Join some of the most innovative jewellers of the past 40 years, as they revisit and update their lively and prestigious keynote presentation delivered at The Design Museum Die Neue Sammlung, Munich as part of Schmuck Jewellery Week in 2016.

Contemporary Jewellery Aotearoa New Zealand: Māori, Oceanic and International practices underpinning Fingers development for 40 years, became an instant hit. A tūturu kiwi-iwi PowerPoint, complete with hongi and waiata, exchange of jewellery pieces, costume changes and quirky slides displaying New Zealand, it showed the longstanding friendship of the jewellers inter-woven with tikanga Māori.

This was a ground breaking moment for New Zealand jewellery, and makes public this unique dynamic and bicultural whakapapa. 'We demonstrated our tikanga and this collective identity and that was Māori and Pākehā together, ’ says Areta.

This event runs in conjunction with Ngā Hokohoko, an exhibition exploring the kaupapa of hokohoko–exchange, trade, barter–within the contemporary jewellery community in Aotearoa.

The exhibition proposes hokohoko as a framework for bicultural dynamics and features the work of Pauline Bern, Matthew McIntyre-Wilson (Taranaki, Ngā Māhanga and Titahi ), Neke Moa (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Tūwharetoa), Alan Preston, Joe Sheehan and Areta Wilkinson (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha).

Curated by Gina Matchitt (Te Arawa, Whakatōhea) 2019 Blumhardt/Creative New Zealand Curatorial Intern.