Richard Lewer | What They Didn't Teach Me At School | The Waikato Wars: New Zealand Portrait Gallery | Wellington Te Whanganui a Tara

'I grew up in Hamilton, in the Waikato, but I had no idea about its history, no idea. I knew absolutely nothing and it’s embarrassing, it’s shameful'.

'As an artist, I place myself in environments that challenge me to confront who I am, and where I fit in the world, this includes the past. It was really important for me to learn what happened in the Waikato in the 1860s and to try and process it.'

'It might be a failure of our education system but it’s also a personal failure. I decided it was just as much my journey as anyone’s. It wasn’t easy and I still don’t know if it was wise. But I think as New Zealanders we all have a responsibility to understand, and I think my job, as an artist, is to uncover things'.

'Whose story is this and how do I belong to a place'? 'What is my whakapapa'? 'What is my part in a community of people where some were not invited, where some did harm'?

As I’ve lived in Australia for many years perhaps the distance has made it easier to re- flect. It gave me space to find some kind of pictorial truth around the events and paint that. A historian I spoke with challenged me to be responsible for my bias, and I am.

Richard Lewer, 2023

Install images courtesy of New Zealand Portrait Gallery, photographer Jess O'Brien.