The 2023 exhibition Ira Wahine brought together ten works by Hariata Ropata-Tangahoe at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata.
Drawn from the artist’s own holdings and collections including the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the exhibition centred on women, matriarchal whakapapa and cultural identity.
Portraiture shaped by several inheritances
Ropata-Tangahoe described Ira Wahine as the DNA of the women in her life. The paintings moved between family history, mythology, oral tradition and the cultural backgrounds carried through her Māori, Italian and Celtic ancestry.
One work, Ngā Tuāhine (Sisters), portrayed her daughters Bela, Rewa and Aniwaniwa. Other paintings extended beyond immediate family while remaining connected with female figures and the artist’s understanding of inherited memory.
Ropata-Tangahoe is of Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa, Te Āti Awa, Te Arawa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa descent. She described the exhibition as only a small part of a much larger body of work developed over decades.
An artistic life continuing to evolve
The artist first developed her practice after moving to Auckland and entering a community of established artists. She later studied in Waikato and completed a master’s degree at Elam School of Fine Arts.
By the time of the exhibition, she was 71 and continued to work regularly from her home in Kāpiti. She described art as both grounding and a temporary escape into imagination.
Ira Wahine did not treat ancestry as a fixed genealogical diagram. Through portraiture, Ropata-Tangahoe connected living family members with matriarchs, cultural memory and stories moving between several traditions.