My grandmother’s first words to me (so I’ve been told) were “Aw, my little brownie”. As a Pākehā woman who grew up in Ashburton and then raised 6 children on a farm in Coromandel, she was likely unaware of the racial implications of that remark. My relationship with ‘brownness’ was possibly first established by that nickname. 

 

As an ode to my Nana, Little Brownie is a gesture of imposing this brownness onto the gallery space. Growing up in the wake of hearing “cheeky darky” on TV, brownness is something I became conscious of, like a garment I’ve grown into, which has over time become indistinguishable from my identity as Māori. Funnily enough, complexion-wise I’m more beige than brown anyway, and there’s a sad irony to the amount of time I spend in the sun trying to get browner. 

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Little Brownie was a part of the group show, Taumanu (May, 2019). Exhibiting alongside artists Hōhua Thompson, Maia Wharewera-Ballard, and JA Kennedy.

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Reviewed by Glen Snow, Eye Contact: Taking Possession, Demonstrations and Demolitions