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about the artist Natalie Robertson is a photomedia artist and educator who has exhibited extensively in public institutions throughout Australasia over the past decade. Born and raised in Kawerau, a small industrial town in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand, Robertson left home to take a job in topographical drafting at an aerial photography company - which fuelled an interest in maps and cartography. She also discovered increasing responsibilities as a shareholder in Maori land blocks on the East Coast of New Zealand, a trusteeship she inherits from her grandfather, David Hughes. These factors instigated a continuing investigation of cartography, surveying and the relationships between Maori and Pakeha conceptions of the land - issues were investigated in depth during her Master of Fine Arts study at the University of Auckland. This research led to the Ahi Ka (lit fire) exhibition (Artspace 1997) - the title refers to the fires which pre-European Maori used to mark land as "occupied". The artist's own mappings and journeys formed the basis for Pokai Whenua: Travel the Land which located connections to the travels of Maori prophets such as Te Kooti and Rua Kenena; and developed her distinctive formal approach to photographing road signage. Kirikiriroa ki Kawerau (Driving Home) continued the integration of the artist's personal journeys within a larger context of Maori oral history and responses to the land. This major work was included in the international survey exhibition 'Mapping Our Countries', curated by Paul Taçon and Judy Watson for djamu Gallery, Australian Museum (1999). Natalie Robertson is Senior Lecturer in Photography at UNITEC Institute of Techonology in Auckland, New Zealand. Her previous academic experience includes authoring key aspects of the undergraduate curriculum and coordinating the Honours programme in the Bachelor of Media Arts at the Waikato Polytechnic, Hamilton. Robertson holds a degree in social sciences and received her MFA from the University of Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts in 1996. |
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