Shona Rapira Davies

Shona Rapira-Davies is of Ngāti Wai ki Aotea descent.

She graduated from Otago Polytechnic with a Diploma of Fine Art in 1983, and in 1989 was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago. Her work uses personal and familial histories to confront wider political concerns, including discussions about our colonial past. Text is often used to express these narratives.

Through the 1980s Rapira-Davies worked alongside Robyn Kahukiwa, and other wahine toa, to forge the identity of Māori woman artists, particularly painters.

"Rapira Davies is interested in the empowerment of Māori women in spite of perceived racism in a Pākehā culture and sexism within the patriarchal structure of Māori tribal organisation. She uses her art works to make statements about perceived injustices against Māori."

See also:

• Shona Rapira-Davies | Auckland Art Gallery
• Shona Rapira Davies - Wikipedia