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(Image: Tina Tiller)
(Image: Tina Tiller)

PartnersJune 29, 2023

Pati Tyrell answers the world’s call

(Image: Tina Tiller)
(Image: Tina Tiller)

With his arts collective FAFSWAG, Pati Tyrell has toured the world showcasing queer Pacific arts. In the third instalment of our Art Work series, he talks about the highs and lows of creating content for international audiences.

Pati Solomona Tyrell is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on performance, videography and photography. He is a founding member of arts collective FAFSWAG, who were awarded an Arts Laureate award in 2020. In 2018, he became the youngest nominee for the Walters Prize, New Zealand’s most prestigious contemporary art prize. This year has seen FAFSWAG travel to Manchester for an arts festival residency, and Tyrell’s short film Tulounga Le Lagi was selected as a finalist for the New Zealand International Arts’ Festival’s Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts competition.


His ‘average’ work week

To be honest, it’s a lot of admin work, because we’re working on multiple international projects. I just got back from Germany – I was there presenting my short film at a film festival – so a lot of the time we’re communicating with people on the other side of the world. 

The time difference is annoying because that often means Zoom meetings after 11pm in New Zealand. So recently I’ve felt a little nocturnal in that sense trying to keep on the same timeline as our projects overseas. That could look like anything from writing funding proposals to writing budgets.

I’m the main contact person for FAFSWAG during this residency in Manchester at the end of June, so a lot of the time it’s going back and forth around flights, around invoicing. I don’t know how to quantify the amount of time I spend on that. It takes a couple of hours of my day, depending on what they request in terms of information, and then I have to collate with my people, FAFSWAG members, which is 10 people, and say “Hey, can we all look at this information, is this OK with all of us?”.

If you could imagine trying to manage that many people, and then taking all of that information from the collective and bring it back to the management team on the other side of the world who are probably asleep at that time, and then waiting for that to come back and then doing that process back and forth. That takes a lot of my day. 

In terms of my fine art practice I haven’t made anything specific for that since 2016, which was Fāgogo, the work that got into the Walters (Prize) and has created ongoing work for the past six years. Now, I’m finally in the space of doing a lot of research that looks at artists and academics, historians, dancers, and spending a lot of time at collections at different institutions like the museum and libraries.

(Photography: Ralph Brown)

What it takes to make work collectively with FAFSWAG

If we’re in proper production, we try to keep it in the hours of nine to five. Our most recent example would probably be Documenta. We hired a venue over a period of five weeks, so we used that as our base and everyone would come in from 9am, and depending on what we’re working on, start filming, start creating, costumes or even just writing or conceptualising the work.

Tanu (Gago) is kind of our main producer, and he takes a lot of the burden of having to organise everyone. Not everyone is a full time artist, so people have their regular nine-to-fives that they go to every day and a lot of the time those of us who are [full time artists] – so me, Tanu and sometimes Elyssia (Ra’nee Wilson-Heti) – have more time to take on more of the management roles. So trying to get us into the same room is actually quite hard. Working around everyone’s schedules alone is one of the hardest things. 

We’ve been around for about 10 years now and we were a group of friends who wanted to make art together, but now that everyone’s grown up, having families and climbing the ladder in their personal lives, it’s really hard to just be with each other. 

In one of our hui that we had recently, we thought “What if the goal was to try and spend more time together?” That’s our national goal, to spend time together, and then we can also come together for these big international projects.

We know that everyone’s capacity for the FAFSWAG work is different, and it’s really hard, as well as on our mental health. There was a moment around 2018 where we were going back to back to back to back. It was ridiculous, so no wonder now everyone wants to chill and hang out because at the end of the day we’re just a group of friends who have this common thing of art to bring us together. 

(Photography: Ralph Brown)

How international projects are crucial to sustaining his practice

FAFSWAG hasn’t really been making work nationally, we’ve been taking on all of our international appointments. This year we have Manchester from June to July, we return for 10 days, and then we fly to Bangkok. We’re there for two weeks and then we’re doing our 10 year anniversary show at the end of September. Then, depending on our funding, we’ll be going to Canada for ImagineNATIVE for two weeks. 

What kind of support has been crucial

I’ve been fortunate in the last year to get funding for my research, which has helped me survive that year.

We’re trying to formalise FAFSWAG as a business, so that comes with figuring out lawyers and accountants, as well as trying to find an actual venue to work from. We’ve been living and working out of our homes for the last 10 years, making all of this film and digital work – it’s all in the same room. We’re working at an international level, and we’re working from home, that’s ridiculous.

(Photography: Ralph Brown)

The hardest part of the work week

The admin. It’s the most boring thing. As an artist you just want to make, you want to be on the creation road and you want to be doing that stuff but you’ve got to do admin. 

Maybe [also] looking at your bank. Looking at your bank account and realising “Oh, maybe I need to do a bit more.” We recently made a budget as part of our business plan to figure out what our weekly and monthly spending looks like, and we realised how much money we actually need to stay afloat, and that was shocking. 

What would make his life as an artist easier

The thing that would make it easier, just knowing how I experience audiences, is probably people understanding the value of art and how much it actually costs. Specifically for photography – one time someone asked me if I could shoot a wedding for like $300, and I was like “what?”. It’s just that disconnect of what my craft is.

Who is doing $300 weddings? That’s crazy!

What makes it worth it

The ability to manifest and create into the physical world the art that we have in our minds. 

I just came from a meeting where we were talking about how we might not be the most financially stable people in our families, but the experiences that art allows us to have, especially when we’re thinking about international travel – there’s so much art that I get to experience across Europe, across America and Asia.

– As told to Sam Brooks

(Photography: Ralph Brown)

Keep going!
Māori business is going from strength to strength; the UABS is teaching students how to harness that (Image: Archi Banal)
Māori business is going from strength to strength; the UABS is teaching students how to harness that (Image: Archi Banal)

PartnersJune 28, 2023

The course fostering a new generation of Māori business leaders

Māori business is going from strength to strength; the UABS is teaching students how to harness that (Image: Archi Banal)
Māori business is going from strength to strength; the UABS is teaching students how to harness that (Image: Archi Banal)

In Aotearoa, the economy is strengthened through its connection with mātauranga Māori. At the University of Auckland Business School, the importance of that connection is taught in a programme dedicated to Māori business development.

Worth around $70b, the Māori economy, in all its vast diversity, is undeniably booming. From primary industries to tourism, technology and the arts, in its small corner of the world, the Māori economy is a testament to the evergreen importance of indigenous mātauranga, and the strength of adaptability in the face of change. 

In the heart of the largest city in Aotearoa, the University of Auckland Business School has been nurturing a unique te Ao Māori educational experience for nearly three decades. Designed to empower tangata whenua leaders and entrepreneurs, the Māori Development specialisation of the Postgraduate Diploma in Business teaches practical skills, professional abilities, and specialised knowledge alongside leadership development and career advancement.

Academic director of the specialisation Kiri Dell (Ngāti Porou) is the cornerstone of this initiative. Dell sees the programme as a toolkit, offering a blend of operational skills like finance and marketing and a deep theoretical understanding of Māori economic behaviours within the wider capitalist system. “There’s a mix of theory and practice,” she says, noting that graduates have the option to go down the pathway of an MBA or potentially pursue a PhD.

It’s an initiative that goes back 30 years, initially sparked by the vision of the late Dr Manuka Henare (Te Rārawa, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kahu) and Dr Ella Henry (Ngātikahu ki Whangaroa, Te Rārawa, Ngāti Kuri), who reached out to Māori communities to help students discover their niche in academia and business. 

The Māori Development specialisation of the Postgraduate Diploma in Business is fostering the future of Māori business (Getty Images)

Dell’s ambition for the future of Māori business is optimistic. “We’re moving as a nation, growing the Māori economy, seeing the definition of Māori business expanded and extended. We really need to know how to manage our assets and resources and develop that capability across all aspects of our Māori population.”

The response from the community, Dell says, has been overwhelmingly positive. “A hell of a lot of the students go on to do an MBA, so that says something.” This sentiment is echoed by two of the programme’s alumni, Witeri Kane Williams (Te Arawa, Tapuika, Waitaha, Ngāti Rangiwewehi) and Te Aroha Mane-Wheoki (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Ruanui). Both are nearing the completion of their MBAs and credit the programme as being instrumental in shaping their professional trajectory.

Williams, currently the operations manager at Ruapōtaka Marae, says he found the programme at a point in his career where he felt he had plateaued. Upon starting the programme, Williams noticed an immediate shift in his mentality, a change which led to new opportunities and the ability to significantly contribute to turning the first profit for his iwi authority in a decade. The course helped Williams discover new professional pathways and networks.

“It’s OK to be ambitious. You have permission to be ambitious – that’s one of the main things I took away from the programme,” he says.

The course was not merely a platform for acquiring new skills for Williams. It was also a means of realigning his approach to his work and community. The mutual support within his cohort was a real source of collective strength, he says, citing the significant role of collaboration in his success. Williams also speaks warmly about the influence of Dr Manuka Henare, who helped Williams to integrate his cultural heritage with his academic pursuits, and in turn, use that wisdom to create lasting changes in his work. One such example is the integration of non-financial elements such as an endangered species census into their annual reports, providing a more complete picture of the value of their work.

For Mane-Wheoki, the news manager at Whakaata Māori, the programme has been pivotal in transforming her approach to work. Mane-Wheoki says the experience helped her shape her professional philosophy, opening her mind to the importance of ancestral wisdom in the business space, the value of controlling your own people’s narrative, and how journalism and other forms of story-telling can affirm Māori heritage and values.

“The most instrumental thing about this course is that it changes mindsets. Specifically, if you’re Māori, it helps you to not just value but also to incorporate everything you learned at home and everything on the marae into the way you conduct yourself.”

Talking to the alumni, it is clear that the programme is more than simply a stepping stone to an MBA. It is a tool for personal transformation, an opportunity to be ambitious, a platform to integrate personal, cultural, and professional identity into a harmonious whole. It’s a pathway to understanding yourself better while contributing to the growth of the Māori economy.

two very cool and beautiful kea on a roof with a shadowy forest behind them
Williams was encouraged to add an endangered species census into the annual report of his workplace (Image: Finnbar Lee)

Mane-Wheoki saw her studies as a gift, one that allowed her to better understand the decision-making strategies within her industry and inspire her to aim for community impact. The programme not only uplifted her professionally but also ignited her ambition to create change for her community.

“When you become confident in your identity and who you are, that’s when the world is your oyster… my whole education path has changed my life,” Mane-Wheoki says. Her story echoes a common theme among the alumni of this programme – an appreciation for the journey of personal and professional growth it fosters.

Reflecting on their experiences, it’s evident that the Postgraduate Diploma in Māori Business Development at the University of Auckland is not just an academic endeavour. It’s an exploration of self and community. It’s a nurturing space that fosters the growth of Māori leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals. It’s an incubator of knowledge and skills, where Māori cultural heritage coexists with contemporary business theories.

At its core, the programme is a testament to the vision and dedication of figures like Dr Manuka Henare, whose impact on the students is profound. He, along with other mentors, have helped shape the programme into what it is today – a space that embraces heritage, promotes learning, and empowers leaders to navigate the Māori business landscape confidently.

At a time when wider Aoteoroa is recognising the value of the Māori economy, programmes like this can be a catalyst for socio-economic change, a platform to bridge cultural wisdom with contemporary business strategies, and a beacon of inspiration for Māori leaders and entrepreneurs. Their success stories resonate in the halls of the University of Auckland and echo in the communities they serve, cementing the programme’s legacy in the evolving story of Māori business development.

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