Bridy Lundon, a Masters of Māori Visual Arts at Toihoukura, EIT|Te Pūkenga, Tairāwhiti, has recently won a prestigious award.

Bridy Rihari-Lundon (Ngāpuhi, Waikato Tainui) has had a big year – not only was she this year’s Valedictorian for the Tairāwhiti Campus of EIT|Te Pūkenga and just had a successful exhibition, but she has also won a top award.

Bridy is currently doing her Masters of Māori Visual Arts at Toihoukura, having graduated earlier this year with her Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts.

Bridy’ latest honour came at the 37th annual Ngā Taonga Toi a Te Waka Toi awards ceremony, which was held at the Tainui Novotel in Hamilton last month. She received a prestigious Ngā Manu Pīrere Award.

Her focus was on the “revival, reclamation and rebuilding of traditional and contemporary art forms” in the modern world.

A statement from the awards said: “She aims to decolonise the minds of her generation and re-indigenise their thought patterns, emphasising the significance of Māori language and culture.”

Bridy, 23, says she had decided at the last moment to enter the award, which comes with a scholarship as a prize. She says she entered the night before applications closed and then did not think much more about it.

“I actually forgot about it for a couple of weeks until they called me and told me that I had received the award. I was shocked, but it is really cool.

“The main reason I wanted to apply for it was because I had a show coming up this year for my honours programme, and I wanted that to help me create my artwork for that show, prepare me. That was my aim, and that was my goal.”

It has been a busy few years for Bridy as she also received the Ruanuku Award, which is awarded each year to the top all round student at Toihoukura. The Ruanuku is a final year undergraduate art student who performs at a high level across a range of requirements.

The scholarship from her latest award has helped Bridy with the costs of staging an exhibition at the Nancy Caiger Gallery at The Meteor Theatre in Hamilton.

‘It helped a lot with the costs of printing, gallery hire and materials.”

Her exhibition was about Karakia, traditional Māori incantations.

“It’s about using Karakia in open spaces. I know for Māori, we often don’t use it when we really need to. So walking into a foreign space or a space we don’t feel comfortable in performing your Karakia, even if it’s just to yourself to clear that pathway and bring some sort of protected shelter over you and make you feel safe within that space.”

“My show talks about the process of it, the beginning to the end, and it kind of takes you on a spiritual journey.”

As for the future, Bridy hopes to study further to be a teacher. She is currently working fulltime at the kura Tōku Māpihi Maurea in Waikato, while studying online at Toihoukura.

“I suppose because my purpose for now and probably for my future is to give back, and that’s what I’m trying to do. So it really makes me happy knowing that I can share my skills and my knowledge and pass it down so it carries on the art form and the teachings.”

Tracey Leigh Mihinoa  Tangihaere, Executive Director of EIT|Te Pūkenga Tairāwhiti Campus and Head of Toihoukura, said: “Bridy is a talented artist who brings her matauranga Māori alive in her work. She brings inquiry to the state of our own cultural norms and customs , finds a place in challenging times to anchor ourselves to our values to produce resilience and faith. Her visual work is testimony to hard work and faith in Wairuatanga to overcome adversity. It’s a great reminder to us all.”