'We want you!' poster

This poster promotes the work of Mau Whenua - Save Shelly Bay, a diverse movement which formed in response to a post-Treaty settlement internal iwi conflict, and environmental concerns over the proposed development of Shelly Bay, Wellington.

It is by artist Tayla Hartemink (Ngāi Tūhoe), who is one of two artists producing visual work to support the movement. Their work can be seen at the occupation site in Shelly Bay (e.g. banners and placards), and throughout Wellington city (posters).

Hartemink created the work as a volunteer for the movement, and used materials at hand in their tent at Shelly Bay. ‘I saw it as doing my bit. I’m really passionate about Māori things and equality. I love doing it’ (personal communication, 2021). The makeshift nature of their environment at Shelly Bay is readable in the material culture (e.g. two of the posters have a slight printing defect) – this is part of the kaupapa for Hartemink.

The movement’s aims are to save and protect the whenua through collective and peaceful resistance. ‘We want our mokopuna to enjoy the land…their future and lives’. Hartemink notes that the wero is positive: ‘challenge promotes growth’.

The iconography of a strong wahine challenging the viewer is significant both because of the importance of women in activism, and because it repurposes one of the most famous and enduring of First World War posters: Uncle Sam declaring 'I want you' by American artist James Montgomery Flagg (1917), which in turn was inspired by Alfred Leete's illustration of Lord Kitchener (1914).

Hartemink notes that she wanted to ‘flip’ Uncle Sam to a Māori context. ‘I wanted to make it Māori – a staunch wahine. A lot of movements are led by women (e.g. when women got the vote). I make my art from a mana wahine source. Some of our most important atua are wahine’. Her poster ‘pulls back to history’ with the iconic pointing fist: it’s ‘simplicity is so striking to me’.

Hartemink is a political artist, and extensive reading informs her work. She notes that ‘engaging with history helped heal me’. To make the art ‘you have to have the mauri, the thinking’. ‘Learning about New Zealand history is empowering’, and seeing history with a critical eye (‘who is telling the story?’).

Her aim is to make politics easy to understand through visual design (‘you don’t have to read a whole thesis’). She asks herself: ‘is this message good? Will this catch people’s eye?’ She learnt a lot from the Black Lives Matter movement.

Being a rangatahi Hartemink notes: ‘I’ve never lived a life without social media’. Social media has an algorithm which means that messaging only goes to certain people, whereas posters go everywhere: there ‘nothing like good old fashioned communication’. ‘Posters reach people: catches their eye’.

The use of alert level terminology in the posters echoes that used for Covid-19, but in this case refers to the occupation of Shelly Bay. The alert levels are indicated by a traffic light system:
'1. Kia Mau - GREEN ALERT - Peacefully holding the land
2. Kia Rite - ORANGE ALERT - Time to get prepared
3. Whano - RED ALERT - Time to get lots of bodies on site before bulldozers show up.’

This is the original version of the poster pasted up in Wellington. The QR code turned out to be too costly for Mau Whenua to service, so Hartemink removed it for subsequent copies.

Mau Whenua

Mau Whenua is a collective of Taranaki Whānui iwi members whose opposition to the proposed sale of iwi land at Shelly Bay became public in late 2015. Shelly Bay land represents over 50% of the value of Taranaki Whānui Treaty Settlement assets in Wellington. Mau Whenua means ‘those who oppose land sales, and are determined to hold onto land and engage in environmentally and socially constructive development’ (About | Mau Whenua | Save Shelly Bay).

Over several years, Mau Whenua has questioned and resisted land sales by Trustees of the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust, particularly to the Wellington Company owned by developer Ian Cassels.

The Mau Whenua collective has been joined by a range of supporters and allies, including Tauiwi, Pākehā and Miramar locals, who object to the proposed Wellington Company development at Shelly Bay, and the role of Wellington City Council in facilitating this development.

In 2019 Mau Whenua Incorporated Society was launched, aiming to return iwi land at Shelly Bay to iwi ownership, to undertake an independent review of the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust, and to halt ongoing land sales occurring without the knowledge or consent of iwi members.

References

Quotes from conversation between Tayla Hartemink and Stephanie Gibson, Curator New Zealand Histories & Cultures, Te Papa, 26 July 2021