The Native Section focuses on the history of the area we now know as Hagley Park before and after colonial settlement, in particular an instance of horticultural korenga (absence). This series of seven hand-embroidered billboards draw attention to the indigenous flora that was removed in the creation of the park and references both Māori and European ways of remembering and cataloguing — whakataukī and botanical drawings respectively. Combining images and Te Reo Māori, Aroha Novak has created a route around the park that provides an opportunity to contemplate what was, and what is now.
Novak’s practice has spanned site-specific sculptural and relational responses, as well as guerilla interventions, including The Brook Project (2016) which examined the history and possible future of Carisbrook through an embroidered series of vignettes, musical and theatrical performances, and community engagement. Earlier this year, Novak produced What’s in a name? (2021) a biking tour of Māori place names in Ōtepoti, which sought to restore Māori place names to landmarks and suburbs in Dunedin.
The Native Section continues this interest in recognising and highlighting pre-colonial histories, with Novak’s research focussing on the 88 indigenous and endemic specimens removed from Hagley Park. Novak has taken the two-dimensional forms of the pressed plants held in the collection of Manaaki Whenua — first gathered by J.B and J.F Armstrong at the end of the nineteenth century — and painstakingly translated and transplanted them so they now cast shadows onto the whenua they originally occupied. The whakataukī that appears in segments around the park expresses affection from a mother to her child and references sweet-smelling plants that appear in the Hagley Park specimens (piripiri, mokimoki and taramea), which were often carried in a small satchel around the neck.
Taku hei piripiri (my little pedant of sweet-scented moss)
Taku hei mokimoki (my little pendant of sweet-scented fern)
Taku hei tāwhiri (my little pendant of odoriferous gum)
Taku kati taramea (my little pendant of aromatic smells)
In addition to the billboards, Novak has also organised a selection of specimens that can be viewed in the Canterbury Museum’s Bird Hall as well as a spray-painted banner on the front of the museum (showing until 19 December)
Acknowledgements: Te Ngāi Tūāhuriri Rūnanga, Ines Schonberger and Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, Neil Phillips and Canterbury Museum, McNab Heritage Librarians at Dunedin Public Library and Christchurch City Libraries, Sally Milner for babysitting, O, Carmela, Tigerlily and Winter Moon.
