Aotearoa Poster Competition 2020, New and Emerging Artists category winner

This poster was the winning entry in the ‘New and Emerging Artist’ category of the inaugural Aotearoa Poster Competition 2020. It was designed by artist Raymund Santos and depicts culturally symbolic flora and fauna from Asia and New Zealand, co-existing harmoniously in a common environment.

Santos, who is a 1.5 generation Filipino New Zealander currently studying towards a Bachelor of Design, says he’s always been interested in art and cultural representation.

‘My experience in Macleans College broadened my horizons in cultural representations and appreciating diversity. During my time there, I found it inspiring seeing older students in the Art Department centring their practice around their culture. Most of the students were of Chinese and Indian descent, but I never really saw another Filipino artist to look up to. So that kind of motivated me to connect with my roots, and to share and represent the art of Filipino culture.’

During the pandemic, Santos also witnessed overt racism towards people of East Asian appearance and this further motivated him to enter the competition.

‘Once I was commuting to work, there was this instance when a guy approached this group of old Asian people and began harassing them, saying, “Why did you eat bats?” and calling them other slurs. I did not really expect these kinds of overt racism to happen in New Zealand, so that kind of struck me and it is something that I will remember for a long time.’

In his poster, Santos used deep greens and natural wood patterns to represent New Zealand's ‘natural riches’. Some of the patterns, he says, were also inspired by those in fine Chinaware that are also found in other Asian cultures, including Filipino culture.

As one of four winning entries, Santos’ artwork was printed and mounted in prominent locations around New Zealand cities and in Auckland where he lives.

Aotearoa Poster Competition

The inaugural Aotearoa Poster Competition, led by fourth-generation Chinese New Zealander and wellbeing researcher Bev Hong and fellow organisers Bruce Mahalski, Dr Grace Wong, Professor Bernard Guerin and Brittany Young, was born during the April 2020 Covid-19 Level Four lockdown. Concerned about the heightened racism directed at ethnic Chinese communities in New Zealand during the pandemic, the organisers decided to create a poster competition that would engage the public, promote advice about what people can do when they witness anti-Chinese racist behaviour and foster a greater sense of inclusion for people of ethnic Chinese heritage in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

From the beginning the Competition was collaborative in nature – with strong encouragement, support and input from the New Zealand Chinese Association as well as Asian Family Services and The Asian Network Incorporated (TANI). It was also developed in consultation with the Department of Internal Affairs and the Human Rights Commission. Substantive funding was provided by the Office of Ethnic Communities – Community Development Fund.

The team commissioned artist Veronica Brett to create an initial set of original poster artworks to launch and promote the competition – these were displayed around the city and depicted positive anti-racist behaviour. The competition itself, which was divided into several categories, targeted secondary school-aged students, emerging and established artists and the general public. The artwork entry period was from 10 August to 21 September 2020. Entries in three of its categories were judged by a diverse panel, while the winner of the final category was decided by nationwide popular vote.

Over 50 poster entries were submitted and the Competition received significant media coverage in Stuff and the Dominion Post. The inaugural 2020 Aotearoa Poster Competition winners were:

- Chloe Or (Public Vote category)
- Nicholas Reid (Established Artist category)
- Raymund Santos (New and Emerging Artist category)
- Minna Zhu (Young Persons category).

Each winner received $500 and had their winning posters displayed in cities around New Zealand. Support for the latter was provided by Competition sponsor Phantom Billstickers.

Other references

Aotearoa Poster Competition, official website, last accessed 11 June 2021, https://www.aotearoaposter.com/.