Te Rabakau
‘Art’ is not our word, it is foreign because we do not have a word for ‘art’ in Kiribati. Everything we ‘made/make’ was functional and made for a purpose so therefore the concept of ‘art’ is very different. We have a Kiribati word which is Te Rabakau – which means ‘knowledge’ – knowledge taught to me by my mother, by my grandmother and which I am therefore responsible for passing on to others including our children and our community. It is knowledge that is shared that I then have to practice and to refine the skill of. Yet still, it is so much more than that – it is my Kiribati culture, it is Kiribati pride, it stirs within and throughout me as an iKiribati person – it is a gift.
Kaetaeta Watson & Louisa Humphry
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Te kao
Te kao, a mesh carrying net that is used to hold moray eels while travelling home from fishing at sea. It is made of te kora, coconut fibre string, with the circular ‘neck’ opening created using coconut leaf midribs and bound by te kora. It is from island of Beru, in the Kiribati islands.
Collection of Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, 1936.295, 23995; 75
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Kaetaeta Watson and Louisa Humphry
Kaetaeta Watson was born in 1946 at Eita village on the island of Tabiteuea in Kiribati, she moved to Aotearoa New Zealand in 1973 with her husband John, and now lives in Whiritoa. Kaetaeta and John have two children and four grandchildren.
Louisa Humphry was born in 1952 on the island of Kuria in Kiribati, she moved to Aotearoa with her husband Jack in 1973, and now lives in Thames. Louisa and Jack have four children, 12 grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Kaetaeta and Louisa are master artists who have exhibited throughout Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad and are proactive in sharing and passing on their knowledge and expertise through workshops, especially with their own Kiribati community. They are cultural leaders advocating for the maintenance and transmission of their Kiribati cultural heritage which saw them take part as Kiribati knowledge holders for the Pacific Collections Access Project (PCAP) at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum. Their works have been exhibited in major exhibitions, including Home AKL: Artists of Pacific Heritage in Auckland (2012) at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki; as part of Tungaru: The Kiribati Project, they participated in The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT9), at Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2018); Names Held in our Mouths(2019) at Te Uru Waitākere Gallery; and currently have a work in Ā Mua: New Lineages of Making (2020) at The Dowse Art Museum.
Working collaboratively with Tungaru: The Kiribati Project team, they have been responsible for the revival of the knowledge and skills of making te otanga Kiribati armour. Their refined knowledge and expertise in all that they do as makers, creative activators, and cultural movers and shakers was acknowledged by Creative New Zealand when they were awarded the Pacific Heritage Arts Award in 2019.
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Te Rabakau
Gifted by Kaetaeta Watson and Louisa Humphry