Baye Riddell throwing on the wheel at the Nga Puna Waihanga hui at Ratana in 1989 Photo: Gil Hanly
It took until the 1970s for Toi Māori (Māori art) to develop a tradition in clay (uku). One that in part looks back to an ancestral Lapita pottery tradition across the Pacific.
Colleen Waata Urlich, Lapita mask, Tangaroa series, 2003. Photo: Norm Heke
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Today, the collective artist-led rise of this unique ceramics movement stands as a striking development in contemporary Māori art: Ngā Kaihanga Uku, the makers with clay.
A trailblazing Māori potter, Baye Riddell (Ngāti Porou and Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare) has been a full-time clay artist since 1974. He’s been working all this time in his studio at the end of the wharf at Tokomaru Bay, his homeland.
Baye Riddell's Ipu Wai c.1985. The handle was inspired by he tauihu- the prow of a waka Photo: Baye Riddell
Riddell joined with other outstanding uku artists to support each other collectively as the group Ngā Kaihanga Uku. Its founders also included Wi Taepa, Paerau Corneal and the late Colleen Waata Urlich and Manos Nathan. Together they have developed ways of working that speak richly conceptually to Te Ao Māori.
Wi Taepa, Colleen Waata Urlich, Paerau Corneal and Manos Nathan unload ceramic artworks from the gas-fired kiln at Civic Square during Uku! Uku! Uku! at the Wellington Arts Festival. Photo: supplied
In 1987 Riddell and Nathan organised the first ever Ngā Kaihanga Uku hui at Tokomaru Bay and others joined, sharing their skills between them and with indigenous clayworkers across the Pacific and America.
Exhibiting widely throughout Aotearoa and overseas they are sharing their skills and knowledge with a whole new generation of Māori artists.
Photo: supplied
Baye Riddell has brought together their journey as author of the just released handsome book Ngā Kaihanga Uku, published by Te Papa Press. The book is the first comprehensive overview of Māori claywork, “its origins, loss and revival” introducing the diverse practices of the five founders.