Hiria Anderson-Mita, Uncle’s setup, Kauta, 2020. Collection of The Dowse Art Museum, purchased 2021. Photo: Jess O’Brien
Ngaroma Riley, Laughing Tekoteko, 2024. Collection of The Dowse Art Museum, purchased 2025. Photo: Jess O’Brien
Rangi Kipa, Te Rangi Aio (The Memory that Pacifies), 1996. Collection of The Dowse Art Museum, purchased 1996. Photo: Jess O’Brien
Hariata Ropata-Tangahoe, Whakawātea o te Rangi, 1981. Collection of The Dowse Art Museum, purchased 1981. Photo: Jess O’Brien
Kereama Taepa, He Pukaea [detail], 2019. Photo: Jess O’Brien
Zena Elliott, The Abundant Future: Roaming the Lands of Empty, The Lone Garden Warrior Begins to Plant Plenty, 2023-25. Collection of The Dowse Art Museum. Donated by the Dowse Foundation Collectors Club 2025. Photo: Jess O’Brien
“Nations and people are largely the stories they feed themselves… If they tell themselves stories that face their own truths, they will free their stories for future flowerings.”
– Wiremu Tāmihana, 1861 (translated by Moana Jackson)
This exhibition draws attention to the topics we don’t like to talk about, told through powerful artworks from The Dowse’s collection. It highlights unspoken or unheard challenges that Māori communities face in Aotearoa. Moments of cultural tension, conflict, and sadness that have occurred over many decades are echoed here alongside present-day stories of resilience, perseverance and hope.
Things We Don’t Talk About explores diverse perspectives that each question how history is constructed and retold in ways that have often undermined and disrupted the lived experience of tangata Māori. Big, overwhelming issues related to the ongoing impacts of colonisation—such as land rights, racism and systemic dysfunction— are interwoven with more personal reflections of identity and culture, connections to whakapapa and whenua, and the loss of mātauranga. Together, these works offer a re-balancing of history, suggesting alternative ways to understand our past and consider how we might impart what we learn onto future generations.
This exhibition features works by 21 artists including Hiria Anderson-Mita, Zena Elliot, Russ Flatt, Ngahuia Harrison, Abigail Aroha Jensen, Rangi Kipa, Maureen Lander, Peata Larkin, Matthew McIntyre Wilson, Fiona Pardington, Michael Parekōwhai, Reuben Paterson, Diane Prince, Ngaroma Riley, Hariata Ropata-Tangahoe, Kereama Taepa, Wi Taepa, Te Mohoao, Terri Te Tau, Areta Wilkinson and Wayne Youle.
