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Carriageworks

Until the 26th of September 2020 you can conduct your own reading at the biennale installation at Carriageworks. Onsite there is an installation of unbound booklets from the production of NIRIN NGAAY – you can take a selection and do your own reading. Go visit!

Reading NIRIN: Andrew Rewald

In this video, Andrew Rewald reads 'On the Movement of Plants' from NIRIN NGAAY. Watch here

Reading NIRIN: Karla Dickens

Karla Dickens reads her contribution, 'Ready, Willing and Able'. Watch here

Reading NIRIN: Gladys Milroy

In this video, Gladys Milroy reads her story, 'The Black Feather'. Watch here

Reading NIRIN: Jessyca Hutchens

In this video, Jessyca Hutchens introduces us to the book. Watch here

Printed matter & NIRIN publications

Stuart Geddes and Trent Walter speak with Brook Andrew about their own artistic processes in printed matter and how they came to collaborate and produce two publications for NIRIN. The two publications, the exhibition catalogue NIRIN (edge) and the 'reader' NIRIN NGAAY (see the edge) were created in collaboration with (editors) Jessyca Hutchens (Assistant Curator to the Artistic Director) and Brook Andrew. Watch here

An artist’s book by Stuart Geddes and Trent Walter.
Edited by Jessyca Hutchens, Brook Andrew, Stuart Geddes and Trent Walter.
Commissioned for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney.

The Biennale of Sydney team and authors of this publication acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation; the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation; the Bidiagal, Dharawal and Gamaygal people, on whose ancestral lands and waters NIRIN gathers.

NIRIN is a safe place for people to honour mutual respect and the diversity of expression and thoughts that empower us all.

NIRIN NGAAY is a compilation, a collection, a volume, an Artist Book, a Reader, an artwork, a sprawling, excessive heterogenous space of connections. Published as part of the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020), titled NIRIN, A Wiradjuri word meaning ‘edge’, this book is a space where ideas, themes, research, and experiments arising out of NIRIN find places on pages. Traversing many disciplines and forms, encompassing new and previously published works, complete works as well as excerpts and fragments and responses, each piece may ask for new modes of reading and seeing. Instead of disorienting, we see many lines darting and weaving across these works, beautiful moments of syncing and overlap, affective and abstract resonances, moments of density, as well as pauses to breathe deeply. Read and see and touch at random or with resolve – we hope that you will appreciate the way these works unfold and twist together, creating movements of meaning between them. ‘NGAAY’ is a Wiradjuri word meaning ‘see.’ To really see ‘edges’, might also be to sense and feel and trace them, they come into view with clarity, hover in the periphery, or drift away like memories.

Buy the book

Copies of NIRIN NGAAY can be purchased at the
Biennale of Sydney Shop

Book credits

First published in 2020 by the Biennale of Sydney Ltd.

Published with generous support from Aesop and the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.

This publication is copyright and all rights are reserved. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced or
communicated to the public by any process without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

© Biennale of Sydney Ltd
All texts and artworks © the author or artist.

Published for the exhibition the 22nd Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN, 14 March – 8
June 2020.

ISBN: 978-0-9578023-9-1

Biennale of Sydney
Chief Executive Officer: Barbara Moore
Artistic Director: Brook Andrew
Editors: Jessyca Hutchens, Brook Andrew, Stuart Geddes and Trent Walter
Publications team: Sebastian Henry-Jones, Liz Malcolm and Jodie Polutele

Designed, typeset and printed by Stuart Geddes and Trent Walter on a Heidelberg GTO 52. Some sections printed by Printgraphics and Newsprinters.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Biennale of Sydney.

Biennale of Sydney Ltd
Level 4
10 Hickson Road
The Rocks NSW 2000
Australia

Film credits

Director & Producer
Amy Browne

Camera
Amy Browne
Jason Heller

Editor
Jaime Snyder

Sound by
Jaime Snyder
Ben Coe

Nirin Ngaay

KINGITANGA KI TE AO >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
IHUMĀTAO: the land >>>>>>MUST be returned to Manawhenua

In the 14th Century the Ancestor HAPE GREETED THE ARRIVAL of the TAINUI Waka from Hawaiki from the top of Puketapapatanga a Hape. The Ōtuataua Stonefields and THE LAND AT IHUMĀTAO are nationally significant ancestral lands that represent the historical connections of MĀORI communities with the WHENUA (Land) over many centuries. The first Māori King, Pōtaatau Te Wherowhero 1 lived at Ihumātao and was elected at meetings held at Mangere and throughout Aotearoa and was installed as KING at Ngaruawahia in 1858.

Ihumātao Peninsula once had 4 volcanic mountains out of the 50 volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field….>>> THE RING OF FIRE

THE LAND at Ihumātao was confiscated by the Colonial Government on the premise Māori were in rebellion, the Crown exerting authority over ‘the natives’ on the basis of the English translation of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, rather than the Māori version.

Puketāpapatanga-a-Hape: PUKEITI is the smallest cone in Auckland’s volcanic field. Other ancestral maunga (mountains) within the Ihumātao peninsula are the ŌTUATAUA and the MAUNGATAKETAKE volcanic cones, both quarried in the 1950s and 1960s to build roads and the Auckland Airport runways.
The remnant of Ōtuataua Maunga is now included into the Ōtuataua Historic Reserve owned by Auckland Council. The Scottish Methodist Farmer Gavin Struthers Wallace bought Lot 175 (13) and Lot 176 (14) Confiscated Māori Land at Ihumātao at a Waste Land Office Auction on 17th July 1866, with the Royal Seal of Land Grant being affixed by Queen Victoria’s Representative, Freemason Governor George Grey on the 28th

IHUMĀTAAO PENINSULA ONCE HAD 4 VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS IN THE AUCKLAND VOLCANIC FIELD>>>>>>>……..RING OF FIRE

2012 Manawhenua opposed the Settler Wallace Family’s Company seeking to have the land rezoned through Appeal to the Environment Court, to have the RURAL LAND known as the Wallace Bloc designated as FUTURE DEVELOPMENT LAND. MĀORI OPPOSED THE REZONING STATING THE LAND IS WĀHI TAPU. The Appeal succeeded and the Land was included within the Auckland City Metropolitan Urban Limits Plan. The Government and Council faced a housing crisis in Tamakimakaurau (Auckland); SHA (Special Housing Area) 62 at Ōruarangi Rd, Ihumātao was LEGISLATED.

‘The Hashtag #ProtectIhumaatao had lit up social media like a Christmas tree for several months. It appeared the whole nation was talking about and had an opinion about Ihumātao. The Statement ‘The land must be returned to mana whenua’ IS THE UNIFIED ANTHEM that was released not only from Ōtuataua but also THE KINGITANGA’ (Erica Sinclair, ‘Ihumaatao’, Te Hookioi, Issue 71, p. 24)

RAUPATU: Confiscation / Seizure of Māori Tribal Land
The Crown failed to include all mana whenua in its collective>> ‘comprehensive’ Treaty of Waitangi settlements objectives in 2014 mana whenua at Ihumātao, Te Ahi Waru have a Historic registered Waitangi Tribunal Claim; The Ahi Waru (Taua) wai 2401 Claim. The Occupation at Ihumātao was an inevitable consequence of The Crowns negligence and Breach of the Declaration of Independence signed by Pōtaatau Te Whereowhereo and TE TIRITI O WAITANGI signed by chiefs at Mangere and Auckland.
MANA MOTUHAKE:
The Consented Build at SHA 62 includes the return of 25% of the whenua (encompassing 3 sensitive archaeological sites) and 40 Social houses for Māori in arrangements negotiated between Fletchers and mana whenua. An internal dispute at Makaurau Marae between Trustees is currently being resolved through an agreed Court process with the objective of updating the Te Ahi Waru- Marae Trust deed and representation. A thriving and self determining cultural Identity is essential to ensure sustainable social and economic development in reconnecting the identified 37 mana whenua whanau (family groups) the 4 Hapu with our ancestral lands at Ihumātao and our Papakāinga (village) the oldest Continuous Settlement area in Auckland: at Puketāpapa.
Te Ahi Kā
The Haukainga>people of the land, Ahi kā >keepers of the home fires; literally landless>>The Crown, Governor General and the New Zealand Government do have a moral duty of care to return the private land evidently now for sale for $40 million. The SHA62 build at Ihumātao is stonewalled. Government relied upon the Kingitanga to peacefully resolve the standoff. The TE AHI WARU WAI 2401 Claim set down to be heard in 2025 could be heard and settled under urgency. Profound and explicit evidence can be produced whereby the Waitangi Tribunal hearing the claim could well recommend that CROWN PURCHASE AND RETURN land at Ihumātao to TE AHI WARU who have made an Undeniable Contribution to building the Nation-Aotearoa.