Vanessa Wairata Edwards is a Maori printmaker and graduate of Taupo Quay school of fine arts in 2002. Edwards has been making and exhibiting throughout New Zealand and beyond ever since. In 2005 she attended Te Mata - International Indigenous arts gathering New Zealand, where she met John Hitchcock and Melannie Yazzie. It was then that she was challenged to identify and unite Maori printmakers and as a result Toi Whakaata – Maori print collective was established in 2006. Edwards was also invited to the SGC International the following year in Madison Wisconsin, 2006, which she attended as a very green printmaker and is honoured to be returning 15 years later. Her works explore concepts around ongoing acts of self-determination and cultural sovereignty.
He Taonga Tonu te Wareware – Forgetfulness is to be reckoned with always, is her most recent work that challenges us to be critical of watered down renditions of history.