Art Exhibition Explores Shared Histories Between Māori And Chinese In Hokianga

DOUBLE BURIAL, a multimedia art exhibition made in collaboration between Māori and Chinese artists, debuts in Northland ahead of Waitangi Day 2025 and during the Lunar New Year. The work explores the unique relationship between Māori and Chinese, underpinned by Te Tiriti o Waitangi, through the shared rituals around death, burial and afterlife.

Te Whanganui-a-Tara-based artist and curator JieYing Cai was inspired after Pāruru: a trip last Waitangi week to the Hokianga along with 45 other young Chinese New Zealanders to learn about the place where the bones of Aotearoa’s early Chinese migrants lay. “We were reminded to continue retelling the SS Ventnor story for future generations and to maintain the relationships with mana whenua that began with the sinking of the Ventnor.”

A growing number of Chinese New Zealanders look to the story of the SS Ventnor [see notes] to understand what manaakitanga looks like between Chinese tāngata Tiriti and tāngata whenua. Understanding tauiwi (non-Māori in Aotearoa) positionality has been top-of-mind for many in recent discussions spurred on by the Treaty Principles Bill.

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Rawene local, Wong Liu Shueng, has spent decades memorialising the stories of the SS Ventnor. “Living history only happens when the stories of the past are told and retold through research, opera, music, waiata and other art forms,” Wong says. “JieYing’s reaction to this story of the past is to rethink what it means in 2025 and to ensure we keep the tradition of the telling and retelling of our living history.”

Cai returned to the Hokianga for four months to create art in honour of the connections between Māori and Chinese, people and land, and land and memory. “Hokianga is where the mauri (life force) is,” says Cai. “It’s the whenua (land) where the kōiwi (bones) have ended up and are resting in the care of the haukāinga (home people). Only by being here can we experience the mauri of this place.”

Cai’s collaboration with Māori and Chinese artists has culminated in a group exhibition based in Te Tai Tokerau (Northland), bringing together mahi raranga (traditional weaving) from Kōrari Enterprises founder Reva Mendes, and sculpture by Ange Oliver. The exhibition also features audiovisuals by Cai, Nathan Blundell and Michael Sue, and a waiata by Eda Tang.

The curation has combined the offerings of its artists as much as the offerings of the natural elements of the Hokianga. Cai says, “I came here thinking I was going to collaborate with artists but I ended up being taught by the whenua and guided by te taiao (the environment).” DOUBLE BURIAL connects the Māori and Chinese rituals of venerating ancestors and returning bodies to home soil.

The free exhibition will run from 2-28 February at The Shutter Room Gallery in Whangārei. Free return transport from Tāmaki Makaurau to the gallery is available for the launch at 1pm on Sunday 2 February. Fill in this form to express your interest: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdEQTuULZMm1zUxsmmeAP4HF-IGF9FsZSiztHl91LxD9SEF8g/viewform

This project is proudly supported by the New Zealand Chinese Association, Foundation North and Creative Northland.

Notes:

The SS Ventnor

In the year 1902, the bones of 499 exhumed Chinese gold miners were on their way home on the SS Ventnor from Aotearoa to be repatriated to Southern China. Not long after setting sail, the vessel struck a reef and sank off the coast of Hokianga. For over a century, Chinese New Zealanders thought these bones were lost forever, until Rāwene local, Wong Liu Shueng, connected the dots. Tāngata whenua (Te Rarawa and Te Roroa) and others had been caring for the kōiwi (bones) that washed upon the shores of Kawerua, Mitimiti and Whangapē.

(soeng1 tou2 hoi2 zong3) is the Chinese name of the exhibition, translating literally to ‘double soil ocean burial’. It is pronounced in Cantonese, the first Chinese language to arrive in Aotearoa.

‘Lunar New Year’ and ‘Chinese New Year’ tend to be used interchangeably within Chinese communities. ‘Lunar New Year’ is a more expansive term that includes non-Chinese people and cultures who also celebrate the start of the lunisolar year. In 2025, Wednesday 29 January marks the first day of the Lunar New Year and celebrations are observed in the lead-up and for up to two weeks after. 2025 is the Year of the Wood Snake.

Pāruru

Organised by the New Zealand Chinese Association, Pāruru was a four-day journey over Waitangi weekend in 2024 around the Hokianga and Waitangi. 46 young Chinese New Zealanders from across the country attended this kaupapa to learn about the story of the SS Ventnor, pay respects to ancestors who were aboard the SS Ventnor, and connect with the descendants of the tāngata whenua who cared for the bones of these Ventnor ancestors. Pāruru empowers the next generation of Chinese New Zealanders to strengthen Chinese-Māori ties in Aotearoa and has ignited other related kaupapa such as this exhibition.

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