Rakau Korero

What we do is not learned or taught… It's lived, it's in our blood! It's our identity! Pat Caruso, founder and director of We Create Print Deliver, is, first and foremost, an Eastern Arrernte First Nations Graphic Designer and Artist. GSM talks with Pat about his unique story in search of his bi-cultural identity. Pat’s journey to reconnect with his Eastern Arrernte roots is a powerful testament to identity and resilience. Especially when we consider how it was disrupted by his mother’s removal in the 1950s. Through his business and art, Pat has bridged his personal and community identity. He...

Continue Reading →

In this installment of Rākau Kōrero, we talk to design educator Carl Pavletich about navigating bi-cultural design from a non-Māori perspective. For Pākehā, navigating the bi-cultural design process feels uncomfortable— like floating in a proverbial waka without a hoe. When your life experience falls heavily on the Western/Pākehā side of the scales, the bi-cultural journey is dauntingly steep and disorientating. Much of what we do, we do without thinking. For example, when we master a skill, we create subconscious shortcuts. Mātauranga Māori challenges us to question our worldviews and reassess much of what we thought was true. Participating in a bi-cultural...

Continue Reading →

In this issue of The Message Stick, Rebecca Wessels further enlightens us on how best to incorporate First Nations art and culture into commercial work in a sympathetic and respectful manner. For tens of thousands of years, First Nations peoples commonly used message sticks as a way of communicating between different groups in Australia. For GSM, the concept of The Message Stick is that the stick will be passed from speaker to speaker to continue our discussion about First Nations culture and traditional knowledge. Our intention is for these discussions to provide some guidance and understanding of how we can...

Continue Reading →

GSM talks to Dr Johnson Witehira (Tamahaki, Ngāti Hinekura, Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tū-te-Auru) about the principles of design from a traditional Mātaranga Māori perspective. Our nation is moving towards a more inclusive future, with an increasing appreciation of the uniqueness and the value of Māoritanga (Māori culture) to our country. Recently, this has extended into the teaching of visual communication. In fact, for students beginning studies in a Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) course, there is now a requirement to understand Mātaranga Māori (traditional Māori knowledge) in relation to the Principles of Design. This is a significant step forward. In this article,...

Continue Reading →

GSM talks to Dr Johnson Witehira about Indigenous Design Methodologies - and discovers that; whilst having Māori working on 'Indigenous' work is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, having a fuller understanding of process - will result in a more meaningful output beyond simply achieving the 'right' aesthetic> Design companies throughout New Zealand are scrambling to hire Māori designers. For some, this investment is merely superficial; having a Māori designer means they can win the work they couldn’t get before. Sometimes this is to the detriment of Māori design organisations. For others, though, there seems to be a genuine...

Continue Reading →