Karena de Pont was a finalist in the Maori Art Award category which was open to any artist and sponsored by Te Herenga Waka o Orewa.  Her work was inspired by the Midnight Oil lyrics from their song ‘Silent Memory’, Watchdog in a Nervous Land speaks to Aotearoa New Zealand’s continuing challenges and negotiations regarding ecological issues and indigenous rights.  In this painting the role of kaitiaki is represented by Hei Tiki, at once familiar not only to Māori as tangata whenua but to all New Zealanders, never losing its symbolic potency as an iconic emblem within Aotearoa New Zealand.

Kaitiakitanga has been described as guardianship or protection.  The basic meaning of ‘tiaki’ is to guard, but depending on the context in which it is used, it also means to preserve, keep, conserve, nurture, protect and watch over.  Therefore, a kaitiaki is a guardian, keeper, preserver, conservator, or protector.

Māori are reasserting their role as Kaitiaki to ensure that land and indigenous plants, animals, birds, and marine life are not destroyed further in the name of ‘progress’, ‘economic development’ and ‘productivity’ which will benefit all New Zealand and New Zealanders in the long-term.  Meanwhile, Mother Nature nervously awaits the consequences of mankind’s procrastination.

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