Up-and-coming photographer Jazmin Tainui Mihi Paget-Knebel has been awarded the prestigious Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award for 2025, beating out a host of talented young Māori artists.
A Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from Massey University, Paget-Knebel won the competition with her portrait titled Taniwha Chasers.
The biennial award, administered by Te Pūkenga Whakaata – the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, encourages emerging Māori artists to create portraits of their tūpuna in any medium of their choosing, and this year Paget-Knebel rose above more than 40 fellow artists to claim the top prize.
Photographed in her hometown of Ōpōtiki, Jazmin says Taniwha Chasers refers to the intimate connection shared between tangata, hoiho, and their whenua.
“Māori have held a long and historic connection to horses as they were used as a tool to colonise Aotearoa, but have since been reclaimed as part of our whakapapa.”
“This image captures the intimate connection rangatahi Māori share with the wild horses of Ōpōtiki and how they are being used to uplift the mana of our community.”
Bringing the memory of lost loved ones to life
The idea for the competition came from Dr Phillip Green, with the winner of the award getting $20,000, as well as being a part of a three-month exhibition at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Wellington, along with the other 41 finalists.
Kiingitanga spokesman, Rāhui Papa, says the competition brings tūpuna Māori back to life, many of whom have since passed.
“I pua mai i roto i te hinengaro o te tangata nei a Phillip Green, ka mutu, i whakatakoto ki te aroaro o te Kīngi, ka tere whakaae mai tō tātou Kīngi. Kia kitea ngā tupuna, mai i te au o te kanohi, o ā rātou mokopuna.”
“Koirā i hirahira ai, kua whakaora mai anō. He nui rātou kua mate.”
Ko Te Arikinui te whakakanohi nei i tōna matua
He manuhiri tuārangi i pōhiri mai ki te whare toi whakaahua o Aotearoa, arā, ko Te Arikinui Kuini Ngāwai Hono i te Pō, e whakakanohi nei i tōna matua, i mate i tērā tau.
E ai ki a Papa, ko tētahi tūāhuatanga miharo o tēnei whakataetae, mā te tore kaihuruhuru tēnei.
“Ko ngā tāngata mahi toi, ko ā rātou mahi tuatahi ēnei. Kāore i te whakaaetia ētahi, kua whakaatu kē ā rātou mahi toi.
“Nō reira, ko ngā mea hou i roto i tēnei mahi, hei whakapuawai i tēnei taonga o te toi Māori.”
