Ngarino Ellis is a New Zealand academic and author. She is one of only a few in her field of Māori art history and an educator. She is an associate professor at the University of Auckland. Her first book published in 2016 is titled A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngāti Porou Carving 1830-1930 with photography by Natalie Robertson. It won the Judith Binney Best First Book at the Ockham Book Awards in 2016.
Background and academic career
Ellis is Māori and affiliates with the iwi Ngapuhi from the Bay of Islands, Northland and Ngāti Porou from the East Cape.[1]
Ellis has two undergraduate degrees from the University of Auckland, Law and Art History starting in 1988 and graduating in 1993 and being admitted to the Bar later that year. She practiced law in central Auckland for a short time, and began a masters, completing a Master of Arts in Art History, from the University of Auckland. Her thesis entitled Hoe Whakairo, 1769-1850 focused on Māori carved and painted paddles. She wrote her PhD in Art History from 1997 - 2012, with the thesis A Whakapapa of Tradition: Iwirakau Carving 1830 to 1930 which was published as a book in 2016.[1][2]
Ellis started teaching a new postgraduate Museums and Cultural Heritage course at the University of Auckland in 2013.[3]
She has won several awards for teaching including an award at the 2019 New Zealand’s Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards where Ako Aotearoa recognised her as a role model in her teaching for her Kaupapa Māori (Māori cultural) approaches and influencing both staff and students alike.[3] Ellis is a trail blazer as in 2019 she was the only Māori art historian teaching in a New Zealand university.[3]
Her book with Deidre Brown and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki,Toi te Mana: An Indigenous History of Maori Art, (2024) creates a framework that draws upon the journey of Māori god Tāne to gain 'the three baskets of knowledge.'[4]
In teaching students about Māori art [Ellis] empowers them with an understanding of the Māori world, so that students leave her classes feeling braver, more confident and more passionate about learning.
A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngāti Porou Carving 1830-1930 (2016), with photography by Natalie Robertson[6]
Nga Taonga o Wharawhara: The World of Maori Body Adornment (2020-3)
Te Puna: Maori Art from Te Tai Tokerau, Northland
Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Maori Art, (2024)co-authored with Deidre Brown and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki[4]
Curated exhibitions
Whakawhanaungatanga: Connecting taonga across people, places and time (2022-2024), exhibition, co-curator with Dougal Austin, Awhina Tamarapa and Justine Treadwell, Linden Museum, Stuttgart.
Talking About (Rangi Kipa) (2004), exhibition, Objectspace, Auckland[4]
Pūrangiaho: Seeing Clearly (2001), exhibition, co-curator with Kahutoi Te Kanawa and Ngahiraka Mason, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki[4]
Patai. Pa Tai. Questions, Tides, Collisions (Gordon Walters) (1999), exhibition, co-curator with Damian Skinner, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington[4]
Conference presentations
2013 Kia ora te whānau! Going global with Māori Art History - Native American Art Studies Association Conference, Denver.
2016 Plenary: Why I don’t come to conferences like these - Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, Canberra
2016 What is Māori Art History? - Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, Canberra
2017 Roundtable: What’s a Māori to do? Teaching and Innovating Māori History in the Turbulent Present with Aroha Harris and Hirini Kaa - New Zealand Historical Association Conference, Christchurch
2018 He maunga teitei: Teaching Māori Art as a Baseline for Art History in Aotearoa Today - New Zealand Art History Teachers Association, Auckland
2019 Teaching Museums Studies in Aotearoa New Zealand - Museums Aotearoa Conference, Wellington[5]
Awards
2017 Ngā Kupu Ora Awards: Celebrating Māori Books and Journalism – Art Category (2017)
Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award (2018), University of Auckland
Faculty of Arts Early Career Research Award (2018), University of Auckland
National Tertiary Teaching Award - Kaupapa Māori category Ako Aotearoa (2019)[3]
Early Career Research Excellence Award for Humanities (2020), Royal Society Te Apārangi
Faculty of Arts He Tōtara Whakamarumaru: Mātauranga Māori Excellence Award (2021). Team award for Ngarino Ellis, Renee Hau, Kate Harris, Tāniora Maxwell and Eliza Macdonald for work on Ngā Taonga o Wharawhara
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