The Transformation Issue | Idealog.co.nz096
feature
York, Courtenay Place, Wellington and also on the noise
walls of Auckland’s Southern motorway. Yet the airport
presents its own challenge to provide a gateway into our
cultural heritage.
Witehira says, “Artistically, I went through a similar
process as I do on all of my other projects, where I didn’t
necessarily look at other precedents of previous airports.
“One reason I was interested in the project was the
integrated approach. I am an artist and a designer, and
those mean very different things, but for the airport, as a
designer from a pragmatic place, it wasn’t about making
stand-alone artworks or carvings, it was about creating
things where our cultures were woven into the fabric of the
architectural design in a way that for people who walk past
them, they can look at them and see pieces representative
of our cultural heritage embedded into the walls.”
Conceptualising Aotearoa’s identity caused
conflicting opinions about what our identity actually
looks like through the eyes of different bodies involved
in the process, as well as the public. Therefore, balancing
tensions between the artists, the architects, Auckland
Airport and the different iwi groups was a key challenge
in the creative process.
“There is a lot of pastoral care in the process, trying
to figure out the best way to navigate the process of both
the iwi and the stakeholders,” Witehira says. “The biggest
challenge for me was to put in elements that spoke to
Maori, non-Maori, mana whenua specifically, through the
design. It’s about finding the stories iwi are sharing, finding
how those stories relate to the spaces and the nomadic
journey, and then start designing from there.”
Each piece connects to the wider theme: a journey
from sea to sky. It weaves the arrivals of Maori and Pakeha
represented through a series of artworks, both in overt andsubtle form. Witehira explains this nomadic journey for
the traveller: “Starting with departures on the shore going
across the land, up a maunga and into your waka rerangi
into the sky”.
“They will see little carved details added onto the
walls, onto the chairs. They’ll see elements stenciled onto
concrete pillars and again it was about integrating some of
the iwi stories, but also stories about being New Zealander
Maori and Pakeha into this building.”
A key focus agreed by all parties was to shift from
tokenistic forms of New Zealand cultural representation –
like jandals and buzzy bees – to a sophisticated response
pulled from Maori settlement in New Zealand. It’s not the
first time the airport has drawn on our bicultural heritage
in a sophisticated style. In 1977, the airport commissioned
Ralph Hotere to provide a symbol of our country’s
landscapes and heritage. The result saw a multi-paneled 30
metre mural named The Flight Of The Godwits (referencing
the long migrations by native kuakua) which adorned the
walls of the International Customs hall. It was hailed as one
of “the most ambitious pieces of public art” of our time.
However, during an airport rebuild in 1996, the
jewel was quietly removed alongside fellow artworks by
Pat Hanly and Robert Ellis – an act described by New
Zealand art curator and commentator Hamish Keith as a
‘breathtaking piece of public carelessness’. But while the
airport has previously adopted stand-alone artworks of
our heritage, the redesign the first time a message of our
heritage has been threaded throughout the entire discourse
of the departure lounge.
“They are not stand-alone Ralph Hotere pieces along
the way which some people can engage with or not, the
design speaks of our bicultural heritage,” Witehira says.
“I think a big part of the message is of Kotahitanga,
of being together. All of the design elements that I have
tried to create have bicultural elements, one example is the
carving in the very first portals. Those are in a place of the
journey that talks about arrival and that arrival occurred
by greeting the sea, that are that are based on Kotahitanga
and naturalistic elements.”
The balance of modern architectural applications
and subtle artworks has resulted in an international
departure lounge built for all types of travellers. Johnson
Witehira's artworks provide a series of touchpoints that
offer a passport to our Maori heritage, but they also work
as wayfinding to those who prefer to move through the
terminal efficiently.
Perhaps it presents a wider declaration for Auckland
to shift from tokenistic representations of Maori culture- a ‘chuck a koru on it to tick that box’ mentality – to a
sophisticated and subtler response that informs the public
of our rich and vital indigenous history.
It wasn’t about
making a stand-alone
artworks or carvings,
it was about creating
things where our
cultures were woven
into the fabric of
the architectural
design in a way
that for people who
walk past them,
they can look at
them and see pieces
representative of
our cultural heritage
embedded into
the walls.LEFT: Passengers
pass through the
Auckland International
Departure area.