Coming to America

The largest exhibition of Maori art ever to show in the US opened at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts on August 4. Entitled Toi Maori Art from the Maori People, the exhibition combines traditional taonga and contemporary works, with a special focus on weaving and ta moko. The historic event opened with a dawn ceremony, in which a fully manned waka was paddled through the Golden Gate Bridge and on to the beach at Maritime Park, where it was greeted by representatives of the area’s own “first people,” the Ohlone. The exhibition will also be shown in Oregon and Washington State.