James McLean discovered some of his family’s history when when worked on He Tohu in 2016. To commemorate this year’s 125 years of women’s suffrage in New Zealand he spills the tea…

This year Matariki has taken on greater meaning for us as we have been learning te reo. It has been an eye-opening and mind-expanding experience which was enriched by a noho marae (marae stay) in early July. Read what James has to say about the experience in this month’s blog…   

On 6 October 2017 He Tohu won a clutch of “pins” at the Best Design Awards in Auckland, including a gold in the Ngā Aho category. Ngā Aho is given for projects that show “Aotearoaness” and cross cultural collaboration. As the exhibition producer this award made me particularly proud ‒ because if He Tohu wasn’t about Aotearoa and collaboration, it wasn’t about anything.