Māori Renaissance

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The term Māori Renaissance refers to the 1950s in New Zealand, when there was a rise in prominence of a number of Māori artists who incorporated Māori imagery and materials with the techniques and materials of European art.

The 1950s were not very kind to Māori culture and people. The NZ government believed that the Māori should become just like Europeans and tried to merge them into the European society of New Zealand. In contrast to this attitude, a man named Gordon Tovey believed that Māori art should be taught in schools to both Māori and Pākehā students. By encouraging Māori men and women to become teachers, Tovey created an opportunity for artists to create Māori art with the ideas and materials of European art.

Artists such as Paratene Matchitt, Arnold Wilson and Cliff Whiting began to produce art that developed Māori art in new directions, taking their work into the European art galleries as well as back to the marae, and into specifically Māori contexts.