WAM | Ngahuia Harrison ⬤ The Net

Te Kupenga by Ngahuia Harrison

Whangarei Art Museum

This exhibition marks the first public presentation of Harrison’s broader research project titled Ngā Pōito i te Kupenga o Toi te Huatahi — The Netfloats in the Net of Toi te Huatahi.

At its centre is the kupenga, or net—a metaphor for the moana as a connective structure, sustaining a people in their ancestral place. The pōito, Ngātiwai’s offshore islands, keep this net afloat. Understood in this way, the ocean is not a void between habitable zones but a lived space of interdependence and accountability. The Net resists the flattening of Māori experience into a single narrative, emphasising the polyvalent nature of the complex histories involved.

Through photography, video, and archival material, it shows how Ngātiwaiknowledge continues to shape their relationships with the natural world, and asks the viewer to imagine an understanding of conservation that acknowledges its roots in both occupation and in traditions of coexistence, sustenance and intergenerational care.