Looking back to move forward

Kim Ireland was recently named the recipient of this year’s prestigious Iris Fisher Scholarship. The $5,000 award supports an outstanding postgraduate student in their final year of a visual arts/fine arts programme. 

Kim is a Kaimanaaki at NMIT – a Māori and Pasifika support advisor – assisting ākonga academically and with a holistic approach to their learning journey.  

She also receives research funding to explore gender and sexual diversity within te ao Māori at NMIT, whilst completing her Master of Māori Visual Art at Massey University.  

“I was really happy and felt acknowledged and grateful to have received this award,” Kim says. “The kaiako at Massey have been so supportive, and I really wouldn’t have got there without Te Puna Manaaki (the NMIT Māori support team) and the research funding from NMIT.” 

Her work has been a journey of connecting back into her Māori roots and understanding the history of Aotearoa as seen by both Māori and non-Māori. 

“Primary school was in Howick [East Auckland] where I was one of four who wasn’t Pakeha. The closest I got to any of my cultural identity was a kapa haka group visiting,” Kim says.  “I then moved to England when I was 11 until 18.” 

“My practice has been this effort to make up for that loss of identity and understanding whilst connecting in with my identity and whakapapa,” she says. 

Kim consistently grounds her research in Kaupapa Māori by asking herself who she is doing her research for and whether she is doing it for the right reasons. 

“It is your community you are working in service for,” she says. “The kaupapa chose me.” 

Kim’s Masters exhibition opens in August at Ashburton Gallery.  

The Iris Fisher Scholarship required Kim to present six pieces across a period of time to show the process and growth of her toi mahi (art work). It was an opportunity for her to review her practice and find threads of commonality within her toi mahi. 

“When you look back, you can find that thread,” she says. 

The scholarship is named after Iris Fisher, who was a founding member of the Pakuranga Arts Society and the driving force behind the creation of the Fisher Gallery, which later became Te Tuhi. 

Listen to a kōrero between 95bFM's Sofia and Kim Ireland(external link), about her work exploring cultural and social mechanisms that form Aotearoa’s history.

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