Nelson photographer's 10-year Tūhoe project wins top award
A Nelson-based photographer, originally from Belarus, has won an international photography award for her documentation of people living in Te Urewera, Tūhoe’s ancestral land.
Tatsiana Chypsanava, a descendant of the Komi peoples of the Siberian North West Ural, moved to New Zealand in 2008, and worked for Archives New Zealand - which is where she met representatives of Tūhoe, who were preparing for a settlement hearing.
It led her to photograph the people on and off for a decade.
The project, Te Urewera - The Living Ancestor of Tuhoe People– has won her the Asia-Pacific and Oceania Long Term Projects Prize at this year's World Press Photo Awards.
Left: Children from the Teepa family drive the younger siblings home, after a swim in the Ōhinemataroa (Whakatane) River, in Ruatoki. Right; Tatsiana Chypsanava.
Tatsiana Chypsanava
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When the Tūhoe people she met befriended her and invited her to visit their ancestral land the media portrayal of them was quite different from her own experience, she told RNZ’s Nine to Noon.
“I realised that what's portrayed in the media at the time didn't match what I saw in Ruatoki and the life and how people were welcoming and friendly.”
Ruiha Te Tana (12) relaxes at her grandfather's home in Ruatoki.
Tatsiana Chypsanava
She and her daughter were welcomed as whanau, she says.
“In the middle of it, I became a solo mum. My daughter was accompanying me on my trip. She was embraced by the Teepa whanau and spent a number of school holidays [there] and I'm with her and really built this beautiful relationship with whanau.”
She decided in 2013, not a professional photographer at the time, to capture what she saw.
“I met incredible people who work at the Manawa Honey, for example, award-winning rainforest honey that's been sold around the world to winning awards.
“I met incredible people, and I saw that this story got a new meaning where Te Urewera became kind of part of it as she is, a living and breathing ancestor.”
Carol Teepa in her kitchen in Ruatoki, with her youngest grandchild, Mia, and her whāngai son, Wanea.
Tatsiana Chypsanava
First held in 1955, the World Press Photo awards recognise the world’s best photojournalism and documentary photography, culminating in a touring exhibition each year.
Alongside this year’s 42 international winners, a selection of images from the archives will also be on display to mark the contest’s 70th anniversary.
The World Press Photo Exhibition runs 26 July to 24 August at 131 Queen St, Auckland, then moves to Wellington’s Takina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre from 5 September to 5 October.
