2022-2023:
Arapeta Apakura / Hākura (Whanaunga, Ruanui, Mahuta, Koata, Te Wehi, Kahu, Te Rarawa, Te Aupouri, Ngāpuhi, Porou)
An artist and PhD candidate at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland, Arapeta Hākura produced a photographic art installation that featured whau harvested from Maungawhau. The installation, titled Poetry of Tide Pools, is a gentle nod to the coastline and rock pools around the Tikapa Moana and Hauraki and delves into their ancestral connections to Ngāti Whanaunga, Ngāti Marutūāhu and Ngā Iwi o Tāmaki. It explores the creation of taonga made from Whau harvested from Maungawhau / Mount Eden in the form of an ‘Oho’ (surfboard) as well as other taonga.
Since the conclusion of his time as a scholarship recipient, TMA have contracted Hākura to create public artwork for a capital works project on Takarunga / Mt Victoria.
Read more about Arapeta’s work here.
2024-2025:
Sylvia Tāpuke (Tūhoe, Hāmoa)
A kaupapa Māori researcher and PhD candidate at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland, Tāpuke is working to connect Western science and Mātauranga Māori within volcanology and geology through her research. Tāpuke’s PhD, titled ‘ Mapping the Socio-Ecological Patterns of Names of Volcanic Features in Auckland, New Zealand; and Implications for Risk Knowledge’, examines the relationship between traditional Māori naming practices and environmental risk, as applied to the Auckland Volcanic Field.
Read more about Sylvia’s work here.
Thomas Anderson (Ngāpuhi, Te Aupouri)
A Masters student in Anthropology at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland, Anderson's research explored the interactions between people and the Tūpuna Maunga, focusing on the reciprocal relationships between land and people. Titled 'Walking with Tūpuna: Reciprocity and the Environmental Governance on the Tūpuna Maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau'. This project drew simultaneously on anthropological theory and Mātauranga Māori.
To read Thomas's research, please contact us.