Peter Adsett 

Sheaff Family Gallery

Gisborne-born New Zealand artist Peter Adsett has launched his exhibition Betrayal courtesy of Paul Nache Gallery at Te Kōputu a te Whanga a Toi - Whakatane Library and Exhibition Centre’s Sheaff Gallery this coming July.

For many years, Peter had heard stories about Matawhero and of the descendants buried alongside his great grandfather’s burial site at Makaraka cemetery. Threading its way through all these stories was Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki (c.1830- 1893) and the descendants of Te Rongowhakaata. Peter’s first response was Matawhero: Bullet Holes and Bandages.

Peter was awarded a PhD scholarship by the Australian National University (ANU) Canberra and was asked to explain how abstraction, through black and white, enters a dialogue between Māori and Aboriginal cultures. Adsett’s aim in this exhibition is not to paint a narrative of the events of the siege of Ngatapa in December 1868, but to investigate the concept of betrayal. He sees it as a term that operates in the relationship between Māori and Pakeha; betrayal is situated at the interface, in the middle of the debate.