Ko wai ngā mokopuna? Exhibition / Art Installation

Ko Wai Ngā Mokopuna? is a multidisciplinary project inspired by the story of the SS Ventnor, reflecting historical and current relationships between Chinese New Zealanders and tāngata whenua, specifically from Hokianga. The project was delivered as two initiatives: an art exhibition, 雙土海葬 DOUBLE BURIAL; and a panel event, 避風港 | Tangata Tiriti, Tangata o te Kaipuke | People of the Treaty, People of the Ventnor.

The project originated from Pāruru: a trip led by the New Zealand Chinese Association in February 2024 that took 46 young Chinese New Zealanders to Hokianga and Waitangi to connect with the story of the SS Ventnor. Artists JieYing Cai, Etienne Wain and Eda Tang were three of those who wished to continue exploring the story of the Ventnor following the trip, hence the project name, which roughly translates to ‘who are the descendants?’. The three wanted to address questions such as: how the Ventnor ancestors would have wanted their story told, how Chinese Tāngata Tiriti may relate to Aotearoa and its Indigenous peoples, what stories and aspirations would be passed down to future generations, and how Chinese New Zealand history could be made more accessible through visual art. Cai said:

The goal of this project is to nourish the existing Chinese-Māori relationships that have formed from whakawhanaungatanga through the SS Ventnor – to bring a piece of history to art that strengthens our tūrangawaewae as Chinese New Zealanders from a young person's perspective [and] bring other people on the waka as they are learning alongside us.

Following Pāruru, these artists developed and maintained relationships with knowledge holders and visual artists of Te Tai Tokerau. Many of them were introduced by a Chinese community leader, Wong Liu Shueng — who connected the Māori and Chinese sides of the story, which before were unknown to one another — in the Hokianga. Cai, who was the lead project artist, lived in the Hokianga for over half a year to learn to cultivate plants for artwork, working with local weavers, including Reva Mendes, to create pieces that would become part of the exhibition.

This led to 雙土海葬 DOUBLE BURIAL, an exhibition at The Shutter Room in Whangārei in February 2025. Inspired by the events following the sinking of the SS Ventnor, the pieces in the exhibition explored shared death, burial, and afterlife practices between Māori and Chinese, like ancestral veneration and intergenerational storytelling. It also explored the contestable nature of ūkaipō, highlighting the relationship between people, whenua, and memory. The exhibition featured work by Cai and Mendes, and two more collaborators: Ange Oliver and Eda Tang.

Weaver Reva Mendes produced kōrari paper from the fibres of harakeke for Tamatea kai ariki (2025), a cyanotype-printed textile. Three more unnamed cyanotype textiles were exhibited, and all were created by Cai in collaboration with the Hokianga: its natural resources, like the ocean and its seaweed and rocks, and its people, who, in this case, were the students of a local kura kaupapa. Cai predominantly used cyanotype printing on silk due to its accessibility and portability while travelling, and its blue colour was reminiscent of the sea.

Oliver’s work, Kia tau (2025), is a delicate textile, reminiscent of a Māori cloak, made from cotton and plaster using kauri leaf-steeped water. The essence of kauri is an acknowledgement of the Waipoua forest and its significance to the area where she is from. Oliver says Kia tau is an invocation for the miners’ spirits to rest in peace in her lands.

Tang’s waiata, Hokinga Oneone (2024), roughly translating to “return to soil”, meditates on the grief of those families in China awaiting the return of their loved ones. The song is lyrically driven with a simple, melancholic chord progression with sounds of the ocean to gently transport listeners to Mitimiti beach, where many of the bones washed ashore.

The following month, the panel 避風港 | Tangata Tiriti, Tangata o te Kaipuke | People of the Treaty, People of the Ventnor took place in Tāmaki Makaurau. It focused on being and becoming Chinese Tangata Tiriti through learnings from the ongoing SS Ventnor story. Kaumātua of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei opened the event with a pōwhiri, and Cai delivered an artist talk to explain her process and reflections from the exhibition before the panel.

The panel, moderated by Nathan Joe, included Lincoln Dam, Eda Tang and Etienne Wain. Panelists spoke about how the SS Ventnor story resonated with their own identities as Chinese tāngata Tiriti, and the way the ongoing Ventnor story models a Māori-Chinese relationship based upon manaakitanga and reciprocity. They also discussed how parts of their culture and identity informed their Tangata Tiriti-dom.

Although the project delivered two primary initiatives, it was the time that various young Chinese artists spent with mana whenua in the North that nourished and deepened the modern Ventnor Māori-Chinese bond. Not all creative works developed as part of this project were exhibited; instead, they served as a way of developing relationships and exchanging knowledge of traditional Māori and Chinese practices.

Wong Liu Shueng said that this project would spearhead the way for a very different Chinese and Māori relationship. She and historian Kirsten Wong, who have been proponents of retelling the Ventnor story, guided this project from start to finish. Wong said the result has breathed life into histories for the next generation:

This has been the outcome of years of work on the Ventnor history, driven by the descendants and their communities. We've always wanted this history to inspire younger people, give them a sense of place and be a starting point for expression and connection. Ko Wai Ngā Mokopuna, itself an outcome of NZCA youth initiatives, really delivers on that. These relationships and the perspectives from across our communities - Māori and Chinese - are at the centre of the heritage work we do on the Ventnor.

雙土海葬 DOUBLE BURIAL — The Shutter Room

避風港 | Tangata Tiriti, Tangata o te Kaipuke | People of the Treaty, People of the Ventnor — Community Research

Chinese and Māori artists unite to remember Hokianga wreck — RNZ

What would migration look like if te Tiriti o Waitangi was honoured? — The Spinoff