The title of Brett Graham’s installation, Tai Moana Tai Tangata, brings together the ocean that surrounds his homeland Aotearoa New Zealand – the moana – with its human inhabitants – tangata. The phrase is taken from a remark Ngāti Toa rangatira Te Rauparaha made to Te Wherowhero, who would become the first Māori King:

Ka pari te tai moana, ka timu te tai tangata When the ocean tide rises, the human tide recedes

In the context of Graham’s monumental sculptures, this title prefaces the meeting and conflict between two world views. Speaking directly to the ways in which the resources of the Tainui and Taranaki Māori were extracted to make wealth for the colonial powers during the New Zealand wars of the 1860s, Graham’s works provide a portal into the politics and philosophies of these Māori iwi, and how they responded – through a pact of solidarity – to the dark face of human greed and exploitation that they faced.

Using video and images, Graham situates these sculptures geographically within landscapes that are today dotted with the architectures of extractive industries. Linked by a haunting soundtrack, these works conjure the history of Aotearoa as it pertains to all colonial countries where power was forcibly taken from First Nations peoples with disregard for their centuries of custodianship over finite natural resources. In doing so, Graham’s installation issues a grave warning to the present, when extraction continues unabated and the ocean tide is rising through global warming and climate change.