Lisa Reihana was born in Auckland and was educated at Lynfield College. She studied film-making at Elam School of Fine Arts and graduated with a B.F.A in Inter-media 1987. In 1988 Lisa was artist-in-residence at the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney and in 1991 was the Trust Bank Canterbury artist-in-residence in Christchurch. Lisa has taught film-making at Elam and currently runs the Moving Image Department at the School of Art and Design, Manukau Institute of Technology. Lisa is an artist/film maker and works in video, animation and film. She currently has a video installation at Te Papa called Native Portraits n.19897. Lisa is on the committee of Nga Aho Whakaari—the voice for Māori working in film and television—and she works with the Pacific Sisters—a collaborative group of Pacific Island women and men utilising fashion to uphold cultural values.
Biographical sources
- Interviews and correspondence with Lisa Reihana, 1991, 17 and 20 Aug, 1998.
Films/Video
- ahi/fire (1 min) carving (4 min) stone tools (1 min)
- fibre (4 min) tanekaha dyeing (11 min)
- Wog Features 1990 (8min) 1" Video
- Animation Director, Producer
- Tauira 1991 (15 min) S-VHS
- Animation, Director, Producer
- Hair 1992 (46 min) Beta SP
- McGillicuddy Serious Party 1993 (30 sec) 16mm, Beta SP
- Animation, Director, Producer
- He Mahi Māori 1994 S-VHS
- Producer, Director
- Ina and Tuna 1995 (9 min) S-VHS
- Co-Director, Video Design, Performer
- A Māori Dragon Story 1995 (16 Mins) 16mm
- Producer, Director
- A Māori Dragon Story.
- Hypergirls 1996 (3 mins) Hi-8
- Blood. 1997 (46 min) Beta SP
- Animation Director
Non-fiction
- "Skinflicks." Rivers Oram Press. 1993. No details.
- Reihana states that this article is about contemporary Māori short films.
Other
- "Shootin The Shit With Lily Barbados." Landfall (June 1992): 182. Rpt. in Te Ao Mārama: Contemporary Māori Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 3: Te Puāwaitanga O Te Kōrero: The Flowering. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 162.
- A strong assertion of identity and independence articulated by the speaker, Lily Barbados, using street talk vernacular.
Other
- Gilling, Naomi. "The Living Arts: Aiming for accessibility." The Press 13 May 1992: 20.
- Laird, Tessa. "A Wooden Heart." Log Illustrated, High Street Project Publication. 1 (Winter 1997). No further details.
- Te Awekotuku, Ngahuia. "He Take Ano: Another Take: Conversations with Lisa Reihana." Art New Zealand 68 (Spring 1993): 84-87.
- Te Awekotuku talks with Māori film-maker Lisa Reihana and discuss her film, Wog Features, her fifteen minute video Tauira, and Reihana’s solo exhibition at the McDougall Art Gallery’s Art Annex entitled Take.
- "Straight Talkin’ Sister." Lava Magazine. No details.
Reviews
- "The Fletcher Challenge Trust Young Māori Artists’ Exhibition." Broadsheet 183 (Nov./Dec. 1990): 37-38.
- Twenty-seven artists exhibited in the Fletcher Challenge Trust Young Māori Artists’ exhibition which was part of the Te Koanga Spring Festival of Māori Arts, held in Auckland, N.Z. in 1990. Reihana reviews the work of the eight other women artists in the exhibition: Lily Laitas, Michelle Tautau, Mereana Hall, Ngaawai Simpson, Donna Tupaia, Kiri Turketo, Sam Mitchell, and Parekohai Whakamoe as well as her own exhibit "Transversal Theorems".