2024 Te Kopunui Māori Research Award
Dr Maree Sheehan (Ngāti Maniapoto-Waikato, Ngāti Tuwharetoa, Ngāti Tahu-Ngāti Whāoa, Clan Sheehan, Clan Marshall) has been awarded the Te Kōpūnui Māori Research Award by the Royal Society Te Apārangi for her scholarship, involving audio portraiture and sonic practices that honour and elevate the voices and identities of wāhine Māori (Māori women).
Maree has challenged the idea of traditional western portraiture through the creation of audio portraits, using her skills as a composer and recording artist. She utilises immersive sound technologies to record, synthesise, and spatially position her subjects, and to compose immersive soundscapes that reinterpret their perspectives, experiences, and natures.
Maree’s audio portraiture provides insights into each individual's identity encompassing the many unseen dimensions of their lives. She integrates state-of-the-art sonic practices to capture her unique perspective, creating an artistic synthesis that is grounded in a Māori framework of knowledge and kaupapa.
These audio portraits of wāhine Māori encompasses the multi dimensionality factors of their lives that is invigorated in a Māori knowledge framework. The audio portraits have been described as sounds of people, land, oceans and air, woven into a cloak of physical sound that reverberates with the ethereal. The project elevates perceptions of the mauri and wairua of the wāhine Māori, which can be felt during the experiences.
Maree is currently Kairangahau Matua at Te Manawahoukura, the research centre at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. Previously, Maree was the Head of the School of Art and Design’s Postgraduate Department at Auckland University of Technology, and an Impact and Transformation Manager at Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Pou Whakaaweawe.
The selection committee was impressed with the Maree’s work, and her reimagining of portraiture beyond ‘romantic and decorative definitions associated with westernised class constructs’ and the ‘privileging of visual media’.
Maree’s work provides an innovative sonic interpretative lens. The impact of her work comes from practice-led artistic research, creation, and interpretation, grounded in principles of Kāupapa Māori.
Te Kōpūnui Māori Research Award:
The Royal Society Te Apārangi Te Kōpūnui Māori Research Award for early career researcher to recognise innovative Māori research with a promising trajectory.
Citation:
To Maree Sheehan for her innovative scholarship, focused on audio portraiture and sonic practices that has elevated the voices and identities of wāhine Māori.