Cliff Whiting
Cliff Whiting (Te Whānau ā Apanui) made an outstanding contribution to New Zealand art and culture in a career spanning more than 50 years. His passion for community, whakapapa and the revitalisation of mātauranga Māori is reflected in his work for the ‘School Journal’.
Cliff Whiting (Te Whānau ā Apanui) (1936 to 2017) was born in Te Kaha. He made an outstanding contribution to New Zealand arts and culture in a career spanning more than 50 years in the fields of art education, art administration, marae building and renovation — and as an individual artist.
During the period in which Cliff Whiting attended teachers' college (1955) he met E. Mervyn Taylor, who boarded with him in Wellington. Taylor was a significant contributor to the ‘School Journal’, and later a mentor to Whiting.
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![A man with grey hair wearing a Māori cloak standing in front of a colorful painting]()
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Early in his career, Whiting was significantly influenced by the tohunga whakairo (master carver) Pineāmine Taiapa, whom he studied under. This led to Whiting restoring and building important wharenui (meeting houses) around Aotearoa New Zealand and becoming an advocate for a kaupapa Māori approach to preservation. Whiting was instrumental in shaping Te Papa as its Director of Bicultural Relations and went on to become the museum’s first Kaihautū (Māori coleader). He also oversaw the design and build of Te Papa's marae, 'Rongomaraeroa' which combines both traditional and modern design elements.
On Whiting’s role as an artist and carver, curator Nathan Pōhio wrote that he “sought to understand a given place and its people in order to fulfil his commissioned obligations to them. In doing so he built a reputation for leaving fine work and bubbling kōrero around identity and cultural memory, specific to those he worked with.”
Whiting’s passion for community, whakapapa and the revitalisation of mātauranga Māori (knowledge) through the arts was reflected in his mahi for the ‘School Journal’. This tended to focus its Māori content on oral and social histories. The first set of illustrations here are for the publication ‘Pūrerehua’ (Kahukura) (1981) written by Hirini Melbourne, and is from the series ‘He Purapura’, aimed at a level suitable for developing te reo readers. The second are for the book ‘Te Ika a Maui’ (1989) — an account of the origins of the North Island written by Rewa McConnell — which was part of the series Nga Tamariki Iti o Aotearoa.
Cliff Whiting's artworks for the ‘School Journal’
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![Coloured illustration of three black and orange moths on a background of blue circular patterns]()
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![Coloured illustration of a black and orange moth on a background of blue circular patterns]()
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![Coloured illustration of a black and orange moth on a background of blue circular patterns]()
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![Coloured illustration of a black and orange moth on a background of blue circular patterns with a green plant on the right]()
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![Coloured illustration of a black and orange moth on a background of blue circular patterns with a green plant at the bottom]()
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![Close up of a green plant, four dark brown moths coming out of cocoon]()
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![Coloured illustration of four bugs hanging from branches of a plant on a background of blue circular patterns]()
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![Coloured illustration of four bugs hanging on branches of a plant on a orange background of circular patterns]()
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![Coloured illustration of two bugs hanging on branches of a plant on a orange background of circular patterns]()
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![Coloured illustration of two bugs hanging on branches of a plant with orange circular patterns in the background]()
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![Coloured illustration of two bugs hanging from branches of a plant with orange circular patterns around them, on a yellow background]()
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![Coloured illustration of two bugs hanging from branches of a plant with orange circular patterns around them, on a yellow background]()
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![Coloured illustration of four bugs hanging from branches of a plant with orange circular patterns around them, on a yellow background]()
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![Coloured illustration of four moths on four branches on a yellow background]()
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![Four black and orange moths flying in a row on a yellow background]()
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![Two coloured illustrations side by side, with blue sky and orange mountains and circular patterns at the bottom and on the right orange and blue circular patterns]()
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![Coloured illustration of Māori men and women on a yellow background and circular patterns]()
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![Coloured illustration of group of Māori men in a boat with blue circular patterns in the background]()
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![Coloured illustration of a group of Māori men in a boat fishing with blue circular patterns in the background]()
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![Two groups of Māori men and women, two of them holding a rope with a hook]()
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![Coloured illustration of a sea god in green curved lines and a man on a boat pulling a rope from the water]()
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![Coloured illustration of green circular patterns on the right, a group of men on the left on a boat pulling a fish hook]()
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![Coloured illustration of a brown boat with five men and yellow circular patterns in the background]()
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![Coloured illustration of group of men sitting and stabbing knives in the ground, red blood flowing from it.]()
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