READ THE BREIF

In 1981... When I was at Design School in Wellington... we got a brief to present a 10 minute talk on ART. It had to be at least 10 minutes long... it had to be about an art form or artists that influence you... or an aspect that was important in your development etc. We could use as many visual aids as possible including photos... illustrations... diagrams or charts. We should use dates and quotes etc to support our delivery. We had 2-3 weeks to prepare and would have to present to the whole class, our tutors and maybe the head of School. This was an exercise in reading the brief and following instructions.

I spent the next few weeks preparing. Because I was the only Maori in my class/school...I decided to make my presentation about... our meeting house and Maori art. I titled it “Our House... Our History” and focused on the poupou, tukutuku and kowhaiwhai. I used photographs... I used some illustrations... I used diagrams to show the layout etc. I told the story of how the poupou and wooden carvings focused on the people, the whanau and iwi. I told about how the kowhaiwhai and tukutuku patterns focused on the environment etc. I told about the tribal history within the confines of our house.

I was pretty happy with what I prepared and was both nervous and keen to present. On the day... we all headed off to the seminar room to begin what was effectively an exam. No one really wanted to start... except the usual suspects... 3 or 4 of the leading students. There was some pretty good stuff to... a mix of modern art and some of the old masters. Leo Davinci was there... Monet made it there... the one eared guy... Mikey Angelo was there... as was the Bauhaus movement. So many heroes... so many perspectives... so many techniques... it was quite intimidating.

Then it was my turn. I got an gave a pretty good talk on our meeting house and how it had influenced my being... the carvings... the tukutuku... the kowhaiwhai. The audience was in silence... completely focused on my every word. They looked at each other... they looked at my artwork... they looked at the photos. I had about 20 illustrations on my flip chart... and after about 12-13 minutes I had flipped through them all... I made my summary... and finished. They all clapped and cheered... which was truly amazing... cos I said the whole thing in Maori.

Then the teacher said to me... wow... can I get a translation into English? I said NO... not unless everyone else gives me a translation into Maori. He cracked up... looked at me and said true... the brief didn't say it had to be in English did it? ...I got an A+...