Artist Ululau Ama and his mum Maununu Ama. Photo: RNZ / Leonard Powell
Two disabled artists from Auckland will have their art celebrated on the world stage in Paris.
The ArtPara Shine Together exhibition runs in conjunction with the Paralympics, and sees art from all corners of the globe exhibited.
Auckland artists with disabilities to exhibit in Paris
Matthew Allerby and Ululau Ama both create their artworks at Māpura Studios in Auckland's Sandringham.
It has been running for 24 years with people of all ages.
"We don't only make art a visual art. We have music, dance, cartooning, and we work with all different kinds of disability," studio director Diana McPherson said.
When Māpura was first approached about contributing to the exhibition, she was not sure what to make of it.
"It all happened quite quickly really, only over the last couple of months. We weren't really quite sure whether it was all for real or whether it was just too good to be true."
However, she soon realised it was real, and a "really exciting" opportunity for the artists.
"It's the first time that New Zealand will be represented in an international disability arts exhibition."
McPherson would travel with the artworks to Paris, as she had been asked to present a paper on the state of disability art in New Zealand to a forum of world leaders of disability arts organisations.
Artist Matthew Allerby with Māpura Studios director Diana McPherson. Photo: RNZ / Leonard Powell
Art tutor and cartoonist Tim Danko said the acknowledgement was well-deserved.
"Matthew and Ululau are rockstar artists within the studio, no surprise that their work was selected. Yeah, it's great that it's going to Paris."
Ululau's mum Maununu Ama said she was overcome when she heard the news.
"It was unbelievable that something like this could happen, that he could go very far. I didn't even know what art can do to him, a person living with disability."
Both Matthew and Ululau are non-verbal. At three months old, Ululau had a high fever, which turned out to be meningitis.
By five years old, he had developed epilepsy, but also, Maununu said, a talent for art.
Artists hard at work at Māpura Studios. Photo: RNZ / Leonard Powell
"He was walking around, always with a pencil ... then he would just look for any piece of paper and draw. Draw something that he could see.
"But there was a time that I sat with two of his aunties in the Salmon Valley, and he drew a picture of his aunt and looking at the the drawing he did, I could see it was all in detail. So I thought maybe he was good at that, that [was] something he could do.
"So I concentrated on him to encourage him to carry on with these artworks."
Maununu, an artist herself, accompanied Ululau at the studio, both of them working side-by-side.
"We work on our own, but we sort of encourage each other.
"We are both learning, but he's happy. You know, his artworks make him happy."
McPherson said she had seen art therapy change lives at the studio.
"Quite a few people who come, who are non-verbal, but by coming here and working in this kind of environment, some of them learn a few words and they start to speak a little.
"One of the areas we work with is stroke and quite a few people that come have aphasia and that means they they lose their voice during stroke. They come here, we go through art therapy with them. And many of them regain their voices."
Shine Together begins on Tuesday in Paris. Eighty artists from 27 countries will be represented.