at least ten words for clitoris, and these are nouns rather than slang or derogatory terms. Examine those terms further – ‘atua pīkoikoi’ – this could be rendered as ‘a being of supernatural powers that is shown reverence through vigorous stimulation’. In contrast there is no noun in the English language for clitoris, it derives from the Latin clitoris which derives from the Greek kleitoris.
Paratii and Raukawa are part of a movement of Māori artists reclaiming hōkakatanga and atuatanga, and the close intertwined connection between sexuality and spirituality and its expression through art, dance and music. Their work sits alongside that of Te Kahureremoa Taumata, Te Kaahu / Theia, Kahu Kutia, Misty Frequency, Samara Alofa and others along with a multitude of collectives across the country including Kuwao Space, Kauae Raro, FILTH and Nū Collective to name just a few.
The name ‘Kia Tūturu’ comes from the pūrākau of Hine-korangi and her lover, a spirit being named Tuhoropunga, who would flee each morning before the sun rose. Hine-korangi asked her lover to stay by her side so they could be discovered by her whānau ‘kia tūturu tā tāua moe’ so that their relationship could be affirmed by her whānau. To be tūturu is to be staunchly authentic and true to one’s identity, values and traditions. To be staunchly authentic and true to our sexuality and spirituality is to be tūturu. He mahi tūturu tēnei – kia tūturu tatou.
Tiopira McDowell PhD
HOS - Te Wananga o Waipapa
Faculty of Arts, Maori and Pacific Studies, New Zealand
Auckland University