Girl in Bush Shirt

I peitahia te *Girl in Bush Shirt*, 1982 me *The Outcast*, 1980 i te wā o te akaaka me te whakawhitinga, ā, ko tōna kaupapa he whakaatu i ngā hua o te nukuhanga ki ngā tāone, me te peinga i pāngia ai ki te reanga rangatahi Māori whai muri atu i te Pakanga II o te Ao, he wā i whakarērea ai te kāinga taiwhenua e te Māori, ā, ka haere ki ngā tāonenui ki reira kimi ai i te mahi, i te mātauranga, i te ao hou. Ahakoa ka hua i taua nekehanga nui ki taiao kē te motuhanga o te ahurea me te pakoki haere o te tangata, ka ara mai hoki te reo tōrangapū Māori e ātete ana, ā, ka werohia e ngā rōpū pērā i Ngā Tamatoa te aupēhinga koroniara o ngā motika Māori e pā ana ki te whenua, ki te reo, ki te tino rangatiratanga.

Ko ēnei toi peita e rua he tīpakonga mai i tētahi huinga mahi nā Robyn Kahukiwa i a ia e kaiako toi ana i te Kāreti o Mana i Porirua, mai i te tau 1972 ki te tau 1982 – ko te kaupapa matua o aua mahi he whakapuaki i te mōriroriro, i te whakatuma a te reanga rangatahi Māori o taua wā. Ko ngā mahi toi āhua tūturu nei nō tēnei wā, he mahi mākoha, he mea taupiri, he matareka.

Painted during a period of upheaval and transition, *Girl in Bush Shirt*, 1982 and *The Outcast*, 1980 speak to the effects of urbanisation and displacement experienced by a generation of young Māori in the aftermath of World War II, when large numbers of Māori moved away from their rural kainga (homes) to city centres and urban environments in search of work, education and new opportunities. While such a dramatic shift of environment precipitated a growing sense of cultural disruption and dislocation, it also fuelled the uprising of a unified Māori political voice of resistance, with activist groups like Ngā Tamatoa challenging the colonial oppression of Māori rights to land, language and power.

These two paintings are among a large body of work that Robyn Kahukiwa produced while she worked as an art teacher at Mana College in Porirua, from 1972 to 1982, which almost exclusively express the estrangement and defiance experienced by a young Māori generation. Highly realistic, the artworks from this period are empathetic, intimate and personable.

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