Shona rapira davies

Student details: (Surname, First name/s, Student ID #)

Te Aro Park

Before Te Aro Park was built, it was called the Pigeon Park.

And back in the 1840s, the area of where the park standing no is called Te Aro Block.

In between Manners St & Dixon St

Te Aro

Te Aro, Wellington 6011.

Civic Facilities and recreation.

Maori and Morori/ Civic Facilities and recreation

· Date Design: 1988
· Date construction begun: 1988
· Date construction completed: 1992
· Date formally opened: 1992
· Date of any alterations or significant modifications (plus details): In June 2011, a fix up of the park mainly on changing the seats.

Before the Park established, the land belongs to the native of Maori and belongs to the tribe Te Āti Awa. It was a part of the Te Aro Pa. the leader Te Wehi (the main Rangatira -Chief) signed the agreement of selling a list of lands which includes the Te Aro Pa, the missionary Henry Williams was the witness for the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. ('Te Wehi', Ministry for culture and heritage, 2016).

In February 1844, the Te Aro Māori declined the offer and refused to sell any of their lands to any of the New Zealand Company. In 1847, the Te Aro people got assigned lands to the European but held their native titles, such as places at Wiremu-Taone, Omarongo and the native of compensation for the native reserves at where the Te Aro Park is now located. (Te Aro kainga, 2017). Te Aro Park was designed and built by Shona Rapira Davies, a total change, and moderation of the previous park: Pigeon Park. Was built in the late 1980s, the park built by Davies as a symbol of protesting of the Tangata o te Whenua (People of the land).

The culture meaning of this place is significant. This pre-European site is the representation of the trust regained between the Tangata O Te Whenua and the European. The Settlement for the site was made by Te Atiawa in the early 1840s, the contract signed and accomplished between the mana(leader) of the Te Atiawa; the Historic Places Trust; Wellington City Council and the Building Developers. They Planned to present traditional Maori architectural by using elements as public arts in this park. (Harper, Lister and Connew, 2007) (figure 1).

In 1991, the Senior Maori artist Shona Rapira Davies designed the rebuilt of the consultative public process, her concept was to recall the Pre-European site of Te Aro Pa and the Iwi that lived there. The construction was finished way behind its schedule due to a lot of handmade clay tiles didn’t finish in time because it was made and painted only by herself and Kura Te Waru Rewiri. They used the tiles for the entire ground of the park and the surface of the prow shape statue. Which made a massive controversy about the park was worth the funding and the time of construction. (Harper, Lister and Connew, 2007)

The park officially opened on a rainy day in 1992. Rechristened from Pigged park to Te Aro park

In June 2011, a total of $25,000 was spent on the upgrade of the park. The wooden triangular seats were replaced by the granite, and the public toilets were repainted by Kapiti artist Diane Prince and fixed. (Stuff, 2017) (figure 2).

Kura Te Waru Rewiri (the painter of the tiles); Shona Rapira Davies

The Main designer of the park Shona Rapira Davies was born in Auckland in 1951, (figure3) she studied fine art at the Otago Polytechnic in 1983 and she was selected the Frances Hodgkin’s Fellow at the University of Otago in 1989. (Owen Galleries 1998).

Shona has a range of artworks includes sculptor and painting, but most of her works are a protest or an empowerment of Maori culture or Women. She uses her work to against Racism and Sexism. Her most famous work is the Te Aro Park in Wellington city. She used this project to protest and stand up for herself and the Maori people

Shona Rapira Davies recently published a series of work called Brand new day, Georgy. Which is now shown in the Bowen Galleries in Auckland ("Bowen Galleries: Shona Rapira Davies", 2017) (figure4)

In many people’s eyes, Shona Rapira Davies was a crazy woman that would yell at everyone to get off the site. While she was working on it. I found this part from the book Theatre Country: Essays on Landscape & Whenua “One morning I was thrown rather unexpectedly into another ritual, another way of knowing. ‘Get off!’ a young Maori woman yelled at her companions about to descend the steps. ‘Get off the names. You’re walking on your Tupuna!’” (Quoted from. Park, G. 2006. Theatre Country: Essays on Landscape & Whenua (1st ed.). Wellington: Victoria University Press. Pg46). But I can understand the anger and feel her pain connected with her family and her respect for the Iwi that once lived on this land.

This Park was designed by Traditional Maori artist Shona Rapira Davies, and from just looking at the park, it is a representation of the post-modern movement happened in the early 1980s in New Zealand (Julia Gatley, published 22 Oct 2014), The Park itself (figure 5) is built in a strong Maori form, the colour of the tiles, the painting on the tiles and the seats. From distant, the park is in a triangular shape, from looking at the Painting (figure 6 The Beach At Te Aro), I can tell back in 1847, the shoreline was way more inland, and the Iwi Tribes were using the Beach for Fishery, I believe this land was very important to the people, and this explains why Shona has designed this park in a Waka shape, it is the representation of the Geographical history, the Waka meant a lot to the Iwis because it can help them provide food, and the Waka shape park is a memorial to the Maori especially The Te Āti Awa tribe that lived on this Te Aro Block.
As I mentioned before, The Park is more of a Protest of the unfair treatment from the European Government to the Iwi, than a memorial, therefore there are no monument placed on the site, Rapira Davies carved all the Maori ancestors’ names and other things that were important to the people on the tiles all by hand, ones I remembered were “Waikiekie” it means body of water (Park, G. 2006. Theatre country (1st ed.). Wellington: Victoria University Press.). She forced people, walk on the names of the Iwis, tries to protest and make everyone feel ashamed what our government has done to them.