First New Zealander to take part in world-famous arts festival in Japan – Te Ao Māori News

Māori artist Sarah Hudson (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Pūkeko) will be going to Japan later this year for an art residency and to take part in an arts festival.

The Setouchi Triennale takes place every three years and aims to revitalize the Seto Inland Sea area after environmental degradation and depopulation.

The Whakatāne resident’s artworks engage with whakapapa, tino rangatiratanga and whenua through painting, performance, video and sculpture.

Hudson is the first New Zealander and Wāhine Māori to be offered this opportunity and will go there for a month in September.

She said she was grateful to have been selected.

“Last month I came over for a week to meet the people there, see where I was going and develop my ideas about how this project could take shape.”

Its location will be the island of Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea area, which is known for its contemporary art and architecture.

“It is based on a series of islands in the Seto Inland Sea, and staying on these islands honestly gave me a feeling of loneliness (mokemoke) towards my own islands.”

Hudson said it would be interesting to see how her artistic practice would develop abroad after spending time on some Japanese islands.

“Aotearoa is full of islands that were once inhabited by our tupuna people. And maybe we don’t inhabit them anymore, so I was just thinking about islands that I’ve travelled to by whakapapa.

“And how do we gain access to the places we may not have access to and how do we reconnect with them?”

For the past three years she has been working to teach Māori people how to use materials from their environment to create art.

As part of a research group called the Raro Research Collective, it focuses on promoting mātauranga Māori through art.

“I’m really keen to do a workshop in the Setouchi area. Hopefully I’ll work with the education program to spend time with the children and see what they know about their whenua.”

Her trip was supported by the McCahon House Trust, which runs the artist’s home of the late Colin McCahon.