Abstract:
This thesis exemplifies three artists, Buck Nin, Dion Hitchens and Shane Hansen, who were born and raised in Māori-Chinese families. It focuses on the relationships between the artists’ life experiences and art expressions. Several key questions will be asked, in order to gain a better comprehension of this topic. Questions include how the Māori-Chinese population emerged in Aotearoa; what life experiences of Māori-Chinese artists influenced the consciousness of identities and the establishment of cultural connections; and how these influences were reflected on their art demonstrations. It begins with an exploration of the history of both groups, starting with Māori arrivals in Aotearoa and their place as indigenous people in this land. It follows their history through colonisation to modern day New Zealand. Similarly it looks at the small part of Chinese history that resulted in emigration to Aotearoa and how these two distinct cultures, Māori and Chinese, came to interact and create bicultural families. The thesis then examines several artists starting with an early pivotal Māori-Chinese artist, Buck Nin (1942-1996), then later artists, such as two from the 1970s: Dion Hitchens and Shane Hansen. They exemplify this unique cultural group. By looking at their artworks, I attempt to understand how artists’ life expressions related to their identity consciousness and how Chinese motifs had been presented in Māori art. All the artists have different relationships with different sides of their cultures, and a study of their art pieces finds that identity awareness influenced by social engagements is a decisive factor in determining which culture will be represented on the artist’s pieces.
