Landmark Māori art book wins top international prize

Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art  by University of Auckland Professor of Architecture Deidre Brown (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) and art historian Professor Ngarino Ellis (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou), with Jonathan Mane Wheoki (Ngāpuhi, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kurī), has won the Apollo Award for 2025 Best Book of the Year.

Based in London, the Apollo Awards are hosted annually to celebrate internationally exceptional achievements in the art and museum worlds, and the  Book of the Year Award commends the finest new art publications of the past 12 months.

Toi Te Mana is a six-hundred-page comprehensive survey of Māori art, from Polynesian voyaging waka to contemporary Māori artists, which also features more than 500 illustrations and images.

Published in New Zealand by Auckland University Press in 2024 and overseas by the University of Chicago Press, it is the first New Zealand book to be recognised in the awards, and the first winner focused entirely on Indigenous art.

The judges said: “This groundbreaking survey, a decade in the making, is informed by the authors’ belief that ‘a greater understanding of Māori art – by Māori and non-Māori – is essential for the survival of Māori culture’. They also attempt to set it among the great art traditions of the world, a task in which they brilliantly succeed.”

Brown and Ellis are delighted to receive this award, which they accepted at a formal evening ceremony in London on 20 November.

“Toi Te Mana was a labour of love produced through 12 years of dedicated research and writing and representing a century of our combined experience as art and architectural historians,” they say.

“A key objective of Toi Te Mana was to situate Māori art as one of the world’s great art traditions, which is confirmed with this award by our international peers.”
 

While in London, they also went to the New Zealand High Commission to give a presentation to Ngāti Rānana London Māori Club, as the club hosted the authors on different occasions during their research for the book, which has a chapter and textbox devoted to them.

They say it was a privilege speaking to Ngāti Rānana, "who were receptive to our finding that Māori art happens wherever Māori people are, including in the UK. We also left them a copy of the book”.

Sam Elworthy, director of Auckland University Press, is thrilled to see Toi Te Mana win this significant award.

“Nui te hari, nui te koa, kua kitea te mana o ngā toi Māori puta noa i te ao. To the weavers and carvers and painters, to their whānau and descendants, and to authors Deidre, Ngarino and the late Jonathan – karawhiua, nō mātou te whiwhi."

Having already won top national honours at the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in the Illustrated Non-Fiction category, this latest win affirms Toi Te Mana as a book “of enduring significance with international reach.” (Chris Szekely, category convenor, 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards).
 

About the Apollo Award

The Apollo awards are administered by London-based magazine Apollo, which was founded 1925 and is published monthly.

Apollo is one of the world’s oldest and most respected magazines on the visual arts, covering everything from antiquities to contemporary work.

It also provides in-depth discussion of the latest art news and debates, exclusive interviews with the world’s greatest collectors and artists, expert information on the market, authoritative guidance on collecting, and reviews and previews of exhibitions worldwide.

The Apollo Awards celebrate exceptional achievements across seven categories: Exhibition, Book, Museum Opening, Acquisition, Personality, Artist and Digital Innovation.

Winners and shortlisted candidates are nominated by Apollo’s editorial advisory panel.