Manos Nathan

Name: Manos Nathan
Iwi/Ethnicity: Te Roroa/Māori
Ngāti Whātua/Māori
Ngāpuhi/Māori
Date of birth: 20 Dec 1948
Place of birth: Rawene/Northland (region)/New Zealand
Date of death: 02 Sep 2015
Nationality: New Zealander
Biography: Manos Nathan was born in Rawene, with Māori heritage from his father and Cretan Greek ancestry from his mother. He moved to Wellington in 1955 and in 1970 became one of the first Māori graduates with a Diploma of Textile Design from Wellington Polytechnic’s School of Design.

In 1982, Nathan was commissioned to carve his iwi’s whare rūnanga (meeting house), *Tuohu*, on tribal lands at Matatina Marae in the Waipoua Forest. From 1984, clay and whakairo (carving) became his key mediums.

In 1986, he cofounded, with Baye Riddell, Ngā Kaihanga Uku, a collective promoting the Māori ceramic movement. He was also a founding member Te Ātinga, the Contemporary Māori Visual Arts Committee of Toi Māori Aotearoa.

Nathan exhibited throughout the world and his artwork is in the British Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, the Ethnological Museum of Berlin, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira.