- MÄRZ 2025, 18:30 Uhr, im ÜBUNGSRAUM, 26.STOCK/ NIG
Von RYCHÈL THÉRIN SCOTT
He wāhine, he whenua, ka ngaro te tangata.
(Without women and without land, humanity is lost)
Maori Whakataukī / Proverb
Indigenous Feminisms are not new. Mana wāhine Māori envelops concepts of female empowerment, strength and integrity. This lecture discusses the work and practice of Māori artists Mataaho Collective as a holistic embodying of mana wāhine in action.
For many, the idea of feminism might feel like a western notion, but upon analysis it becomes clear that feminist principles are inherent to Maori and other Indigenous cultures. Mana Wāhine, meaning female empowerment, strength and integrity, is interwoven in various forms throughout Maori culture and society. When Māori women act, we are already moving forward from a place of respect and equality within our community. It is the interaction with western and colonial constructs that make us need to rewind and reiterate that our position as women is not suppressed from within our own communities, rather from the constructs and prejudices of the overriding (western,
colonial, christian) majority.
The artwork of Mata Aho Collective is firmly based in Te Ao Māori, and purposefully holds Mana Wāhine at
the core of the work they produce. In their own words: „Mana wāhine, namely the empowerment and
integrity of Māori women, is the mātauranga Māori that forms the basis of our work, including processes
of research, development, and wānanga. We employ it as a philosophy through which to view our
histories”, Mata Aho Collective, 2018.
Taking the process, practice and artistic works of the Mata Aho Collective, and the writings of Dr Linda
Tuhiwai Smith, Dr Leonie Pihama, Dr Huia Jahnke and others, this paper will discuss and show how
contemporary indigenous art practices operating from a transcultural position can reverberate out and
beyond their communities of origin; how indigenous feminisms, such as Mana Wāhine are intrinsically
different in priority and aim to western feminism, and how decolonised and decentralised thinking is a
crucial component to moving beyond essentialist, binary understandings of what contemporary
feminism can be in a interconnected world.
Rychèl THÈRIN SCOTT MMVA PG Dip. BA
is a Māori / Jèrriais artist and researcher based in Vienna, Austria. She
graduated from the BA Fine Arts: Painting course at Camberwell College, UAL;
and holds a Masters of Māori Visual Arts with Distinction from Massey
University, New Zealand, and is founder and Project lead of Women’s
Research Wānanga. Her research interests are indigenous practice and Māori
studies, feminism, intersectionality, collectivity, practices of care, migration
and diasporic identities.
www.rycheltherin.com
IG: @rychel_therin / @wrw_project