Arts-Photography “Ihimaera a laureate amid controversy - Stuff” plus 1 more

Ihimaera a laureate amid controversy - Stuff

Posted: 17 Nov 2009 12:17 PM PST

By KATHERINE NEWTON and DAVID GADD - The Dominion Post

Author Witi Ihimaera has received a $50,000 national award a week after admitting his latest novel contains plagiarism.

He said yesterday that he was pleased to receive the award, despite the controversy threatening to overshadow it.

"Even though the current controversy is overpowering and is something that is an atmospheric around the award, the foundation award itself honours your exemplary work.

"I am really pleased the foundation has recognised that."

Ihimaera received an Arts Foundation laureate award last night, along with musician and cartoonist Chris Knox, carver Lyonel Grant, musician Richard Nunns and photographer Anne Noble. The award comes with a $50,000 grant for whatever purpose recipients choose.

Ihimaera apologised last week after Listener reviewer Jolisa Gracewood discovered he had plagiarised material in his novel The Trowenna Sea.

He was working with his publisher, Penguin New Zealand, on a new edition of The Trowenna Sea that would acknowledge all sources and apologise for his "inadvertent copying", he said.

Excerpts from multiple sources were used – often almost word-for-word – in The Trowenna Sea. They included Peter Godwin's Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa, Sydney Wayne Jackman's Tasmania and Karen Sinclair's Prophetic Histories: The People of Maramatanga – one of the only sources on Hohepa Te Umuroa, the central figure in Ihimaera's novel.

He plans to use the laureate grant for research for future novels, including two historical novels he is completing now.

Stuart McCutcheon, vice-chancellor at Auckland University – where Ihimaera is an English professor – and arts dean Jan Crosthwaite did not return calls yesterday.

University spokesman Bill Williams would not comment on the timing of the award, but said the university "has investigated this matter and is satisfied there was no deliberate wrongdoing".

Fellow laureate recipient Chris Knox, who had a stroke in June and can say only a few words, confirmed his recovery was going well. His wife, Barbara Ward, said the grant was "a very, very gratefully received contribution to the next few steps to Chris' wellbeing".

Music and drawing were an important part of Knox's recovery and the family had been helping him to keep visual diaries, she said. Asked if they might one day be published, Knox said, "Oh yeah, yes."

The Arts Foundation has awarded 49 laureateships since 2000. Past winners includecostume designer Ngila Dickson, Wellington writer Lloyd Jones, concert pianist Michael Houstoun and poet Bill Manhire.

THE FIVE LAUREATES

Witi Ihimaera is one of New Zealand's best-known writers and was the first Maori writer to have a novel published. Since 1973, he has had 14 novels and 12 collections of short stories published, including The Whale Rider, which was turned into the acclaimed film of the same name. Nowadays he is a Distinguished Creative Fellow in Maori Literature at Auckland University.

Chris Knox has been recognised for his music and cartoons since the late 1970s and was a key figure in the early days of Christchurch record label Flying Nun. He still performed regularly with his bands The Nothing and Tall Dwarfs till he had a stroke this year. He is still recovering and can say only a few words, but has provided a few vocals for album Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox.

Anne Noble has been recognised for her photography since the 1980s, both here and overseas. She has a special interest in Antarctica, travelling there three times since 2002 to photograph the icy landscapes. She is Professor of Fine Arts (Photography) at Massey University in Wellington and received the NZ Order of Merit for services to photography in 2003.

Richard Nunns is widely regarded as the leading authority on taonga puoro (Maori traditional instruments), despite his Pakeha heritage. Since the 1980s, he has gained an international reputation and following, touring with a wide variety of musicians – including Maori artists, jazz musicians and classical groups.

Lyonel Grant is a carver and sculptor who first learned his craft at the Maori Arts and Craft Institute in Rotorua. His many works include two wharenui: Te Matapihi o te Rangi in Tokoroa, and Ihenga in Rotorua. His work can be seen at the British Museum and the National Museum of Scotland, as well as in galleries, museums and marae all over New Zealand.

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Five new Arts Laureates - National Business Review

Posted: 17 Nov 2009 11:06 AM PST

Arts Foundation Laureates Awards

Last night The Arts Foundation has announced its five 2009 Laureates. They are: Lyonel Grant, carver; Witi Ihimaera, writer; Chris Knox, musician; Richard Nunns, musician specialising in Maori instruments, and Anne Noble, photographer.

It comes at an appropriate time for musician Chris Know who recently had a stroke which has left him partly paralyzed and unable to talk.

For Witi Ihimaera it is probably not such an appropriate time with revalations of plagiarism in his latest novel "Trowenna Sea"

Each of the five Laureates received a $50,000 award which has no conditions attached.

"The Laureate awards are about recognising senior New Zealand artists who have a substantial track record of excellence, and who still have plenty of creative juices left in the tank," says Foundation chairperson Ros Burdon.

This year's Laureate awards mark the Arts Foundation's tenth birthday and has now awarded 49 Laureateships, worth a total of $2.12 million, since it was founded in 2000 to help grow private support for the arts.

The Awards ceremony, sponsored by investment banking company Forsyth Barr included live performances by previously awarded Laureates Moana Maniapoto and Derek Lardelli, as well as the inaugural performance of a fire organ built by Alastair Galbraith.

The Arts Foundation is now one of New Zealand's largest arts patronage organisations. It has an endowment fund of just over $6 million, and has been promised another $10 million in legacies. As well as the Laureate awards, the Foundation administers six other awards: the Icon Awards; the Governors' Award; the Award for Patronage; the New Generation Award; the Marti Friedlander Photographic Award, and the Harriet Friedlander New York Residency.

Through these awards the Foundation has now given a total of $2.66 million to 79 New Zealand artists.

Mrs Burdon attributes the Arts Foundation's success over the last decade to three things: stability, innovation and generosity.

"Having a committed sponsor for seven years has given us the freedom to grow," she says. "We have been innovative in the way we select artists for awards and the way we celebrate them. This has resulted in new levels of understanding and generosity from many New Zealanders."

Forsyth Barr Managing Director Neil Paviour-Smith said that the Arts Foundation's had a significant impact on artists. "We have been privileged to honour 96 artists with the Foundation", said Neil. "Each artist has been gracious in receiving their award and generous in sharing their work. The 2009 recipients of the Laureate Awards demonstrate again the amazing calibre of New Zealand artists".

The recipients do not apply for the awards. They are selected without their knowledge by a panel of peers and art experts, and are called "out of the blue" with the news. Members of the 2009 panel were: Elizabeth Ellis (ex-chair Te Waka Toi) Jenny Harper (Director, Christchurch Art Gallery), Derek Lardelli (Laureate – Ta Moko), Bill Manhire (Laureate - Poet) and Grant Smithies (music writer).

2009 Arts Foundation Laureates
Lyonel Grant (Te Arawa) is a master carver and sculptor who works in many media, including stone, wood, bronze, glass, ceramics and paint. Lyonel is a graduate of the Māori Arts and Crafts Institute in Rotorua, and he now moves between classical and contemporary practice using his own unique methods. Lyonel's most recent work is Te Noho Kotahitanga, the marae at Unitec in Auckland was constructed the whare using classical construction methods. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Unitec in July 2009, has been invited to contribute to the 2010 Expo pavilion in Shanghai and has new work in Roundabout scheduled for Wellington's City Gallery in September 2010.

Witi Ihimaera (Te Whānau a Kai) is one of New Zealand's most important writers. His fiction is written very much from a Maori perspective; Witi sees "the world I'm in as being Māori, not European". Witi published his first collection of short stories, Pounamu Pounamu, in 1972, followed by the novel Tangi in 1974, making him the first Maori writer to publish both short stories and a novel. Significant works since then include The Matriarch (1985) and Nights in the Gardens of Spain (1995). His 1987 novel The Whale Rider became an internationally successful feature film. Witi is now a writer of international status. He has produced work for opera, theatre, ballet and film. His latest novel, The Trowenna Sea, an ambitious work of historical fiction, was published by Penguin this year.

Richard Nunns is a authority on ngā taonga pūoro (Māori traditional musical instruments) and is one of New Zealand's most remarkable musicians. Working with the late composer Hirini Melbourne and with Nelson carver Brian Flintoff, he helped rediscover many traditional instruments. Richard has a strong commitment to research, as well as to presenting and performing on traditional musical instruments. Richard was awarded a Queens Service Medal earlier this year. Richard will be working on three different recording projects from mid-November. His next major performing event is with Latitude 35 Degrees South which premieres at the Bay of Islands festival in February.

Anne Noble is one of New Zealand's most widely recognised and respected contemporary photographers. She has been described as "one of New Zealand photography's most subtle and poetic of practitioners". She is Professor of Fine Arts (Photography) at Massey University in Wellington, and was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to photography in 2003. Anne's series Ruby's Room was selected by the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris as the keynote contemporary photography exhibition for the inaugural Paris PhotoQuai Biennale of Photography in 2007. In 2002 she travelled to Antarctica as part of the Artists to Antarctica scheme. She returned to Antarctica in 2008 after winning a prestigious US National Science Foundation Artists and Writers Award. An exhibition of work from that trip is currently showing at Bartley + Company Art in Wellington. The work explores ideas of beauty and toxicity, surface and depth in relation to photography and the Antarctic environment.

Chris Knox's output is not confined to making music. He is also known for his spirited and original contributions to film, video, cartoons, writing and criticism in leading New Zealand magazines, and on radio and television. Chris is known as the "spiritual godfather" of the celebrated Flying Nun record label. As well as releasing his own music on Flying Nun, he also helped many bands record on the label. He also designed their LP covers and shot film clips. Chris has been a mentor to many New Zealand bands, and he has an international reputation as an influential musician. Stroke, a new album of Chris's songs performed by local and international musicians, is being released on November 16.

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Arts Photography

Wednesday, November 18, 2009