Thomas Slade - Revealing systems of power

Revealing systems of power: How photography can contribute to awareness of the ongoing impact of colonisation in Aotearoa New Zealand?

Thomas Slade

The Engine Room
School of Art, College of Creative Arts, 63 Wallace Street, Entrance C, Block 1, Wellington

Open to the public: 7 - 11 April 2025

Closing event: 5:30pm Friday 11 April

Following the recent completion of his PhD submission, we warmly invite you to view the recent work of Thomas Slade. Through this series of photographs and his writing Slade acknowledges, "systems including legislation and education provide the structure of everyday life for many people in Aotearoa New Zealand. As a Pākehā, my awareness of the impact of colonisation on Māori was restricted through these very systems. My own experience represents that of many Pākehā which leads to a failure to understand Māori grievances and colonial injustice. My photographs draw attention to institutions of power that continue to maintain a cultural imbalance and settler privilege. As Anne Salmond notes, it is through the dominance of Pākehā culture, these ‘forms of order’ are often invisible or are ‘naturalised’ as ‘common sense’.