Robyn Kahukiwa is one of the leading artists of her generation. Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1938, she moved to Aotearoa, her ancestral home, in 1959. From 1972 to 1982, she was an art teacher at Mana College, Porirua. She became a full-time artist in 1983.
From the early 1970s on, Kahukiwa explored questions of heritage, identity, and sovereignty that are central to the Māori experience and relevant to Indigenous people internationally. Best known as a painter, she has also produced prints, drawings, and sculpture.
Kahukiwa’s practice ranges across diverse subjects, including colonisation and dispossession, motherhood and wellbeing, whakapapa and tikanga Māori. She exhibited regularly throughout her life and has works in collections all over the world.
