Hanging on the wall in the Upper Chartwell, Brook Konia’s work Tūrangahakoa connects twelve paired bars pointing upward. A zagged manawa-line is revealed in the middle, signifying the journey one goes on in life. Altogether the artwork is a tohu of belonging, joy and aspiration. In this conversation with Rosalie Koko the 2024 Pia Nahanaha Taonga Curatorial Intern, Konia shares the kōrero informing Tūrangahakoa which navigates around the places, people, objects, customs and ways of relating to each other that transition someone from wandering and wondering to being welcome.

This episode is a recording of the public programme eventTūrangahakoa, Brook Konia in conversation with Rosalie Koko, 1.00pm, Saturday 24 August, Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, as part of the exhibition The buildings notice me, Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, 13.07.24–22.09.24.

The same week the exhibition ‘Infrastructure: power, politics and imagination’ opened at Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, select committee submissions closed for the National Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. This controversial Bill, which aims to speed up approvals for infrastructure and development projects, has been identified as having implications for iwi and environmental protection.

In this political context and sitting amongst artist Matthew Galloway’s immersive project titled ‘The Power That Flows Through Us’, Galloway sat down with Professor of Politics and Māori Studies at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington Maria Bargh, to explore contemporary perspectives on the politics of resource use, with an eye on the past, present and future.

This episode is an edited recording of the lunchtime talk titled ‘Finding Ways Forward’ that took place on Wednesday 5th June 2024, in conjunction with the exhibition ‘Infrastructure: power, politics and imagination’, 20 April - 30 June 2024.

In the project The Power That Flows Through Us artist Matthew Galloway revisits cartoons from the 1970s/80s by Robert Brockie, Sid Scales, Gordon Minhinnik and Daryl Crimp.

This historical era of cartooning is the starting point for this podcast episode, which is a recording of a panel discussion that took place on 14 May 2024 in conjunction with the exhibition Infrastructure: power, politics and imagination ,

Sitting amongst Galloway's project - and in particular, next to historical cartoons enlarged as life-sized sculptures - are the panelists: Sharon Murdoch, the first woman political cartoonist in the Aotearoa mainstream media; Sam Orchard, Assistant Curator for the Cartoon and Comics Archive at the Alexander Turnbull Library; and, cartoonist and researcher, Dylan Horrocks.

In this wide-ranging conversation, the panel explore such themes as: the importance of cartoons to the political imaginary; cartoons’ influence on public opinion; the politics of the 70s/80s generation of cartoonists; what political cartooning looks like now; and what it might be in the future.