Daffodils for Taua

A.J Manaaki Hope

30/10/25 — 22/11/25

In Kai Tahu mīta, Taua is the kin term for grandmother – relational rather than biological, extending to any older wāhine. In wider usage, taua also refers to a war party: a collective in motion, bound together in conflict. Daffodils for Taua grows from the tensions of these distinct meanings, holding nurture against mobilisation, memory against resistance.

A.J Manaaki Hope presents a new body of work that draws from Aotearoa’s pastoral canon only to turn it inside out. Landscapes drift, unmoored, towards an ancestral horizon. Metal cast forms punctuate the space while a soundscape of taonga pūoro, performed by musician Mikaire Hiroti (Wear Pounamu), engulfs the viewer. 

Here, spring is not rebirth but return. The gesture of gathering daffodils for Taua hovers just beyond reach – an offering felt, not seen. 

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A.J Manaaki Hope (Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu; Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Te Ata; Pākehā, b. Ōtepoti, 1999) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Ōtaki whose work moves between painting, assemblage, and sound. Using salvaged materials, they build paint-objects that return images to what holds: a figure, a vessel, a tool, a taonga form. Sourced from family snapshots and museum archives, these anchors sit against supports with their own past lives. 

Poster Design by Harris Wilson

Sponsored by Parrotdog beer

With support from Creative New Zealand