Huhana Smith

Susan Margaret Smith (born 1962), known as Huhana Smith, is a contemporary New Zealand artist and academic, and head of Whiti o Rehua School of Art at Massey University. Between 2003 and 2009, she was senior curator Māori at Te Papa.

Background Born in 1962 in Yarrawonga, Victoria, Australia, Smith is of Māori descent and affiliates to Ngāti Tukorehe and Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga. Smith had an art practice in Melbourne, Australia in the late 1980s. She came to New Zealand in 1993 to pursue studies in Māori language. She was the first graduate from the Toioho ki Āpiti (Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts) programme at Massey in 1997. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies (1998) and a PhD in Māori Studies from Massey University.

Career Smith has worked at Te Puni Kōkiri and at Te Papa.

In 2016 Smith took the head role at Whiti o Rehua School of Arts at Massey University in Wellington. combines mātauranga Māori methods with science to actively address climate change concerns for coastal Māori lands in Horowhenua-Kāpiti. It was exhibited in the Dowse Art Museum as part of the exhibition This Time of Useful Consciousness: Political Ecology Now in 2017.

Publications and exhibitions Taiāwhio: Conversations with Contemporary Māori Artists, 2002, Te Papa Press. Taiāwhio 2: 18 New Conversations Contemporary Māori Artists, 2007, Te Papa Press. 2011, Te Papa Press.

Honours and awards Smith (second from right) at a reception in Auckland in 2020 for Pacifica Mamas – Matairangi Mahi Toi. The governor-general, Dame Patsy Reddy, is second from left. Smith was a finalist in the Art Waikato National Art Awards in 2000 and 2002.