I AM AN INDIGENOUS MAN ON STOLEN LAND

At the heart of Chevron Hassett’s practice is community orientated concerns that stem from a Mãori foundation of whanaungatanga, or kinship. It inspires his creative direction to explore his childhood, his ancestry, cultural and social identity, and the urban Mãori experience. Hassett places the Mãori youth in a series of installations titled, ‘A Place TŪ Be’ [He plays with the Mãori word ‘t«’ meaning ‘situated’] in an urban, contemporary landscape, to provoke thinking of their early ancestral narratives and their current existence; to investigate ontological questions of the journey between then and now.

- Chevron Hassett

Since the 11th century, it were the Mãori who had rooted themselves in the Pacific island of Aotearoa New Zealand. By the 18th century, the Mãori community had an agricultural and fishing economy and were estimated at being approximately one million in population. Once the European colonisers arrived, the Mãori preferred to remain in rural regions, but as years flew and western influences grew, 80 per cent of Mãoris moved to urban areas. However, treated as an inferior race, the white settlers to be named ‘Pãkehã’ dominated the primary inhabitants with Christianity and the power of education and economy. The indigenous people suffered through the years, losing land and identity to the “superior” race.