We are excited to announce that our next Curator-at-Large will be Tina Makereti.

The New Zealand Film Archive's Curator-at-Large programme was initiated in 2012 as a means of opening up the Archive's collections for exploration by emerging curators, and facilitating their availability to a wider public.

Film Archive collections encompass feature films, newsreels, short films, home movies, advertisements, photographs, printed publicity, and many other items from New Zealand’s media history.

In 2012 the Curators-at-Large were asked to interpret materials housed in the Film Archive from a Fine Arts perspective; in 2013 the focus shifts to Social History. 

Makereti, a recent Victoria University PhD graduate in Creative Writing, will prepare a series of exhibitions structured around the theme of childhood in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Childhood in New Zealand is filled with promise, challenges and hazards. Makereti plans to cast light on how perceived aspects of kiwi identity (such as our relationship with the environment, egalitarianism, and cultural diversity) have impacted childhood over time.

“Many of us have memories of iconic Kiwi childhoods,” says Makereti, “beaches and barbecues, kapa haka, marae or farms, towns and TV shows. Moving images can be very evocative of that. Aotearoa is a land of extraordinary beauty and promise, yet we are not always able to live up to our potential as a great place to raise children. I wanted to see what story the Film Archive's collection tells about us as a nation over time, zooming in on moving images of childhood throughout our history.”

Her exhibitions will explore the theme of childhood through the lenses of home movie footage, news items, advertisements, and other filmic materials.

Makereti has a background in Social Anthropology and Maori Studies, in addition to being an established writer of creative non-fiction. She has won several awards for her writing, including the Nga Kupu Ora Maori Book Awards Fiction Prize in 2011 for her short story collection, Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa (Huia Publishers, 2010) and the Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing (Non-Fiction) in 2009).

Makereti’s first exhibition for the Film Archive will open June 6. Keep an eye on the Film Archive website for more details as the exhibition develops (www.filmarchive.org.nz).