Emily Karaka

Name
Emily Karaka
Iwi/Ethnicity
Waikato/Māori
Ngāpuhi/Māori
Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki/Māori
Te Kawerau ā Maki/Māori
Ngāti Tamaoho/Māori
Te Ākitai Waiohua/Māori
Te Ahi Waru/Māori
Ngāti Mahuta/Māori
Ngāti Tahinga/Māori
Ngāti Hine/Māori
Date of birth
1952
Place of birth
Auckland (region)/New Zealand
Gender
Female
Biography
When at intermediate school, Emily Karaka was encouraged to pursue art by her teacher, Greer Twiss. Twiss and his friend Colin McCahon, as well as Arnold Manaaki Wilson and Auckland Girls’ Grammar teachers Elizabeth Ellis and Trixie Illingworth, were early influences on Karaka’s artistic development.

Karaka’s abstract expressionistic paintings are notable for their exuberant use of colour, strong imagery, densely layered application of paint and political commentary. Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi), and the subsequent claims brought to the Waitangi Tribunal, often form the starting point of Karaka’s work.