Past Event

It’s been over a year since completing my Masters and many of the thoughts and emotions I experienced during that period continue to haunt me. I had envisioned being an academic that was the goal—that was until I did my Masters. I love research and depending on the writing I sometimes like to write, but I started to question who it was I was writing for. I questioned who was going to have access, because my research and my Masters quite quickly became an echo chamber. I knew the audience was an academic one and all I could think was that my research and all my knowledge that I had carefully selected and arranged was somewhat wasted on them because they already had access. 

I think about knowledge and accessibility almost every day and about who has access and who doesn’t. In this current climate I think it’s even more important to think about access especially with the closures Art History departments and the Fine Arts Library. I am growing more concerned as the years pass that access to arts and to knowledge is becoming more and more attainable to those of us who have privilege. I include myself in that privilege, not because we were wealthy because we were not, but because I had a support system that gave me freedom to express myself in my passion for arts and heritage. If I think about the students who don’t have that support system, where do they go to gain knowledge, is it school? If it is school, for me that is a problem, we know the quality of teaching is stretched and if you happen to get teachers who don’t care then where does that passion go? Do these students just give up drop out and then what, for me the world loses out because all that potential ends up where? 

Perhaps in reaction to the current climate and the theme around accessibility and knowledge we need to reimagine what is considered a resource. If we shift our thinking around what is a resource we will begin to see that our best resources are each other, each one of us has a wealth of knowledge that can be shared. In reimagining what is a resource, we can reassess the role places like Blue Oyster have within the wider community. While it is upsetting to see the devaluation of arts within educational institutions and the closures of departments and libraries, we do have strong communities with an abundance of creativity and resources, just look at Samoa House Library.

Tia Pohatu belongs to Rongowhakaata and Ngāi Tāmanuhiri people. Born in Rotorua she moved to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland to study Visual Arts at AUT and then Fine Arts at Whitecliffe College of Art and Design, graduating with a BFA in photography 2002. After spending many years abroad, she decided to return to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2010, and having worked in the Travel Industry she returned to study at the University of Auckland in 2012, graduating with a BA in 2014 majoring in History with a minor in Māori Studies. In 2015 after submitting her dissertation entitled ‘Through the Lens of John Miller, Challenging Historic Representation of Māori in Photography’, she graduated with a BA Honours in History. In March 2017 her Masters of Museum Cultural Heritage thesis entitled ‘Disquiet, Māori Historical Narratives and Museums’ was submitted. Since completing her Masters Tia has relocated to Ōtepoti Dunedin and is currently doing research into her whakapapa and family histories. Tia’s research has focused primarily on Māori and Indigenous histories.