“Revitalising the ancient art form of aute,” that’s what artist Nikau Hindin is all about. This Nikau Mural is dedicated to her.
Nikau Hindin is not just an artist. She is a cultural practitioner. Hindin sees herself as a cultural practitioner first and foremost. She navigates the art world as a means of survival.
Nikau Hindin is from Ngāpuhi and Te Rarawa. She is based in Tūranganui a Kiwa Gisborne. She learned she had received the 2020 $10000 Dame Doreen’s Gift from the Blumhardt Foundation.
Nikau Hindin revives aute Māori bark cloth. She has exhibited in several group shows. These include Koloa: Women Art and Technology at Para Site Gallery in Hong Kong. She exhibited at Tim Melville Gallery in Auckland earlier this year. She also created the cover work for the 2019 landmark publication Crafting Aotearoa. The gift has provided security in a time of uncertainty. It allowed Hindin to focus on producing new work for an exhibition at the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt.
The aute is a slim-trunked tree. It was brought here alongside kūmara and taro. They arrived on the waka of ancestors. These ancestors migrated to Aotearoa many hundreds of years ago. It needs careful and constant tending. It sends out underground shoots. It creates new plants. It spreads quickly. It is protected by a dense grove of whānau.
Nikau studied a conjoint Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours degree. She has since built a successful career as a contemporary artist. She has exhibited internationally. She is reviving the ancient art of making aute.
At Elam she discovered that there are no boundaries in art. She learned to justify all her decisions. She learned to create a really robust practice. It still has plenty of room to move forward. She is comfortable enough in her own practice. She doesn’t mind operating on the periphery. She defines her own path.
Learning how to beat aute has been the ultimate highlight of her career. She’s exhibited in Hong Kong. She’s been invited to participate in the Kathmandu Triennale. She’s had collectors purchase her work.
Hindin says that she left art school with no ambition to pursue an arts career. She went to work in TV for a few years. It was while in a class learning to make kapa Hawaiian bark cloth that she first rediscovered the Māori-made aute.
Nikau has done five large harvests from a grove in the far north. There are more in Tāmaki, Kirkiriroa and Te Matau-a-Māui. It takes five years of experimentation to refine the process she uses now. She harvests according to the maramataka. She removes the bark. She scrapes away the fibres with shells. She spends long hours of beating. She ferments the material. Then she beats again.
Once she was satisfied she had achieved a sufficient level of skill in making the aute, she started painting it. Once she finally began putting brush to cloth, it was in the form of earth pigments. The artist began making star maps. These are two-dimensional interpretations of the star compass.
So, as you admire the Nikau Mural, remember the artist behind it. Remember her dedication to reviving an ancient art form. Remember her connection to her culture and her community. This Nikau Mural is a tribute to her vision.