Matchitt (b. 1933, Tokomaru Bay) is of Te Whanau Apanui and Ngati Porou descent. He attended Auckland Teachers’ Training College in 1955-56 and began working as arts and crafts advisor at the South Auckland Education Board in 1957. Matchitt is best known for large-scale public sculpture, notably Wellington’s City to Sea Bridge, and was a contemporary of Colin McCahon, Ralph Hotere and Cliff Whiting, and was part of a group of prominent Maori artists who established the contemporary Māori arts movement frequently referred to as the “Māori modernists”. Matchitt’s work was strongly influenced by the philosophies of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki (c.1832-1893), the founder of the Ringatu faith. In 2001, Matchitt was convicted of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl and served two and a half years in prison.
