Tanya Te Miringa Te Rorarangi Ruka is CIRCUIT’s inaugural Kaitiaki Kiriata, an annual role that supports a Māori curator to develop moving image projects which speak through the lens of Te Ao Māori.
In 2024, Tanya will work with CIRCUIT to curate the annual Masons Screen Matariki commission and a screening of works by CIRCUIT artists at the Wairoa Māori Film Festival. In addition, Tanya will be working with CIRCUIT and a cohort of Māori artists to look at new pathways to support Māori artists working with CIRCUIT.
Tanya is a Māori artist of Ngā Puhi, Ngati Pakau and Waitaha descent. Her practice encompasses moving image, installation and site specific works. The focus of her arts-based research practice is the development of possible net positive futures from an indigenous perspective. Exploring the inherent need to connect to nature on a deeper level living in an urban environment, Ruka examines this innate relationship to nature as a Māori artist. In 2021, she was Curator for Oceania at the Nature of Cities Festival, a global online festival that sought to "to radically imagine our cities for the future."
CIRCUIT invited Tanya to conceive a title for the role. She says:
"The word Kiriata (film) is so visually inspiring: it brings together 'Kiri' which as a noun means skin, bark, rind or person, or a figurative sense of self. 'Ata' has a variety of meanings including: morning, form, reflected image, reflection, shadow, computer icon.
Mātauranga opens up a multiverse of creative pathways to known and unknown worlds. I am honoured to be invited by CIRCUIT to embody the role of Kaitiaki Kiriata and I am looking forward to connecting, sharing and collaborating with whanaunga ringatoi (artist relatives) in 2024."