Exhibit wears Africa on its sleeve
Founder and director of Afrika On My Sleeve, Makanaka Tuwe with Peter Lebae at the exhibition opening of 'I am Afrika on My Sleeve' on May 27. The exhibition runs until August 31 at Waitakere Central Library.
An exhibition is challenging stereotypes and celebrating the different voices of the African community.
The exhibit hosted by initiative Afrika on My Sleeve (AOMS) will include canvas work, photography, video and written storytelling excerpts.
Founder and director, Makanaka Tuwe, said AOMS provided an online collaborative platform for the African community.
Tuwe said people could take away from the exhibition that there was more than one way to represent African people.
It included African-inspired art, fashion, music, social justice, African representation and digital media.
It also ran offline projects such as workshops for women, she said.
The exhibition included works from four projects by AOMS from the past four years.
A photography work from the Afrika On My Sleeve 2016 project 'I Am'. Titled 'Kiden Brown' (The name of the person photographed). The photo is exhibited in the 'I Am Afrika On My Sleeve' exhibition at Waitakere Central Library until August 31.
Over 200 people of African decent in New Zealand had contributed, she said.
Something people could take away was that there was more than one way of representing African people.
"There's different narratives and different voices."
The Henderson resident said it was a "humanistic approach", seeing people as individuals rather than clumping them into a group.
The 23-year-old said it celebrated the third culture, a term to describe making your own identity based on two cultural influences.
Tuwe moved to New Zealand in 2003 from Zimbabwe, and said she was neither fully kiwi or Zimbabwean.
"You float between the two."
The artworks are collaborative and one project involved around 60 people.
This related to the way African and many indigenous cultures collectivist way of thinking, she said.
Nothing really belongs to anyone, Tuwe said.
Some stereotypes she was trying to challenge was that African people were "problematic", uneducated, or came from non-english speaking and war-torn countries.
Tuwe said it was time to expand the narrative to be more inclusive.
I Am Afrika On My Sleeve runs until August 31 at Waitakere Central Library, 3 Ratanui St, Henderson.
Go to africaonmysleeve.com or facebook.com/afrikaonmysleeve for more information.
- Western Leader
