Artist Michel Tuffery has been part of efforts to broaden and refocus narratives around Captain Cook's arrival in Aotearoa 250 years ago, including giving proper credit to his Tahitian navigator and translator Tupaia.
Historian Dame Anne Salmond has said that Tupaia played such a pivotal role on Cook's first journey to the South Pacific that "he was more important than Cook" to the success of the voyage.
Tuffery, who is of Samoan, Rarotongan and Ma'ohi Tahitian heritage, and is acknowledged as one of New Zealand's leading contemporary artists, worked with director Lala Rolls to tell the story of Tupaia in an award winning 2017 TV series.
He is revisiting Tupaia's Endeavour as part of his contribution to Pātaka's exhibition Here: From Kupe to Cook which opens in Porirua on 11 August.
Michel Tuffery in studio creating drawings to be animated for Tupaia's Endeavour - Image courtesy of Lala Rolls, Director,
Tupaia's map c. 1769
By Tupaia - British Library, London. Public Domain
Michel Tuffery trying to locate the site where Sydney Parkinson sketched his landscapes.- Image courtesy of Lala Rolls, Director, Tupaia's Endeavour
Michel Tuffery sketching at ma'atea marae in Tahiti, the last one built by Tupaia - Image courtesy of Lala Rolls, Director, Tupaia's Endeavour
Michel Tuffery and Jody Wylie in discussion about Te Maro and why Tupaia was left on the Endeavour - Image courtesy of Lala Rolls, Director, Tupaia's Endeavour
Greg Semu The Arrival 2014 2015
Robin White - We are the small axe, 2015 Barkloth-(tapa) Courtesy of the artist and McLeavey Gallery Wellington
Yuki Kihara -Takitimu Landing Site Waimarama, Courtesy of the artist and Milford Galleries Dunedin
John Walsh - Wharewaka, 2017 Oil on unstretched canvas. Courtesy of Gow Langsford Gallery
