Kirsten Lacy stands facing a crowd of Tangata Whenua shoulder-to-shoulder with Pākehā. Her opening speech for Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery’s latest exhibition Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia, travelling from the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), flows freely between te reo Māori language and English. Her connection with the room is warm, and genuine.
‘There’s a lot of dialogue here around why there’s not a Kiwi leading the Auckland Art Gallery, or why we’ve had three Australians lead. There’s a questioning around the cultural authority to lead,’ Lacy tells ArtsHub. ‘But there’s very little awareness in that dialogue around the role of the Australian art market for Kiwi artists, and arts workers.’
