WAIATA MANU CATALOGUE - Somervell Presbyterian Church
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WAIATA MANU CATALOGUE
Cover Image: Nigel Brown - Tui for Wholeness 2016, acrylic on canvas, 900 x 700
Waiata Manu: The Artists’ Chorus
Catalogue
Hutia te rito ō te harakeke,
kei whea te korimako ekō?
Ka rere ki uta, ka rere ki tai.
Kī mai koe ki au, he aha te
mea nui i te ao? Māku e kī atu,
He tangata! He tangata! He tangata!
If you pluck the heart out of the flax bush,
where will the bellbird sing?
It will fly aimlessly in land, it will fly seawards.
If you ask me, what is the most important thing in the
world? I will reply,
it is the People! The People! The People!1
1 A whakataukī from the Far North detailed by Joan Metge and Shane Jones in ‘He Taonga Tuku Iho nō Ngā
Tūpuna Māori proverbial sayins - a literary treasure’, New Zealand Studies, July 1996, p. 3, their translation
slightly modified here. They interpret the final line as a warning to unify people toward a shared goal.
Foreword
Welcome to Somervell Church’s Waiata Manu exhibition. It is so wonderful to see
months of hard work and dedication come to fruition in this beautiful collection of
images and artefacts. As a new migrant to Aotearoa, it’s hard to ignore the role that
birds play in New Zealand’s cultural landscape. Birds, and birdsong, are one of the
key things I think of when I close my eyes and imagine the land of the long white
cloud. This exhibition is also important as it gives rise to our calling to participate
in the care and conservation of God’s good creation. Beauty helps us to see the
world in ways that awaken our senses, our passions, and quicken our consciences.
In this exhibition you will no doubt see the ways in which birds are integral to our
self understanding as Kiwis.
Our great hope is that this invitation to see, will lead you to act on behalf of the
wonderful array of diverse birds we have here in New Zealand. This exhibition has
been a labour of love, but it has also been challenging. While the pandemic has
frustrated our best laid plans, it is encouraging to see this exhibition finally be
realised. Beauty always finds a way of breaking through our darkest moments, and
like the first sounding of the dawn’s chorus of birdsong, it reminds us that darkness
will not last always, that the hope of a new day is near. We need that hope now
more than ever. So welcome and enjoy, Waiata Manu!
Reverend Ivan Martinez
1
Our connection with te manu (the bird) in Aotearoa, New Zealand has a long and
unique visual history as evidenced in bird rock drawings of Tangata Whenua
settlements in various locations in Te Waipounamu, the South Island.
Interpretation of these first human voices from the past still echo in this exhibition
space within the art of stamps.2 The connection continues through Whakataukī
wisdom, and in a diversity of artworks, while bird songs and waiata release the
breath of this aesthetic experience, bringing it to life.
2 Dave Burke design print offset lithography.
2
New Zealand bird stamps are a specialised art print miniature that trace a histori-
cal trajectory we have called Stamped in our Identity. The state’s active role in
framing national identity became clear in 1898 when it selected the kiwi as one of
the first pictorial postage stamps to represent this land, gradually reframing these
images in new bird stamps over time. Globally, too, when a particular form of
national identity becomes fixed as cliché, artists bring new creations to life.
Biomimicry is a contemporary buzz word in the sciences where birds also teach
aviation engineers looking for innovative and creative solutions to sustainable and
better aviation. The precise and minute movement of wings and feathers in modes
of flight are analysed, while astonishingly complex migratory patterns remind us of
our global interconnectedness. We have much to learn about New Zealand’s
endemic migratory birds, and our flightless species mark unique modes of adapta-
tion to this environment.
In the current context of climate change with fragile ecosystems in crisis, a focus
on waiata manu prompts us to contemplate ways of becoming more responsible
guardians of nature, Mother Earth, Papatūānuku. The artists included in this exhibi-
tion share an underlying ethos that interconnects the manu to the whenua, to the
land, and to us3, in innovative ways. The iconic bird artist and ornithologist Donald
Hall Binney (1940-2012) lays the groundwork for Voices of Conservation artworks
that coordinate “bird and landform” in symbiosis, progressing to his active engage-
ment in protecting the environment. Nigel Brown joins Binney as an established
voice for conservation.
Artworks by Tāngata Whenua suggest a range of voices joining these first works
in diverse ways.
Several artists here mention the therapeutic and inspirational value of birdsong
during lockdownperiods in the current pandemic, leading to a desire to capture the
moment in varied forms of Realism, in Photographing Manu and Digital Painting.
To release the spirit of the bird in three dimensions, Songs of the Sculptors offer
further interpretations of the birds’ connection to us and to the land. We especially
perceive a haunting, melancholic descant of the huia, in a metaphorical call to
guardianship.
3 In te reo Māori, whenua also means “placenta”
4 Ruka, J. Huia come Home, helped to shape a kaupapa, or purpose of this exhibition
3
Imagine this exhibition, Waiata Manu, bird song, as an artists’ chorus. As you hear
the birds, see the birds, listen and look… but listen also to the voices of their artistic
creators – what are they singing, as they invite you to ponder the avian art before
you.
Waiata Manu advocates conservation action as we celebrate the beauty and
mystery of birds through the art and craft of painters, sculptors, glass artists,
photographers, digital artists, print makers, musicians, and writers. We consider
birds, in all their various forms, within the landscapes of Aotearoa as a part of a
shared identity often fixed as Kiwi. Perhaps it is because birds are, significantly, the
principal everyday wildlife that we experience.
4Stamped in Our Identity
New Zealand Stamp collectors tell the story of the world’s very first airmail stamp.
It was for an airmail service begun in 1897 between Aotea Great Barrier Island and
Auckland: The Pigeon Post. This was one year before a new and fledging State,
(that had experienced over three decades of internal warfare and three capital
townships), produced the “official” bird-stamp pictorials.
The only link between Auckland and Great Barrier then was by steamer, and this
proved to be inadequate for urgent communication, so The Pigeon Post airmail
service was devised. Pigeons could carry up to four messages at a time. The mes-
sage was written on a lightweight tissue paper, called a “flimsy” upon which the
triangular pigeon post stamp was adhered, and the message attached to the bird’s
legs. Instead of the hours via surface mail, it took the birds approximately 55
minutes to complete the journey. There was a variance in postage cost; from Auck-
land to Great Barrier, it was one shilling, whereas in reverse it was sixpence due to
the greater effort required to train the birds to fly to Great Barrier than to teach
them to fly home to Auckland. Triangular stamps were printed for this local use but
drew disapproval from the national philatelic societies, who warned collectors that
they were not “official” stamps. The service lasted over eleven years and only
ceased after an underwater telegram cable was laid in 1908 which proved to be
more efficient.
6Becoming the Nation-State of New Zealand:
1898 Stamp Pictorials
The image on a stamp is a specialised example of a miniature art print. The history
of stamp design print has its roots in the tradition of the English “popular” image,
the affordable and more readily available images used for engravings in children’s
picture books or in the transfers produced for designs on ceramics.
The first postage stamp produced in the world, the Penny Black (1840) bears a
portrait of Queen Victoria and was produced in the year the Treaty of Waitangi was
signed. New Zealand did not produce its own stamps until some fifteen years later,
and unsurprisingly, followed the colonial practice portraying the ruling monarch
and revenue value of the stamp. In 1898, New Zealand was one of the first countries
in the world to issue stamps bearing pictures - “pictorials” through a competition
inviting artists to submit their proposals to promote New Zealand. The winning
artists for the first pictorials in 1898 showcased New Zealand landscape and birds.
So it was that the original brown kiwi5 made its stamp debut with three other
species: a pair of Huia on the threepence postage stamp and a pairing of the kea
and kaka on a one shilling stamp.
Kiwi, 1898 Kaka and Kea, 1898 Huia, 1898
5 1898 sixpence stamp; a flightless upright kiwi set in a painted diorama within a horseshoe shaped frame, can
be distinguished from the red 1935 stamp, where the illustrator has the Kiwi standing beside a cabbage tree
and bent over slightly facing the ground.
7A survey of numerous birds on New Zealand stamps substantiates the exhibition
premise that birds play a key role in the portrayal of a New Zealand national identi-
ty. Since their introduction, birds on pictorial stamps have consistently contributed
to postal revenue.
From a Victorian fervour of empirical and imperial motivation, where New
Zealand’s first birds on stamps are engraved and captured within elaborate Victori-
an framings reflecting a sense of the exotic acquisition or the taxidermist speci-
men, to the strong conservation objectives of the Predator Free Series issued in
2019 and the photographic design of the Kakariki series of 2020, bird art, like the
Nation, has evolved with bird stamp designers creating from their own milieu.
In the late nineteenth century, the leading Pākehā authority on New Zealand birds
was New Zealand born Walter Lawry Buller, the author of A History of the Birds of
New Zealand,6 with illustrations by Dutch born artist JG Keulemans. Keulemans
never visited New Zealand but rendered his illustrations from Buller’s descriptions
and sketches and from skins.7 Keuleman’s Kea and Kaka and a beautiful pair of
Huia illustrated by Keulemans in Buller’s catalogue bear a striking resemblance to
the miniaturised birds printed on the 1898 New Zealand pictorial bird stamps, with
commentators crediting Keulemans for the Kea and Kaka illustration.8
Undoubtedly, Keulemans’ birds have influenced New Zealand bird artists then and
now and the illustration plates for Buller’s birds continue to be admired in later
reprints.
6 The History of the Birds of New Zealand by Walter Buller was published in two editions in the 19th Century;
edited and brought up to date by E.G. Turbott, Buller’s Birds of New Zealand, publisher Whitcombe and Tombes
1967. It received new treatment by Geoff Norman in Buller’s Birds of New Zealand – The Complete Work of JG
Keulemans, Te Papa Press 2012.
7 A term used to describe the skin and external features of a species kept for study or taxidermy.
8 Campbell and Patterson’s guide for stamp collectors, credits designers W.R Bock for the design of the Huia
and Kea and Kaka, and E Bock for the Kiwi (loose leaf Catalogue of New Zealand Stamps Published 1855 to the
present day). This may be a reference to the designer who created the philately lithographic plate.
8Through the support of local philatelists and New Zealand Post Collectibles, an
installation The Stamp Collector’s Birds offers for viewing a complete collection
of New Zealand bird stamps produced to represent the Country since 1897. The
purely artistic illustrative colonial renditions of birds soon become intertwined with
a growing conservation concern. A light-hearted Kiwi affection for the birds along
with a dry humour is sometimes observed, as with the stamp “A kea ate my car”.
Also, dynamic cultural changes are evidenced through a bird image with the meta-
phors that accompany such imagery, as with pictures of Roosters celebrating the
Chinese Year of the Rooster.
There is a growing list of artists whose birds have featured on New Zealand
stamps. The options available today for creating and producing the miniature art
prints is a topic by itself. Digital technology and ever new printing processes have
enhanced artistic possibility.
9Huia: Haere Ra — Haere Mai
Of the original ensemble of New Zealand stamp birds, the huia, last sighted in 1907,
is now extinct, offering a sobering lesson. Much has been written about this
species of bird. Most Tangata whenua communities recall the role of Manu Huia as
the bird anointed to inform Tāne that he was to receive the three baskets of knowl-
edge from the highest of twelve heavens, each of which is remembered in the
twelve white tipped feathers of Manu Huia’s tail. These feathers brought mana to
those who wore them, so highly valued they were traded across the islands and
kept in special carved wooden waka huia, (recalled in sculptures of Tai Meuli and
Bill Devoy in this exhibition, images below).
In the nineteenth century, European ornithologists identified the huia as Heteralo-
chaacutirostris; a member of the wattle family. This family of songbirds includes the
tui, tīeke (saddleback), hihi (stitchbird) and kōkako. They brought fresh excitement
to Europeans in their colonial and empirical pursuits in ‘exotic’ lands, seeing these
elegant songbirds as fair game for those who collected their skins for study or
display in private and natural museum collections. As heir to the throne, the Duke
of York visited New Zealand in 1901 and was presented with a huia feather that he
placed in his hatband, causing the feathers to become a much sought-after fashion
commodity. Their black beauty and golden poi, contrasting white tipped tail feath-
ers, and unique differences of the male and female beaks, made them valued
possessions for Pākehā collectors.
Conservation concerns expressed by both Māori and Pākehā and efforts to try to
preserve the species proved unsuccessful. Introduced predators, deforestation,
and private agendas for commerce or science resulted in their extinction.
An inspiration in this exhibition is John Ruka ‘s book Huia Come Home9 which
recounts the tragic loss of the species. He uses the huia story as a metaphor of
loss; loss of aspects of Te Ao Māori; loss of trust; loss of opportunity for a flourish-
ing harmonious bicultural guardianship of Aotearoa, and a loss of the opportunity
for positive developments within the Church. By engaging with this contemporary
huia parable, he implores all New Zealanders to come together; Māori and
non-Māori, and for all New Zealanders in a spirit of co-operation and goodwill to
work for balance and harmonious race relations and guardianship. Ruka urges the
huia to come home.
9 J Ruka, Huia Come Home Tomanakoe, Oati publisher, 2018
10Huia, 1996 Wahine Māori wearing Huia feathers, 1935
Voice of Conservation
Donald Hall Binney (1940 - 2012)
Fat Bird, 1964, oil on hardboard, 753 x 603
Private Collection, Auckland
12Celebrated as New Zealand’s modern and renowned bird artist, Donald Binney
opens this section on conservation with ever changing images of birds. The tomtit
happens upon the viewer suddenly, in black, white, and grey shading tinged with
ochre. Fat Bird fills the frame through this shared lens of Binney’s bird watching
binoculars zooming in and capturing stylised features, as he did with his other
birds in the 1960s, making them larger than life, disproportionate to their
surrounds, and leaving no doubt that the bird is the focal point.
Kōmiromiro (tomtit) were considered sacred by Tangata whenua and were consid-
ered bearers of good news. If one was described with the phrase ‘he kanohi kōmi-
romiro’ (having the eye of a tomtit) it implied a careful observer, as the tomtit looks
for small insects.
Binney explains the connection of the graphic line forms and structure of the bird
with line forms and structure of the land:
I think a characteristic of this, and a lot of work from this period, is the struc-
tural coordination of bird and landform…Physical resonance between one
shape and the other. Why? Because as an ornithologist I've always been
thoroughly involved in the way in which land, the environment the creature
lives in, modifies the creature. The creature also of course modifies the land:
it's symbiosis really, isn't it?10
This was a characteristic of his oeuvre even as he readjusted the compositional
dimensions in later decades to include more of the bird’s surrounds.
Around the ‘70s the perspective zooms out for the viewer to glance at more land
and sky while retaining the stylised design components of the landscape mirrored
in the bird. For example, in Puketōtara- Twice Shy (1977, oil on canvas, 1807mm x
1353mm, Museum of Te Papa), which appears on a Cinderella stamp, the bittern,
although large, does not occupy the greater portion of the canvas as with Fat Bird.
10
Sheridan Keith ‘A conversation with Don Binney’ Art New Zealand 28, 1983
https://www.artnewzealand.com/Issues21to30/binney
13Puketōtara - Twice Shy, 1977
Image courtesy - Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa (1977-0024-1) and The Donald Binney Estate
14A keen ornithologist and artist in one, Binney had a love of birds that matched his
concern for their habitat. An artist who remained loyal to his Anglican faith, he was
erudite, sophisticated and came from privilege. It was during his secondary educa-
tion at the exclusive Kings College in Auckland that he first took up bird watching,
and it proved to be a preoccupation that brought focus to his art. It was said of him
that he was able to pronounce the scientific classifications equally alongside the
Māori names for birds.
Of interest to stamp and art collectors, art historians and conservationists is
Binney’s Cinderella stamp11 featuring Binney’s painting Puketōtara Twice Shy. In the
1980s the New Zealand Government launched an economic plan under the
National Party leadership of Robert Muldoon, dubbed “Think Big”. One of the many
schemes was the proposal for an aluminium smelter to boost the country’s reve-
nue, to be built in North Otago’s Aramoana. The residents of the township of
Aramoana were having none of it, and supported by environmentalists around the
country, strongly resisted by declaring themselves the “Independent State of
Aramoana”. Launching a campaign to demonstrate not only against building a
smelter on their turf but their independence from New Zealand, they issued their
own stamps. Ralph Hotere and Don Binney hastened to their support with artwork
printed on stamps for this newly formed “State”. In the original painting, an oil on
canvas in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the bird is identified as
an Australian bittern (matuku) soaring above Te Henga – (Bethels Beach) on
Puketōtara - Twice Shy (Cinderella Stamp)
11
A stamp produced, but not authorised as official for use on postage.
15Auckland’s West Coast.12 This poses the question as to why Binney would choose
Te Henga as a backdrop yet identify Puketōtara in the title. Binney was also fond of
Puketōtara in Northland’s Keri Keri.
However, in an earlier related painting, Puketōtara Once Bittern (oil on board
signed and dated 1972) commentary does not suggest a locality other than
Puketōtara. Is there more happening here than the first glance play on words-
Once Bittern (bitten) …Twice Shy?
The bittern, a bird found in wetlands all over New Zealand, is said to be a mysteri-
ous, shy species, described as “cryptic”. When threatened, it resorts to camouflage,
by adopting an upright reedlike posture when intruded upon, rather than resorting
to flight. In the ambiguity of locale is Binney employing the cryptic nature of the
bird in camouflage, with a concealing of the location? When one again considers
the setting for the bittern, in the use of this painting on the Cinderella stamp issued
for the Independent State of Aramoana in 1981, the viewer understandably assumes
a correlation between the place of Aramoana and the bittern. It has been said of
Binney when asked of his paintings, “Where is this place?” Binney replied, “It is
wherever resonates with you.”13 Perhaps Binney is giving himself permission to be
liberated from being too tied to a specific locale, a point on which he was at one
period criticised by sectors of the New Zealand artworld looking to international
trends. Binney is surely inviting his viewer or interpreter also to be free… as a bird.
By the 1980s and after an apparent slowing down in his popularity, Binney ventures
into new media and techniques including screen-print and photography. This
makes his work more accessible to ownership. In Kaiarara Kaka, Great Barrier,
(Screen-print 28/150 1982. 585x835, private collection, Auckland) Binney’s kaka
which now occupies just a third of the canvas is flying over Great Barrier’s
Kaiaraara track, surveying the lie of the land.
12
An assertion in the Te Papa text accompanying the online exhibit.
13
https://thediversiongallery.co.nz/artist/binney/#more-info
16Kaiarara Kaka, Great Barrier
1982, Screen-print 28/150, 585x835
Private Collection, Auckland
17La Chute d'lcare Pureora (The Fall of Icarus):
Last Flight of the Kōkako
1979 2110mm x 910mm Oil on board, Offset open print on display
courtesy of Fish Mob based on the original Don Binney,
oil on board, 2130x930mm,
Private Collection
18A Note from Warwick Brown quoted in
Webb’s Auction Portal 2020
“…In the 1980s, … A national
environmental group asked Don to
create an image that it could use in
producing a greeting card for
fundraising purposes. This painting was
the result. As yet, I did not own a Binney
and the moment I set eyes on it I knew I
had to have it. Don was pleased that I
had bought it because we were both
conservationists. All in all, the work
possesses a compositional precision and
rigour which places it alongside the very
finest of Don's great bird paintings of the 1960s:
utilising the classic two-thirds/one-third vertical ratio,
the kōkako, completely enchanting in its
scale and splendour, physically
dominates the canvas.”14
This work was a response to the
threatened West Taupo Forest habitat
of the kōkako, posed by government
logging proposals.
14
https://auctions.webbs.co.nz/m/lotdetails/index/catalog/45/lot/
5223/DON-BINNEY-LaChute-d-lcare-Pureora-Last-Flight-of-the-Kokako
19Nigel Brown (1949 - )
Nigel Brown’s concern for the natural world is seen in the strong elements of his
compositions: a series of his works with their stamp-like effect within a strong
double border, intaglio- like dots portraying the cellular; and earth, grain, seeds
throughout the contained composition with a limited palette.14 A clear conservation
call rings out from these works Tui for Wholeness and Kākāpō, part of a series of
lament and warning over the loss of wildlife and habitat: a writing on the wall.
There is much happening in these works. In each painting, Brown’s environmental-
ist is dressed in a black singlet looking upon the bird with an apparent concern,
endearing us to this “Kiwi” bloke who, with great sensitivity, allows the bird to rest
on his person. He in turn is supported by his “mate”. Combined with the words fram-
ing the figures, these paintings are poignant signposts to caring for the land and
the interdependency between birds and nature, and people and nature.
Juxtaposing these works with those of Binney, discerning viewers and “listeners” to
the Waiata Manu chorus may observe a discord between the Fred-Dagg fashion of
the black singlet in Brown’s works, and Binney’s direct repudiation of being
perceived as a “black singlet conservationist”.15 Yet within their distinct differences
in painting birds there is resolve and harmony in the acknowledgement of the unity
of the environment, wildlife and human.
In Kākāpō, Brown uses text to invite us to consider the ornithological identity of the
species, inscribing the fact that the bird is the world’s “largest parrot”, and identify-
ing the “Lek mating” breeding method of Kākāpō, a modus operandi unique to this
breed. It is for the viewer to interpret the other message, “Anchor Me”.
15
Brown has described his paintings with dots as his “star cluster paintings” for he is not seeking to evoke
pointillism or the techniques of aboriginal dotted painting but a build up of paint jabs that magnified resemble
stars. ( See Browns notes in the exhibition Bird in the hand exhibition 2017)
16
https://www.nigelbrown.co.nz/about/writing/don-binney/
20Tui for Wholeness
2016, acrylic on canvas, 900 x 700
Kākāpō
2015, acrylic on linen, 933 x 634 x 50
Private Collection, Auckland
21All Life
2018, acrylic on canvas, 294 x 240
22Voices of the Tāngata Whenua
Amber Smith
In the artists’ chorus, listen out for a contemporary “counterpoint”16 to Pākehā
artists. This counterpoint includes the voice of Tangata Whenua represented in
artists like Sofia Minson’s The Heart of the Kākā and Amber Smith’s Tumanako and
Karakia, where Māori knowledge and wisdom in proverbs and prayer blend seam-
lessly with the art.
Amber is a ceramic artist and printmaker based in Whakatū (Nelson). She draws
inspiration from Te Ao Māori and nature. Her aim is to spread messages of love,
hope and self-worth through her ceramics and prints.
She uses the sgrafitto print method for her prints. In her print Tumanko, three tuis
flit about a stylised landscape within Aotearoa that encapsulates elements recited
in the pepeha - the Māori introduction of oneself that finds identity in the land-
scape: te maunga - the mountain, and te awa - the body of water, along with
whakapapa.
In combining Whakataukī (Māori proverbs) and waiata (Māori songs), both in te
reo Māori and English within her work, she hopes to educate and connect. The
wisdom, in her words “…lending a beautiful feeling to the art”
Limited edition and signed prints are gifted by the artist to Waiata Manu to raise
funds for the endangered fairy tern.
In music theory counterpoint is a compositional technique in which two or more melodic lines (or "voices")
17
complement one another but act independently. Composers use counterpoint to create polyphonic music.
24Korihi ake nga manu
Takiri mai te ata
Ka oa ka oa ka awatea
Tihei mauri ora
The birds call, the day
begins, and I am alive!
Tumanako
Kia horo te marino
Kia whakapapa pounamu te moana
Kia tere karohirohi
I mua I tou huarahi
May calm be spread all around you
May the sea glisten like greenstone
And the shimmer of Summer dance
across your path
Karakia
25Sofia Minson
Contemporary artist Sofia Minson was born in Auckland. She takes inspiration
from landscape, the stories of Aotearoa and her mixed races; Ngāti Porou , Swed-
ish, English, and Irish heritages. She celebrates the storytelling and wisdom of
culturally diverse ancestors in a modern world.
In her 2018 painting The Heart of Kākā she combines a digitally created Victorian
wallpaper as a backdrop to an earlier work, combining the past and the present,
while the spiral motifs on the kaka add another layer of interpretation.
Te tōrino haere whakamua, whakamuri.
At the same time as the spiral is going forward, it is returning
26The Heart of the Kākā
2018
27Songs of the Sculptors: Releasing the Bird
Tai Meuli
Tai Meuli, a sculptor for twenty five years, has an affinty with stone. He employs
traditional carving reflecting kotahitanga, unity in this contemporary version of a
waka huia. The waka huia, a symbol of honour, was used to house the feathers of
the huia.
Traditionally the waka huia was a Māori
taonga ornament that was gifted to a
Chief’s lineage and would hold the
feather of our Huia Bird. The iconic huia
was the largest of the five New Zealand
wattlebird species.
This waka huia was created in
remembrance of our Huia Bird and its
status that was held within the Māori
culture.
Tai Meuli
Waka Huia
2021, totara - waka/canoe Tākaka marble - lid, greenstone - handles, silky oak- base
28Bill Devoy
Huia
2021, black takaka stone
Private Collection, Auckland
Devoy’s stone and timber sculptures are a beauty to behold, combining masterly
craftsmanship with artistic instinct and a knowledge and passion for birds that is
readily discerned. Bill Devoy’s striking female Huia, is a brilliantly crafted reminder
of the huia story carved in black Takaka stone giving a sense of permanence to this
species. Curled into her tail feathers in a posture of sleep, she watches.
29The tui, a much-loved songbird is renowned for its double voice box unique to this
species. Sculpted from Raglan Basalt, the tui, drawn to the white marble kowhai
blooms, perches upside down on the trunk of a tree made of alpine stone. The bird
is a wonder of craftsmanship but is more than this. For centuries, sculptors speak
of releasing the art or the being within the stone. Devoy brings forth the bird from
rock, freeing its spirit, that it might take flight. Birds, after all, should be free. This
work is then a metaphor for the song of the soul set free.
Rere, Take Flight
2021
Tui - Raglan basalt; Base - blackwood, kowhai; Trunk - alpine stone
700 x 330 x 250
30Minrui Yang
Exquisitely beautiful and intimate, the lover’s eye brooches created by Yang are a
treasure. She is inspired by the popular 17th century Georgian art trope, where the
painted or sketched eye of a loved one, framed within an item of jewellery such as
a brooch, communicated intimacy and endearment. Eyes have long been consid-
ered windows to the soul and these miniature gems invite an introspective search-
ing. But when Yang transfers the lover’s eye to a painting of a bird’s eye with all its
connotations of peripheral vision, the eye of the huia, a symbol of kaitiaki,18 it
becomes visionary and watchful.
The Lover’s Eye
2021, acrylic on paper, mixed media - paua, bronze
18
Guardian
31Luke Jacombs
The glass manu of different species, in various modes of flight, tweet joyful bright
colourful and optimistic notes. Tuis, fantails, wax eye, tomtits, swallows are among
this delightful array. Cast in moulds using wax, the glass birds have a translucent
glow of light and colour, bringing them alive with character.
Jacombs birds have winged their way to the US and Europe and can be found in
private and institutional collections. Jacombs himself has travelled to glass studios
and kilns in the USA, Europe, and China for work and to explore glass art practice.
Today, Luke runs Lukeke's glass casting studio in Te Atatu, Auckland (New
Zealand) and his glass blowing ‘hot-shop’ in Avondale, Auckland, along with his
talented team of glass artists - Matthew Hall, Scott Dunster, Kate Mitchell, Lauren
Richards, and Mike McGregor.
Glass Birds
32Realism - Photographing Manu - Digital Painting
The natural scientists of the colonial era wanted scientific accuracy in their sketch-
es of birds. A bias towards scientific renderings has persisted for some artists and
viewers. It is not uncommon to find within an audience a preference for readily
identifiable or photographed birds, the ones that find their way into bird guide-
books or science journals. By contrast, the abstract, conceptual, or stylised illustra-
tions offer a different way of seeing that requires a different type of listening.
Advancement in photographic technology and computer programs today, along
with the deconstruction of colonial art conventions and beliefs as to the “proper
way to do things”, grants today’s artists and particularly photographers and digital
artists an unprecedented freedom in their work. They may draw from a vast range
of convention and technique and from any art historical era so that yesteryear’s
scientific drawings, painterly realism, or yesterday’s photo realism, or hyper realism
are all optional considerations today. The ability to manipulate aphotograph or
devise a 3D computer rendering is popular with contemporary artists exploring
new and better ways in which to convey their messages.
33Janet Marshall (1947 - )
Marshall paints in the tradition of the artist observing from nature. However, a visit
to her website will reveal she is a prolific bird artist who is comfortable in a range
of styles. A renowned stamp bird artist with fourteen bird stamps to her credit, she
creates her careful illustrative renderings informed by an extensive study of birds
and her everyday proximity to bird wildlife in her studio in Nelson. She is the
consummate bird artist, with her birds appearing in a list of bird specialist guides,
children’s books, greeting cards, and New Zealand currency. 19
Along with her stamps, Marshall has two paintings in this exhibition; Fantails with
Coprosma (60 x50 cm, acrylic on mounted canvas); and Stitchbirds (60 x50cm
acrylic on mounted canvas). In these works, Marshall’s rendering of a soft diffused
light in the foreground of Fantails with Coprosma might be contrasted with the
layers of light in the backdrop of Stitchbirds. When viewed together they combine
into a unified depiction of an atmospheric stillness in an isolated New Zealand
bush.
Black Robin Kōkako
1985, Newt Zealand’s Endagered Birds’ 1985, New Zealand’s Endagered Birds’
Stamp Series Stamp Series
19
https://www.janetemarshall.co.nz/profile.html
34Stitchbirds
acrylic on mounted canvas, 600 x 500
Fantails with Coprosma
acrylic on mounted canvas, 600 x 500
35Judi Lapsley Miller
Miller’s art is motivated in part by her advocacy for the wildlife and land of
Aotearoa-New Zealand. She explores the uniqueness of our birds, the tenacity of
life in the face of environmental destruction, and possible post-human worlds.
Many of her artworks stem from her experiences volunteering in wildlife conserva-
tion projects, especially with her beloved kākā at Zealandia Ecosanctuary. Howev-
er, for this show, the kiwi is the star!
Photography is just the first step in Miller’s creative process – she digitally blends
and masks layers of photographs, graphics, scanned ephemera and textures, light-
ing and colour adjustments, and digital brushstrokes to form an image that is more
painting than photograph. The digital image is then realised in physical form as a
Giclee print on archival fine art paper.
For all her artworks featuring endangered birds, she donates a percentage of her
proceeds to conservation organisations to help ensure their vital work can contin-
ue. Thus, the art buyer is also participating in wildlife conservation. In this exhibi-
tion, Judi is supporting Zealandia Ecosanctuary. Judi lives in wild and wonderful
Wellington where she is a practicing member of the NZ Academy of Fine Arts. Her
works are held in private collections in New Zealand, Australia, UK, Europe,
Vietnam, and the USA.
…we go for an evening stroll with
one of our most precious manu.
Kiwi rely more on their sense of
smell than sight, so they snuffle
and snort as they forage as if
sharing the funniest joke.
This is the sort of kiwi joker I
want to spend time with! They’re
fascinating birds with the most
haunting call, and silvery feath-
ers that shimmer in the moon-
light. Male kiwi pukupuku pull
their weight on the home front,
too. They are the primary care-
givers for their chicks.
A Real Kiwi Joker Kiwi Pukupuku
36Alexander Okhlopkov
In Alexander’s digital print Unbroken Song there is a sense of foreboding in the
darkened sky as a group of whiteheads face an impending storm. How do birds,
with their delicate feathers and features when caught in a tempest, ever survive?
The reality is that sometimes they do not, or they may end up far from home. For
Alexander, the answer is suggested in the title.
This “painting”, a metaphor of weathering the storm, also acts as a reminder of
disturbing cyclonic weather patterns caused by global warming.
Alexander’s whiteheads are rendered after the style of the 17th century European
Old Master looking to realistically replicate the subject in the fine detail of the birds.
Like an old Master, his impressive chiaroscuro creates mood. Unlike an Old Master,
no pigments were mixed on a palette. Digital technology is manipulated to “paint”
the composition, create depth through light and dark shading… and all without a
single brush stroke.
Unbroken Song
2021, digital print
37Sean Hill
In the most abstract work of the exhibition, Sean Hill uses digital painting to
emphasise the interconnected elements of the natural environment the homes for
our birds: earth-sea-sky.
He drafts up on his laptop a carefully devised abstract composition with a design
that includes a colour plan. The work is then sketched onto his chosen support.
Here he has chosen re-used wooden pallets. He then applies paint. During lock-
down in 2020, Sean experienced fresh inspiration in his lockdown environs in
Taranaki and wanted to communicate this through his art. Inspired by nature -
balancing shape with blocks of colour, a co-dependency within the elements of
earth, sea, and sky- a necessary triptych for manu.
Tui
2021, digital prepatory design for an acrylic painting on pallet board
38Martin Lauder
Narrative
Bird photography is a hobby that has turned into a way of life for Lauder. It has seen
him venturing into all sorts of precarious situations, always listening, always
watchful, always chasing the birds and chasing the shot… for the sheer love of it!
Lauder uses a quality Sony point and shoot with a 600 mm zoom rather than an
SLR as it gives him flexibility to take the camera along in other activities and seize
the opportunities as they arise. Such is his passion for this hobby that over the
years he has accumulated a catalogue of over 70 local bird species. He comments
that his wife has observed that their walks are now taking much longer.
Heading Home
2013, Digital photograph
39Heading Home, captures the gannet in flight with wings outstretched and almost in
camouflage against the dangerous breaking white water below…but safely home-
ward bound.
The photograph I Spy is of a dotterel, tuturiwhatu, taken at Martin’s Bay, one hour
north of Auckland. The viewer is invited to wonder - what does the bird spy?
The colours of this small species, reflecting the colours of the beach, sand,
seaweed, the shells, and pebbles, also indicates the age and sex of the bird. Once
critically endangered, the North Island Species is still at risk, but recovering.
It nests on the beach and near residential areas, making it vulnerable to predators.
Nesting just above the high tide mark it can be lost to strong storms and very high
spring tides.
I Spy
2021, Digital photograph
40Bell Bird
Digital photograph
41Simon Stuart
Inspired by his father and starting out with a Box Brownie, Simon’s photographic
interests started early with film cameras in the 1970s and has persisted for around
fifty years.
His photographic subject matter includes family photographs, fast moving sport
including hockey, lacrosse, and aviation and birds since 2020. He is also a keen
aviation enthusiast and is regularly found at air shows up and down New Zealand,
photographing the thrilling displays put on by the Warbird and aerobatic pilots
based in New Zealand.
Simon has lived in New Zealand for some 11 years and has travelled New Zealand
extensively, both North and South Islands, developing a love for New Zealand
nature and wildlife photography. Concentrating on birds in 2020, he has a special
interest in the kotare, the sacred kingfisher observed in the environs of Blockhouse
Bay.
Of Stuart’s range of bird - pictures, the images of his male tomtit perched on a
branch, and that of fledgling swallows wing their way to this exhibition. Currently
neither of these species are considered threatened but they capture, as only
photography can, a realism of the natural world.
There are many stories that come with Stuart’s bird images. They can serve as
wildlife commentary. For example, in his photograph of fledging swallows, Stuart
captures an endearing moment of the parent feeding the young. He found the
swallow chicks habitually perched for food at the back of one of the Western
Springs ponds. Whenever the parents approached with food both chicks would
clamour to be fed. Although the chicks are perched, the parents never land while
feeding them, but equally want a good “positive" transfer of the food to the chick
toprevent wastage.
By comparison, it is the photographer’s anecdotal story that Stuart recalls in the
frame Tomtit in the Bush:
“… three hours walking. no sightings or anything… then 100m from the car – Tomtit
in the bush!”
The photograph was taken at the Upper Nihotupu Dam track Auckland.
42Swallows Feeding on the Wing
2021
Tomtit in the Bush
2021
43Community in Conservation
Tara iti - New Zealand Fairy Tern
Image courtesy of Fairy Tern Charitable Trust
The New Zealand Fairy Tern Charitable Trust is a private conservation group work-
ing alongside the Department of Conservation for the eradication of predators and
raising community awareness about the plight of this smallest of the terns. Heather
Rogan, the Trust convenor, will be present during the exhibition to describe the
work that the Trust undertakes.
Team leader for Birds at Auckland Zoo, Carl Ashworth shares with us his first hand
experience of incubating and rearing a fairy tern chick- Little Green; a beautiful
story of caring for these birds where we observe the role of the Zoo in working
alongside DOC in wildlife projects.
44The Imaginatio Genus: A Somervell Collaboration
Responding to the bird conservation call, the art team decided to use the Art Week
Waiata Manu platform to raise awareness about endangered birds, and especially
the fairy tern, of which only 40 - 45 birds remain. A Somervell artist collaboration
created forty flax and paper mache birds for the exhibition of the genus Imaginatio.
Painted by various artists, these birds are a part of the exhibition’s fund-raising
project for the Fairy Tern Trust.
Imaginatio Polka Kasia
2021
45The whakatauki He kōtuku rerenga tahi or “Bird of a single flight” describes a white
heron as one whose flight is only seen once. A sighting is considered of signifi-
cance and has been associated with Kupe’s discovery of Aotearoa.
In flight the Kōtuku tucks it head back to its shoulders hiding its long neck and
having a hunched look. It is found in the Ōkārito Lagoon, Westland.
Imaginatio Kōtuku Hannah
2021
After Kōtuku (White Heron)
46Upland’s Kindergarten
Upland’s Kindy teachers and children celebrate the joy of the creative process. In
early childhood learning there is an emphasis on the value of the process rather
than the result. But the mosaic and clay birds, and the ginormous paper mache
kiwi created under the loving guidance of the teachers are delightful and under-
score a hope that new generations will respect and revere the importance of manu
and whenua.
Kindergarten Kiwi
2021, mixed media - chicken wire, newspaper, wallpaper-paste, clay
(work in progress)
47A Waiata of Hope
In this Waiata Manu chorus we observe that artists have special talents to convey
their messages around birds bringing new appreciation, joy, delight, and a wonder
of birds through creative expression. We hear elements of lament for lost species
and lost habitats intertwined with warning and a call to action.
The exhibition recognises that Tangata Whenua have valuable traditional knowl-
edge and an understanding of manu and whenua that needs to be cherished. The
bird artists and the ongoing mahi by Māori communities alongside environmental
groups, scientists, and faith communities who deeply care about the wellbeing of
the planet and the survival and welfare of our birds is cause for a waiata of hope.
Imaginatio Hope
2021
48Birds
by Eleanor Black
In New Zealand we have a special affinity for our native birds, which once flitted
through the fores with no natural predators, millions of them aflutter with the busy
work of finding food, building nests, and raising chicks.
For Māori communities, birds were an essential source of food, provided feathers
for cloaks, and were used as metaphor in stories. For example, when Māui went to
kill the goddess of death, Hinenuitepo, he was accompanied by a piwakawaka. The
bird’s cheep-cheep-cheep woke Hinenuitepo who crushed Māui and brought
mortality to humankind.
At a local school close to Somervell Presbyterian, the characteristics of successful
learners arerepresented by native birds – the creative piwakawaka, the reflective
ruru, resilient tui, responsible kotare, respectful kereru and collaborative pihipihi.
The children come to understand their learning journey through birdlife, and to
mark their progress against the industrious birds they see in the school’s own small
patch of bush.
The English language is full of words that owe something to birds and our fascina-
tion with them – and indeed our admiration for them. A person who takes early
action to get the job done, for example, is compared positively to the early bird who
got the worm.
When we gather in groups (especially when regathering after lockdown) we might
be seen to caw, chatter and cheap with enthusiasm. Social beings, we parrot each
other’s words, and when we are proven right in a disagreement we crow over
others. We squawk with delight, as if we were cock of the walk.
People share instant messages, or tweet, on the microblogging site Twitter, whose
emblem is a blue bird in flight, intended (rather grandly) to embody “freedom, hope
and limitless possibility.” Like chickens, poorly judged tweets come home to roost.
49Someone who struts around as if they know it all may be called a popinjay, an old
word for parrot which conjures ostentatious feathers and loud squawking. They
might even be said to swan about, and in their focus on their own interests they will
likely ruffle some feathers.
When we are cutting it fine as we near the end of a project or the start of an
appointment, we say we are getting by on a wing and a prayer – that we are taking
life on the fly, or even that we are fly-by-night.
When you want to help a vulnerable person, you might take them under your wing.
When you are organising a project, you are said to be getting your ducks in a row,
like a mother duck proudly leading her chicks across the grass.
Something rare and highly covetable is said to be as rare as hen’s teeth. A worri-
some burden is an albatross (or toroa) round the neck. A person who misses noth-
ing is said to have an eagle eye and someone who takes on a new task with ease
is said to be a duck to water.
Bright, pure bursts of joy are described in bird terms too – you might be happy as
a lark or crazy as a loon in love. As we encounter the diverse bird art of Waiata
Manu, may we soar to new places and be filled with aroha, for our bird friends and
each other.
50List of Artists and Works
Binney, D.H.
Fat Bird, (1964) oil on hardboard, 753 x 603, private collection.
Kaiarara Kaka, Great Barrier, Screen-print 28/150 (1982) 585 x 835,private collection.
Independent State of Aramoana 40 cent stamp; (private collection) Cinderella issue based on;
Puketōtara Twice Shy (1977) oil on canvas 1807 x 1353, Museum of Te Papa
Don Binney La Chute d'lcare, Pureora (Fall of Icarus): Last Flight of the Kokako (1979) off set print courtesy of Fish Mob
Available for purchase – proceeds to Fairy Tern Trust (price indication $550)
Brown, N.
Kākāpō, (2015) Acrylic on linen 833 x634 x 50mm (private collection)
Tui for Wholeness, (2016) acrylic on canvas 900 x 700mm, available for purchase contact agent Libby Storey at: Artis
Gallery Parnell libby.storey@artisgallery.co.nz (price indication $10,500)
All Life, (2018)acrylic on canvas. Acrylic on Canvas95x240 , 2018 ($5,500) available for purchase contact agent Libby
Storey at: Artis Gallery Parnell libby.storey@artisgallery.co.nz
Devoy, B.
Huia, black Takaka, (2021) stone on concrete mould plinth, private collection
Rere (Take Flight) tui- Raglan Basalt, Base- blackwood, kowhai – marble, trunk-alpine stone, 700 x 330 x 250, available
for purchase, contact sculptor
Hill, S.
Greeeen, acrylic on pallet board (2020) private collection, Auckland
Ocean Glide, acrylic on pallet board (2020), private collection, Auckland
Blhue, acrylic on pallet board (2020) private collection, Auckland
Tui, acrylic on pallet Board (2021) artists own work in progress Taranaki
Available for purchase (Tui) contact artist: sean_Hill@windowslive.com
Jacombs, L.
Glass Birds - Lukeke studio- a variety of twelve species and colours, glass artists own,
Available for purchase (from $325 each) contact: lukekedesign@gmail.com
Lapsley Miller, J.
A real kiwi joker (kiwi pukupuku) Edition 2/5 Digital photo-art Archival Giclee fine-art print on Breathing Colour
Elegance Velvet fine-art paper. Hand-signed and editioned. Framed in a chunky rustic frame with UltraVue
70% antireflective and UV resistant glass. Includes a 10% donation to Zealandia.
Available for purchase $825 contact: judi@artbyjlm.com
52Lauder, M.
Whassup, 2021 Gull, black and white photographic prints.
Heading Home, 2013
I Spy, 2021
Available for purchase - contact: martin.lauder@gmail.com
Marshall, J.
Fantails with Coprosma, original acrylic on mounted canvas, 60 x50 cm, artists own collection
Stitchbirds, original acrylic on mounted canvas, 60 x50, artists own collection,
Available for purchase - contact artist ph. 0275286049 Email- janet@janetemarshall.co.nz (price indication
$4000)
Meuli, T.
Wakahuia, sculpture, totara -waka/canoe Tākaka marble- lid, greenstone -handles silky oak- base (2021) artist’s
own collection
Available for purchase contact artist- 021847699, 02102272606 , Email taimeuli@gmail.com ( price indication
$13,000)
Minson, S.
The Heart of Kaka (2020) off set print, private collection,
Available for purchase, See Website or contact agent Nigel@sofiaminson.com
Okhlopkov, A.
Unbroken Song, digital print (2021), artists own
Available for purchase- contact artist Email ohlopuch@gmail.com (Price indication $2000)
Smith, A.
Tumanako, Karakia (limited edition screen prints donated by the artist to the exhibition for funds for
the Fairy Tern Trust)
Available for purchase, contact Cathy Hall fundraising coordinator. (price indication $350 each)
Stuart, S.
Swallow feeding on the wing, photograph, 2021,
Tomtit in the bush, photograph, 2021
Available for purchase, contact photographer simon.stuart@levitate.net.nz
Yang, M.
The Lover’s Eye, mixed media, (2021)
Available for purchase- contact artist ministigrai@gmail.com
53Somervell and Artists Collaboration – Genus Imaginatio, 40 flax and papier mache birds; fundraiser for the Fairy Tern Trust. Individually priced. Contact Cathy Hall cathyhall@xtra.co.nz or phone 02102633249 Uplands Kindergarten Collaboration Kindergarten Kiwi, Bird mosaics Clay Birds Papier maché 54
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Campbell Patterson Ltd, Catalogue of New Zealand Stamps, 1855- present day, Auckland New Zealand.
Donald, P. Collar, NJ. Marsden, SJ. Pain, DJ. 2013, Facing Extinction, Bloomsbury Publishing, London.
Elliott, M. 2019, The Kiwi- endangered New Zealand Icon, Imagination Press, Auckland New Zealand.
Ferens, C.G. 2012, The Country Diary of a New Zealand Lady, Faith House Publications, New Zealand.
Forde, M. 1989, Another Way of Looking- New Zealand’s Birds on Stamps, David Bateman Publisher.
Gordon, E. 1987, New Zealand’s story In Stamps, Waitarua Publishing, New Zealand.
Klaus, Malling, Olsen, Gulls of the World, 2018, Bloomsbury Publishing, London New York.
Macdonald, H. 2014, H is for Hawke, Jonathan Cape, Random House, London.
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Zealand.
Norman, G. 2012, reprinted 2020, Bullers Birds of New Zealand: The Complete Wok of KG Keulemans,
Te Papa, Wellington
Parker, K. Kōwhai and the Giants, 2020, Little Love Mary Egan Publishing, New Zealand.
Ruka, J. Huia Come Home, 2018, Oati, New Zealand
Skinner, D. 2003, Don Binney Ngā Manu/Ngā Motu, Auckland University Press, Auckland New Zealand.
Turbot, E.G. Buller’s Birds of New Zealand 1888, edited 1967, Whitcombe and Tombs, NewZealand.
Whickes, C. and Fimmell, S. Creative Conservation, 2020, New Holland Publishers, New Zealand.
Wolfe, R. 2010, It’s in the Post Stories behind New Zealand Stamps, Craig Potter Publishing, New
Zealand.
References and articles online
Gentleman, D. The Design and Production of Postage Stamps: A paper by David Gentleman, Jstor .org
www.doc.govt.nz
www.teara.govt.nz
www. nzbirdsonline
www.newzealandartwork.com/shop/product/280973/the-heart-of-the-kaka/
http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/australasian-bitternhttps:
Megan Cook, 'Pulp and paper, aluminium and steel industries - Aluminium', Te Ara - the
Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/21187/independentaramoana-stamps
(accessed 27 July 2021)
http://www.nzsgb.org.uk/research/hancox/1959%20Health%20Plating.pdf
http: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7psJqrI-PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgBwzXzTd34
https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/huia-the-sacred-bird
https://ngaitahu.iwi.nz/rockart/awareness.htm
https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/discover/stories/science/saving-aucklands-spotted-shag
https://www.nigelbrown.co.nz/about/writing/don-binney/
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Exhibition Nigel Brown Bird in the Hand 2017 Artists notes
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55Acknowledgements
The Chorus of Artists painters, sculptors, glass artists, photographers, digital artists, print makers and
community collaborations
The Art Owners who have made their art available for the exhibition
Philatelists Glyn Partridge, John Kelsey, Derek Lamb, and the North Shore Philatelic Society
Co-Curators Dorothy Laing and Alexander Okhlopkov
Event Co-Ordinator Martin Lauder
Funding and Fundraising projects Cathy Hall and her team
Project General Guidance Reverend Ivan Martinez
Pastoral Care and Volunteer Organiser Wan Hyuk
Editor Script and Catalogue Kathryn Lehman
Catalogue Media Editor Jeramy Bhanabhai and Jasper Lai
Catalogue Contribution Birds Eleanor Black
Exhibition and Video Music Minrui Yang
Sound Files Yang birdsong and ambient music, Celes Ngati Whatua Orākei Karanga, Elgar Enigmas
(Nimrod), John Hanlon Damn the dam, The Byrds Turn Turn Turn, Skylar Nola I Wish You Tuis, Waiata
The Lord’s Prayer soundtrack Daniel and Ashley, Waiata Hutia Melbourne, Auld Lang Syne arrangement
Presenter Kiwi and kiwi: Our relationship with our New Zealand’s most iconic species Matt Elliott
Auckland Zoo Bird Team leader Carl Ashworth
Fairy Tern Trust Convenor Heather Rogan. Photographs of predators by permission of the Fairy Tern
Charitable Trust
Collaborative Communities Uplands Kindergarten Jenn Busch and Maggie Ling
Imaginatio various artists- Installation Hal Brown
Video Narrator Alison Ballance
Whakataukī Narrator- Tom Ihaka
Video Compilation Gilbert Rae and Luna Productions
New Zealand Post Collectibles Lynette Townsend and team, permission for image use.
Image use license/permission The Don Binney Estate, New Zealand Artwork Nigel Fowler for Sofia
Minson, New Zealand Artwork, Libby Storey Artis Gallery Parnell for Nigel Brown
Music Recordings permission John Hanlon permission to use Damn the Dam in the virtual or live
exhibition Daniel and Ashley permission to use recording Waiata The Lord’s Prayer
The National Museum of Te Papa Tongarewa Media and Print, stamp images and stamp artists
working drawings, High resolution image Puketotara Twice Shy 1976, Auckland, by Don Binney.
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (1977-0024-1)
Donation of Prints Fish Mob donation offset Print Binney Last Flight of the Kōkako, Amber Smith
limited edition prints Tumanako and Karakia
Opening Night Music Director Chris Adams. Auckland Grammar School ‘s Virtuosi (regrettably the live
performance planned for the opening was cancelled on account of the Auckland Lockdown during the
Covid 19 Pandemic)
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