Documenting a quiet calamity
Documenting a quiet calamity
Natalie Robertson’s He Wai Mou! He Wai Mau!
D-Photo
January 12, 2018
In recent times, the topic of water in Aotearoa has flowed from a tentpole in the country’s ‘clean green’ self-image to a hotly contested political issue. Questions around cleanliness, access, ownership, and protection have bubbled to the surface of the public consciousness, and no one seems to have easy answers to offer. But art is seldom concerned with easy answers, and one local photographer has decided to place this complex situation in the centre of her frame.
Natalie Robertson is a photographer and arts lecturer whose practice seeks to combine image-making and indigenous knowledge as a way of envisaging the past, present, and future of the land. Her latest project, He Wai Mou! He Wai Mau!, takes in the broad ecological scope of kaitiakitanga (guardianship) by pulling two of the country’s more imperiled waterways into close focus.
NATALIE ROBERTSON HE WAI MOU! HE WAI MAU!, TAKUTAI MOANA — RANGITUKIA HIKOI 0–20 (2016–’17)