A Potent Way of Talking: Colin McCahon and the Urewera Triptych

In 1974 Colin McCahon was commissioned by the National Parks Board to create a mural which forced him to grapple with Tūhoe history, and the limits of his own understanding of Māori spiritual concepts. A Potent Way of Talking charts a course deep into the Ureweras to Maungapōhatu, the scorched earth years of the 1860s, the arrest of the prophet Rua Kēnana, the formation of the vast national park and Tūhoe’s attempts to assert their agency as mana whenua. As artist and iwi sought a resolution to McCahon’s work, all of these threads collide. Text by Hamish Coney, Laurence Simmons and Linda Tyler + an interview with Gary Langsford. Photographs by David Cook, John Miller, Max Oettli, Peter Quinn, David Straight and Ans Westra.