Join artist Emily Karaka in conversation with filmmaker Chelsea Winstanley as they discuss Emily’s artwork and life, ranging from visual sovereignty, to Te Tiriti justice, and life as a creative wahine.
This kaupapa is presented in association with McCahon House to celebrate the residency’s 20th anniversary and to recognise Emily Karaka as a key alumni and Te Ahurei Toi o Tamaki Auckland Arts Festival.
WHAT TO EXPECT
This event is free.
This event is held in the gallery at Artspace Aotearoa.
This location is accessible.
This event will be seated and microphones will be used.
Light refreshments will be available.
BIOGRAPHIES
Chelsea Winstanley is an Oscar® nominated producer, an award-winning filmmaker and worked across many genres as a producer, writer and director for almost three decades. Chelsea’s feature directorial debut TOITŪ Visual Sovereignty premiered at NZIFF 2025. As a p.g.a. producer on Taika Waititi’s Academy nominated feature JOJO RABBIT, Chelsea became the first indigenous female Oscar® nominee for Best Picture. She has also produced What We Do in the Shadows, Moana Reo Māori and Moana 2 Reo Māori, and the documentary Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen.
Emily Karaka was born in 1952 in Tāmaki Makaurau, where she continues to live and work. She is of Ngāpuhi (Ngāti Hine and Ngāti Kahu o Torongare) and Waikato-Tainui (Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Te Kawerau ā Maki, Ngāti Tamaoho, Te Ākitai Waiohua, Ngāti Rori-Te Ahiwaru, Ngāti Mahuta, and Ngāti Tahinga) affiliations, and has been exhibiting since 1977. Her paintings draw on diverse art making traditions, including toi whakairo (carving) and abstract expressionism. Characterised by dazzling colour and emotional intensity, they frequently incorporate text and tie into the artist’s long standing work advocating kaitiakitanga (stewardship) and mana motuhake (self-determination). Karaka has produced major paintings for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, NIRIN (2020), the landmark Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art (2020–2021) at Toi o Tāmaki, and Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025, Aloha Nō. Recent solo exhibitions include Matariki Ring of Fire (2022) at Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery, which grew out of Karaka’s 2021 McCahon House residency, and Ka Awatea, A New Dawn (2024), curated by Hoor Al Qasimi and Megan Tamati-Quennell, at Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates. Her works are held by important institutions in Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad, including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and Sharjah Art Foundation.