Hihi Aho is a three-part podcast series hosted by Emma Hislop (Kāi Tahu). Hihi Aho (ray of light) unfolds from Rematriation, a screening programme of six moving image works which explore the legacy of wāhine Māori knowledge and its resonance in the present day.
In this kōrero, Emma talks to artist Tia Barrett (Waitaha, Ngāti Māmoe, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Tamainupō, Ngāti Maniapoto). Emma and Tia discuss Tia's film He Pounamu Ko Aū (2022). Tia explains how her practice has journeyed from a process of "healing myself … to (giving) back to the whenua."
List of topics
00:00: A mihimihi by host Emma Hislop.
01:00: Emma describes He Pounamu Ko Aū opening with "… a murky underwater scene in which seaweed and other flotsam come at the viewer."
01:30: A mihimihi by guest Tia Barrett.
03:30: Emma asks about the film's title He Pounamu Ko Aū. Tia describes the film arising out of her masters exegesis. She discusses her previous creative struggles arising from mainstream education, the return to education via AUT and finding it a much more supportive environment. "I went headfirst back into the system that … in a way destroyed me … (this time) I was wrapped in a blanket of aroha." She continues, "The creation story of pounamu is (was) a metaphor of recreating myself as well … how Ngāi Tahu see ourselves, we whakapapa to pounamu."
07:00: Tia: "In the moving image itself there is no pounamu, but it's reimagined through layers of places and spaces that I whakapapa to." Tia identifies the various film locations: "I wanted to manifest the visual metaphor of the mōteatea (traditional waiata/song) that I created."
10:30: Tia on the film being subtitled in te reo Māori and English; singing in the film; her language journey in te reo Māori; writing mōteatea.
12:24: On discovering confidence with singing.
13:40: The soundtrack and how it works with the images; recording underwater. Tia: "I see the environment as a creative partner."
15:30: On making work in response to Te Taiao (the natural world); Tia's creative practice of hikoi and titiro—walking the land and looking sideways.
17:30: Emma: "What are the challenges of making work about a whenua or a whakapapa when you're not based there physically?" Tia talks about historical disconnection arising from colonisation, and whakapapa as the path to reconnection. Tia describes her practice as "… about telling a story of here and now … it's about leaving breadcrumbs for future generations."
20:00: On the difficulty of getting back to whenua due to cost.
22:00: Tia on receiving the Arts Foundation Springboard Award in 2023 and shared interests with her mentor Louise Potiki Bryant.
24:33: Tia discusses her participation in the Digital Twin programme, an intervention to clean up waterways in Te Wai Pounamu. She describes her practice as "now moving from healing myself …to (giving) back to the whenua."
26:00: Tia on working in different locations around Aotearoa.
