Communiqué 2013 – Natalie Robertson, 21 May, 12pm

21 May 2013

12pm – 1pm

Venue: Auckland Art Gallery Auditorium

Cost: Free

Contact email: events-archplan@auckland.ac.nz

Website: Communiqué 2013

A photographic and moving image artist, Natalie Robertson is of Ngati Porou and Clan Donnachaidh descent. Her research terrain intersects photographic practices with indigenous knowledge. Emphasising cultural interfaces between settler and indigenous cultures, her practice involves extensive fieldwork in Māori communities, leading to exhibitions and book publications. Robertson has work currently in Canada with the Te Papa Tongarewa exhibitionE Tu Ake -Māori Standing Strong. For much of the past decade, Robertson has worked collaboratively as well as independently, founding cross-cultural artist/writer collective of four, Local Time (est. 2007). Local Time is a collective of artists, writers and teachers who facilitate site-specific art projects and events with an emphasis on local and indigenous knowledge. Robertson’s work includes writing for publications to address a gap in research on photography and Te Ao Māori. Drawing on oral histories, local knowledge, moteatea and community relationships, Robertson’s practice seeks to engage with the cultural landscape, narrative fragments and remnants of histories of place in the wake of the era of colonisation. Set against contemporary colonising tactics and environmental threats, these fragments inform the current cultural context of place. The photographic/moving images offer visual documents as addendums to supplement existing narratives.