Talanoa: Dr. Brett Graham

Our Talanoa series comes out of our Marsden Project (2019-2023), 'Vā Moana: space and relationality in Pacific thought and identity'.

Dr. Brett Graham (Ngāti Korokī Kahukura; Tainui) is an Associate Investigator in the Marsden-funded research Vā Moana: space and relationality in Pacific thought and identity and an interviewer in this Talanoa series. Brett is a senior contemporary artist in Aotearoa NZ who has exhibited internationally, including at the Venice (2007), Sydney (2006, 2010) and Honolulu (2017) Biennales. His landmark exhibition Tai Moana Tai Tangata (Govett-Brewster Art Gallery 2020; City Gallery Wellington 2021; Christchurch Art Gallery 2023) draws on connections between Tainui and Taranaki, and is nominated for the 2024 Walters Prize. The research and resulting exhibition for Tai Moana Tai Tangata was carried out as part of his research for the Vā Moana Marsden-funded grant. In the Talanoa, Brett discusses the impact of the understanding of wā (vā in Sāmoa/Tonga) in Māori philosophy, especially in the drawings and writings of Tainui scholar Pei Te Hurinui Jones (1898–1976) and their use in emerging scholarship on Indigenous understandings of time and space by Moana artists and researchers.

To cite: Graham, B. (2022, 6 July) Interview with Brett Graham (Videographer/editor: Paul Janman, interviewer: Albert L. Refiti). Vā Moana: space and relationality in Pacific thought and identity interviews, Vā Moana - Pacific Spaces Research Cluster, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Click here to watch the talanoa.

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