Nikau Hindin wins Doreen Blumhardt 2020 Gift

Words: Donnalyn Xu

Ngāpuhi and Te Rarawa artist Nikau Hindin has been announced as the recipient of the prestigious Doreen Blumhardt 2020 Gift.

Presented by the Blumhardt Foundation, the Gift awards $10,000 to an outstanding maker whose achievements have been praised by peers, sector leaders, and institutions. The foundation was established in 2003, following the desires of founder Dame Doreen Blumhardt to support the development of New Zealand’s craft and object art.

“Nikau is an outstanding maker whose practice, research and revival of aute, Maori bark cloth, is of great importance for New Zealand,” says foundation chair Phillip Clarke. “She’s a star, just as many of her works relate to the constellations as a fundamental source of traditional knowledge.”

Hindin’s practice involves making and painting cloth made from tree bark, using patterns and designs from tukutuku and tāniko lineage. As a cloth-maker, her art focuses on reviving a contemporary form of traditional Māori art that was largely lost after the extinction of the aute plant in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Hindin was the inaugural recipient of the 2015 Sir Kawharu Scholarship at the Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira. She is currently working on a solo exhibition at the Dowse Art Museum in Wellington that will open in May, as well as a forthcoming show at Jhana Millers in Wellington. She was recently included in the group show Release the Stars at Time Melville, Auckland.

Read more about the artist’s practice in Art Collector’s 2020 Undiscovered issue, on stands early April.

Image: Nikau Hindin in her studio. Photo: Tara Rock. Courtesy: Blumhardt Foundation.