Hear from leading curator, writer and researcher Megan Tamati-Quennell (Te Ātiawa, Ngati Mutunga, Taranaki, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Ngāi Tahu) and Te Uru’s Assistant Curator Hester Rowan on Pauline Kahurangi Yearbury: Life in forms. 

Pauline Kahurangi Yearbury (b.1928 d.1977, Ngāpuhi) is an important Māori artist whose impact has been largely overlooked since the 1970s. Life in forms plots the development of Yearbury’s distinctive illustrative style, bringing together life drawings made at Elam in the 1940s and 50s, and vibrant paintings and incised wooden panels from the 1960s and 70s.

Megan Tamati-Quennell has a 35-year curatorial career specialising in the field of modern and contemporary Māori and Indigenous art. She is the longest serving curator in this field and received a CNZM in June 2024 for her contribution to Māori and First Nations art. Megan was one of five curators for ‘to carry’ Sharjah Biennial 16, 2025, in Sharjah in the UAE.