Image: Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki, Christchurch
Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki has highlighted 'Whakawhanaungatanga 2026', a collaborative student exhibition featuring around 40 students from Ara Institute of Canterbury and Ilam School of Fine Art. The show is described as an annual exhibition built around creative exchange, and this year’s edition will focus on the Māori concept of whānau and community through contemporary art practices.
According to CoCA’s newsletter, 'Whakawhanaungatanga' refers to the process of building and sustaining “multi-layered, flexible, and dynamic relationships” that underpin communities. The exhibition also frames whānau as a concept that is more complex than “family” alone, with physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions. A quotation included in the newsletter, attributed to academic Tai Walker, situates whānau within whakapapa and a Māori and tribal worldview, while noting its adaptation “for the contemporary world.”
The presentation continues a salon-style hanging tradition, suggesting a dense, collective display rather than a single-artist format. That approach suits an exhibition organised around student collaboration, and CoCA’s wording stresses the chance for tauira from both institutions to share work with one another, with the local community and with the wider art world. The newsletter places the exhibition within CoCA’s broader programme of free public exhibitions and events in Ōtautahi Christchurch.
CoCA Toi Moroki is governed by the Canterbury Society of Arts Charitable Trust and describes itself as Ōtautahi Christchurch’s oldest arts institution. Its support page says the gallery’s long-term vision is to create a thriving home for art and culture in Waitaha, connecting artists and community. Within that context, 'Whakawhanaungatanga 2026' reads as part of the institution’s ongoing commitment to emerging Aotearoa artists and to programmes that foreground participation as much as display.
The exhibition will be shown at Ō Papa Gallery from 21 to 30 August. CoCA’s newsletter does not list individual artists for the student show, but it does emphasise the number of contributors and the collaborative framework linking Ara Institute of Canterbury and Ilam School of Fine Art. The 2026 edition follows the same annual model as previous iterations, with connection and communal growth presented as central aims.
The newsletter also places 'Whakawhanaungatanga 2026' alongside other CoCA activities, including a film screening, a One Wall presentation and a Brown Town event, but the student exhibition is presented as its own project. Its dates at Ō Papa Gallery are the clearest verified detail in the announcement: 21 to 30 August.
