Maureen Lander (Ngāpuhi, Te Hikutu) uses Kemp House, New Zealand's oldest existing building, as a setting for an installation that explores events that took place some 200 years ago but continue to impact Māori lives. Through a combination of archival research, visits to museum collections and creative licence, Lander has retraced the motivations and journeys of Māori rangatira (chiefs).
Built in 1822 and strategically positioned on a basin of the Waipekakoura River in Kerikeri, Kemp House is within a landscape that witnessed some of the earliest interactions between Māori and Pākehā. Lander places her works on the floors and walls of the former missionary residence and invites the viewer to imagine the conversations, decisions and actions that took place here and within the wider Bay of Islands. These works narrate the deeds of a cast of significant nineteenth-century Māori including Hongi Hika, Ruatara and Hariata Rongo, almost as if they were players in a historical drama.
The exhibition takes its name from Ruatara (c.1787-1815) is a transliteration of the name Jack and a reference to the Union Jack.
