A space for contemporary art, shared ideas, and public experience.
Toi Aro is located in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, on the ancestral lands of Te Ātiawa and Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika a Māui.
Home / Ko wai mātou / Mana Whenua
TE TIRITI O WAITANGI
A Tīriti-led facility
Toi Aro is not merely Treaty-compliant — it is Tīriti-led.
Grounded in kawa and tīkanga
Mana whenua kawa and tīkanga are not overlaid onto an existing programme — they are foundational to how the building operates, how spaces are opened, and how the community is received.
Active partnership, not consultation
Te reo Māori as a living language
Toi Māori at the centre
Toi Aro's relationship with mana whenua is one of active partnership. Decisions about the building, its programme, and its kaupapa are made in genuine relationship — not through one-off consultation processes.
The building carries te reo Māori names in its spaces, its signage, and its communications. Te reo is used as a living language at Toi Aro — not as decoration but as an expression of the building's identity and its place in Te Whanganui-a-Tara.
Toi Māori — Māori art and creative practice — is not a strand of Toi Aro's programme. It is at the centre. The building's exhibitions, residencies, and public events reflect a genuine commitment to platforming toi Māori at the highest level.
Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho | Cultural Narrative
Mana whenua narratives and commissioned artworks are woven throughout Toi Aro, expressing identity and the ongoing presence of tangata whenua. This space carries meaning. Mana whenua stories, woven through design and art, grounding everything that happens here.