A childhood spent in Washington DC and Rome may have brought Aroha Miller face to face with some of the world’s great art, but it was coming home to New Zealand that began her journey into the uniqueness of Māori art forms.
Aroha has been awarded a four year, full-fee scholarship to complete a Bachelor of Māori Visual Art (BMVA) at Massey's Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuora.
Aroha's father worked for the United Nations, and she and her family spent many of her early years traveling. When she settled in Wellington for secondary school, she began to connect with her mother’s Māori heritage and study te reo Māori. Taking on a BMVA seemed just right for her.
"Coming back home I felt this huge connection to being Māori again. I knew I wanted to do art at a tertiary level and having learned te reo at school I wanted to keep up the language and culture – this just seemed like the perfect fit of two passions."
Aroha is inspired by the unique way that Māori art – customary and contemporary – tells a story, and how it is evolving.
"It’s so interesting and we don’t get taught it in high school or really anywhere unless you actively seek it."
She believes the BMVA programme will give her the opportunity to explore a wide variety of art practices, including photography, painting, drawing and whaikaro, without having to choose a specific medium too early in her studies.
Looking past her four years of study, Aroha has another passion driving her.
"I want to be able to work in the art world as a Māori artist but also to look at repatriations, to bring things like the whare in Germany back to where they were made . It just feels so wrong to see other countries hold our taonga without us in the picture or process."
In the meantime, she’s enthusiastic about her studies.
"In the month that I’ve been on the course it’s been amazing and I’ve learned so much and developed so much with Māori art techniques. I think it’s an insanely amazing course."