This week you can experience Helios, a breathtaking, larger-than-life artwork created by renowned UK artist Luke Jerram. Arriving in New Zealand for the first time, Helios is both a scientific wonder and a multi-sensory artwork, offering a rare opportunity to visualise the beauty and complexity of our closest star.
The globe measures six metres in diameter and was created at a scale of 1:230 million, it is constructed from approximately 400,000 images of the Sun’s surface. These images combine photography by astrophotographer Dr Stuart Green with data from NASA solar observations. Internally lit, this spherical installation allows for a safe yet awe-inspiring examination of the Sun’s extraordinarily detailed surface, revealing features such as sunspots, spicules, and filaments.
Named after the ancient Greek and Roman sun god – symbolic of time and life. Helios blends real solar imagery with animated lighting accompanied with an immersive surround-sound composition by Duncan Speakman and Sarah Anderson, creating a powerful and unforgettable experience.
Luke Jerram’s multidisciplinary arts practice involves the creation of sculptures, installations and live artworks. Living in the UK, but working internationally, Jerram creates art projects which excite and inspire people around the world.
One of his recent projects Echo Wood is a collaboration between the artist and charity Avon Needs Trees It is an extensive new artwork made from 365 living trees.
The native trees will slowly grow into a vast 110-metre-wide design. Blossoming at different times of year, pathways and avenues will be created to guide visitors on a journey through the forest towards a central circular gathering space, formed from 12 English oak trees. Echo Wood will take a century to fully emerge – but will endure for generations.
Co-commissioned by National Trust, Cork Midsummer Festival, Liverpool Cathedral, Old Royal Naval College and University College London.
Auckland Theatre Company and Auckland Arts Festival
Until March 22
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Set in the 1960s, Waiora explores the dynamics of a Māori family – John (Regan Taylor), Sue (Erina Daniels), Amiria (Rongopai Tickell), Rongo (Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne) and Boyboy (Te Mihi Potae) – who have moved away from their East5 Cape marae looking to create a new life and new opportunities for the adults and children in a South Island mill town. They are in search of the Kiwi dream but have uprooted themselves from Waiora, their homeland.
The tensions between the older generation and the youthful members of the family are seen early on with patriarch John singing O Sole Mio while Amiria and her teacher friend Louise are singing a Beatles song. It’s a scene which leads to the development of disagreement on a range of issues.
Alongside the generational divide we discover separations within the family itself which has an estranged son working in the big city and another son, Boyboy who has been suspended from school.
A major theme revolves around the success of highly regarded John at the mill and his expectation of becoming foreman. This notion of Māori success in industry and business is juxtaposed with the lives of the two privileged Pakeha in the play. Louise, a teacher from a wealthy family and Steve, the mill owner.
Much of the play deals with issues related to colonialism, dislocation from the land, language and the spiritual dimension. These are issues which are still important for Māori and pakeha. Merely confronting these issues is not a solution, how much compromise, concession and negotiation must occur.
Cutting across the stage is a bridge by which all the characters must move. It acts as a potent symbol of the bridge needed to solve the problems of racism and opportunity in New Zealand.
Central to the play is the acting of Regan Taylor as John. He articulates all the aspirations and objectives of the family as well as the problems of not recognising some of the contemporary social issues. Some of his monologues were brilliant, drawing various themes together, conveying the personal, historic and spiritual.
While the play appears ot be rooted in the day-to-day life of the family we become aware of another dimension – wairuatanga or the spiritual life. Several white clad figures move in and around the family seemingly part of everyday but also existing as European equivalents of guardian angels or the Greek mythological figures who bridge the gap between the immortal and mortal.
The play has a rich musical landscape created by Hone Hurihanganui and Maarire Brunning-Kouka consisted of waiata, haka and contemporary sounds.
The entire cast work well together creating a witty, emotional and honest approach to the issues as they each show how they are caught up in an historic, social, and spiritual bind which offers few solutions – that is for the audience to come to terms with.
Well the hype was certainly great and I’m sure the vast majority went home blissfully sated with the sound of pipes.
In its 75th anniversary year, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, regarded by many kiwis of clan ancestry (and there are a surprising number of us in New Zealand) as ‘ours’, arrived in Auckland this week, hot on the heels of success in Brisbane. Over those 75 years many New Zealanders have travelled to Edinburgh, many, many more have seen one of its various iterations on television (they change each year), and thousands were on the edge of their seats before the Tattoo hit Auckland. And they weren’t disappointed.
Originally a relatively simple parade ground musical gathering on The Esplanade outside Edinburgh Castle, this annual event has grown considerably gaining a momentum all its own and spawning several similar events particularly in Europe. The event has gained an international stature ever since and, through both the sourcing, invitation and participation of military musicians from many parts of the world, and through attracting and growing an international audience which has hardly harmed the tourist trade of Edinburgh. The late Queen Elizabeth granted the Tattoo royal assent in 2010.
In more recent years, some have criticised the Tattoo as departing a little too far from its musical and military origins and pays obeisance more to Disney rather than to Scotland’s own heritage. But these were not apparent in what Creative Director Alan Lane brought to Eden Park.
Themed as ‘The Heroes Who Made Us’ this 2026 edition and originally conceived for Edinburgh last year, paid tribute to military music, to parade ground excellence and to the contributions of many in every sector of society. Everyday people. Just like you and me. And, although far from preponderant, to military history too. Sort of an early Pride Week you might say. In tartan.And for those who feared the pipes might dominate, well they did. But, following an initial and culturally appropriate welcome from Ngati Whatua Orakei, there was also rather a lot of brass, a delightful string and woodwind section a range of vocalists of varying capabilities and some fairly unique percussion culminating in delightful all-in crescendos. Much of the audience around me was in singalong mode when the massed bands got to’500 Miles’ and the best of the Eurythmics. There was plenty to delight the visualists among us too. Flagwork, calisthenics, highland dancing and even a powerful kapahaka.But all built around there was a musical crispness and grandeur built around the Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland with a Drum Major who commanded about a dozen others heading the several other bands from south of the border and multiple army, police, civilian and school bands from Australia, Norway, Japan, Switzerland and the US.
I happened to be seated behind a Tongan family who, not only unfurled their own Tongan flag when the King of Tonga’s Armed Forces Royal Corps of Musicians stepped onto the arena, but oozed delight and pride in their boys. They knew the words to all the songs too.
Singing guardsmen with musical instruments I hear you ask ?. In a word. Yes. There were many highlights but for me the Japan Air Self Defence Force Central Band was a standout. Their vocalist sent shivers of delight down my spine in what looked like a shimmering military gown.
Plenty of New Zealand accents evident too featuring our three top pipe bands, and bands from the NZ Police and two top-rate school bands. Rather sadly, I cannot say the same about the NZ Army Band which, despite its outstanding reputation gathered ever since pink-panthering their way into the hearts of every kiwi at the Christchurch Commonwealth Gemes Opening all those years ago, just felt a bit flat and even off-key in places.
The US Marines were a bit underwhelming too and, although the tattoo is far from a competitive thing, were easily outpointed by the Norwegian King’s Guard Band and Drill Team. Likewise the Swiss Top Secret Drum Corps provided a highly technical routine
Given that this is largely the same lineup that performed in Brisbane last week there was a heavy representation from across the ditch. They were was musically tight, had an energy and a couple of more than able vocalists who did NOT sing ‘Waltzing Matilda’.
As a proud kiwi with some scots blood myself, I must admit it a little piece of me was hoping there would be a lone piper atop the grandstand at Eden Park playing ‘Flower of Scotland’ echoing what happens at Murrayfield. – I could even know the words. No rugby this time but that’s what both venues are best known for, They have a synergy. Besides, the timing was perfect as ‘we’ beat ‘them’ only last weekend so why not celebrate it.
Well, there WAS a lone piper atop the grandstand playing “Flower of Scotland” echoing what happens at Murrayfield and inducing the crowd to join in…I even know the words. No rugby this time but that’s what both venues have in common. Besides, the timing was perfect as “we” beat “them” only last week end. So why not celebrate it.
During the rest of the show it occurred to me that it must have been awkwardly difficult to march on grass – not to mention dance. Anyone who was at school cadets will know that marching on a hard surface is a lot easier, and provides an audible marching rhythm. As for the dancers, well none tripped over so well done.
And on a final note, and while congratulating the Eden Park staff I encountered who were pleasant, helpful and courteous, I wondered whether this was the right venue for something like this Tattoo. Eden Park is BIG as rugby grounds go, but at a cost of intimacy that parts of this Tattoo required. At times it approached theatre-like blocking in some of its presentation. Several times I wished the performers were a little closer. Perhaps Mt Smart (Go Media) for whatever the future holds? Or maybe I am still wishing to see a Tattoo on The Esplanade in Edinburgh.
Learning from Venice: A Workshop for Early-Career Artists, Curators and Writers, 25-29 May 2026, Venice Italy
John Daly-Peoples
The Office for Contemporary Art Aotearoa (OCAA) has announced a new initiative “Learning from Venice”, a new professional development opportunity for seven early-career Aotearoa New Zealand artists, curators and writers to take part in an intensive five-day research workshop at the Venice Biennale, between 25 and 29 May 2026.
Timed to coincide with the 61st Biennale of Venice, “Learning from Venice” will take advantage of the of multiple exhibitions mounted across Venice, including the NZ exhibition, Taharaki Skyside by Fiona Pardington mounted at Istituto Santa Maria della Pietà (La Pietà) the site of Bill Culbert’s Front Door Out Back exhibition in 2013
This immersion in contemporary art will be led by curator, writer, editor and educator, Christina Barton, and Curator Contemporary Art at Te Papa, Hanahiva Rose.
The workshop will consist of readings, conversations, visits, and talks, and there will be opportunities to meet artists, curators and individuals involved in the Biennale’s realisation.
Participants will collaborate to produce a publication reflecting on their findings, which will be published and distributed after the workshop concludes.
This initiative will enable a cohort of committed individuals to gain a sharper understanding of how the art world works in the context of one of its highest[1]profile occasions. Participants will gain a stronger grasp of the key issues at stake in current practice, testing their reactions and impressions with peers, and learning together to catalyse future thinking about Aotearoa’s place in and contribution to the global art world.
Applications will be accepted from early-career artists, curators and writers based in or from Aotearoa New Zealand who can demonstrate their commitment to pursuing a career in the visual arts. Applications will be assessed by a panel including the co-leaders, a representative from Creative New Zealand, and artist Judy Millar.
Selected participants will be fully funded to attend (including flights, accommodation and a per diem).
Partners
The Learning from Venice workshop has been made possible through the generous support of multiple partners, including Creative New Zealand, Te Papa and the Te Papa Foundation, Elam Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, Naveya & Sloane, Barbara Blake and the Gow Family Foundation. The Chartwell Trust have generously supported the Aotearoa-based elements of the project.
“It is 1788, and six senior lawmen (with one young man sent as a representative) witness the arrival of the First Fleet. The play features a talented cast: John Blair, Damion Hunter, Colin Kinchela, Nathan Leslie, Leroy Parsons, Glenn Shea, Kerri Simpson. As we approach the 250th anniversary of Cook’s arrival, this play is timely and fresh given the paucity of publicly available sources that document first encounters from an Indigenous perspective. Visitors had come and gone for many years and the play includes reference to Cook’s visit 18 Summers prior. But previous visitors always left.
Humour provides relief to this intensely imagined moment in history. The Visitors is written by Jane Harrison. Dir. Frederick Copperwaite. Carriageworks Theatre, 2020. Photo: Jamie James.
The script involves much discussion about whether to engage in war or allow the visitors to come ashore. After lengthy debates, the men notice that the visitors are landing. They make the fatal decision to welcome them. The Visitors’ dialogue is witty and satirical. The men at its center describe the visitors in derogatory ways that mirror the way colonizers described us – “wretched people” with nothing to offer.
The Design
The set is beautifully designed with large trees framing the meeting place. Fog drifts in, allowing the audience to imagine a time long ago by the ocean. The sound of the sea and birds amplifies the experience.
The men are dressed in suits symbolizing their status in contemporary terms. They are given clan names that relate to Countries such as Eel clan or Bay people. This avoids any contest around traditional boundaries and clan names.
Personalities, But Where Are The Women?
Aboriginal protocols are clear – the men pay respect to the Country as they each arrive. Formal proceedings begin with being welcomed onto the Country, just like what the audience experienced before the performance.
Formalities aside, there is also a lot of humour in this play. Fun is made of one of the men who has complained he can’t connect with his new wife. Grandfather Elder examines him and concludes that his new wife probably just doesn’t like him. Personalities are clear – something that is often missed in the colonial writing of Indigenous peoples. We are human, we laugh, we disagree and we engage in combat, revenge, grudges, and all manner of human frailty.
The experience could have only been improved by the inclusion of Aboriginal women in the cast. The women, we are told, are away on Women’s business and although they are often referred to, are missing from the decision making process. In one scene one of the men refers to women as “spoils” of battle and in another, after hearing the younger man simulate the mooing of a cow, a comment is made that it sounds like his wife. Perhaps this is just banter between men, however, historically a range of tropes have been used to typecast Aboriginal women into roles imagined by the colonizers.
The women’s absence suggests there was — or is — a lack of senior Aboriginal women knowledge holders. The truth is far from this assumption. There is ample evidence Aboriginal women were involved in early interactions, amicable and otherwise, with early settlers. For example, it is believed local fisherwoman Barrangaroo — noted for her presence and authority — was present at the first meeting between settlers and her Cammeraygal people at Manly in 1788, and also participated in warfare with settlers at North Harbour in November 1788. She is remembered in early colonial documents as having a commanding presence, inciting respect and fear in those around her. Likewise across the country, there are stories of Aboriginal women emerging including their heroic efforts to defend Country.
A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen
A review of A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen (or How to Make the Perfect One-Pot Chicken Curry) by Nance Haxton in Brisbane’s Indaily
“There aren’t many shows where you emerge and say the play was as good as the food, but A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen (or How to Make the Perfect One-Pot Chicken Curry) certainly passed the taste test.
Telling the multi-layered story of his family’s past while cooking his grandmother Mehmeh’s chicken curry, Joshua Hinton recalls his heritage, sprinkled with a message so needed right now – that we are all not as far apart culturally as we think. And that food unites us all.
The Australian singer-songwriter unpicks his origins going back generations by skilfully weaving into his conversation audio interviews with his grandmother while the aromas of turmeric, garam masala, cinnamon, chilli, tomato and chicken float over the audience like a spell.
The spice bottles from his onstage kitchen become integral parts of the story, with photos of his family emerging from the spice rack to become characters in his grandmother’s recollections. Kitchen utensils magically becoming war planes in war stories.
Joshua’s brother Dominic is also on stage throughout, on guitar and supporting his brother by controlling multi-media shots from a range of angles around the kitchen to highlight crucial elements in the evolution of the curry. This all reveals aspects of Joshua’s identity, living between cultures.
For Brisbane lovers and appreciators of Sultans Kitchen, a staple of the Paddington foodie scene for more than 40 years, this is somewhat compulsory viewing to see the incredible challenges that the founders of this Brisbane institution overcame to build this restaurant.
Hinton is a skilled storyteller as well as musician, wrapping up his culinary journey around the world with an original song sung with his brother, satisfying all the senses before the audience steps outside to partake of the chicken curry that formed the backbone of the tale. It was a beguilingly simple device executed perfectly, and a night to remember.”
Duck Pond
A review of Duck Pond in The Guardian by Lindsey Winship “Australian company Circa are masters of modern circus, often eschewing obvious exhibitionism, and instead weaving acrobatic skills with a dance and theatre sensibility to make mood pieces. Previous works have considered the plight of refugees (The Return), tragic tales of Orpheus and Eurydice or Dido and Aeneas, and have taken on music from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring to Beethoven’s Ninth – all serious business.
Duck Pond is, on the surface, a less serious proposition. The name is a parody of Swan Lake and it borrows from the famous ballet – shards of Tchaikovsky’s score feed into Jethro Woodward’s soundtrack – and also from another fairytale, the Ugly Duckling. So we get a love triangle of sorts between a prince, an ugly duck and a vivacious black swan. The conceit might seem to promise a more conventional narrative, but it delivers something a little different. The mood is understated, classy, colours of black and gold, a clan of performers in shimmering velvet catsuits. The music is a constant underscore rather than a game of set-ups and climaxes.
There is a lot of beautiful skill on show. Acrobats climb up human towers; flyers somersault between bases. Their formations of three are especially inventive: ornate arrangements of bodies in fine-tuned equilibrium, toes anchored on hips, lower backs, shoulders, anywhere they can get a foothold. There are some lovely moments of flow between couples who lift and fling, curl and unfurl, balance and counterbalance. Bodies tie themselves in knots on the trapeze; others soar on the silks. The ugly duck is revealed to be a swooping swan; the black swan has a dominatrix moment walking over a man’s bare back in red stilettos. But there are lulls too, such as a pillow fight that turns into an anticlimax.
Story-wise, director Yaron Lifschitz puts a couple of nice twists on the Swan Lake narrative but it lacks a big emotional payoff. Low-key lyricism, rather than transactional tricks for applause is Circa’s way and Duck Pond is a lovely show, with warmth, skill and some wow moments, but you can’t help feel it could do with a dash more pizzazz.”
Niue’s Hikulagi Sculpture Park: A Global Microcosm
Sited in the middle of the natural rainforest of the Pacific Island of Niue is a physically small but conceptually monumental installation / treatise on global environment concerns, the Hikulagi Sculpture Park.
The Hikulagi Park was established in 1996 by members of the then Tahiono Arts Collective, a small group of artists including Mark Cross. Many had returned to their Pacific home, countering the trend of urban drift that has devastated many rural and island populations in the Pacific.
Several acres of land south of the eastern village of Liku were at the artists’ disposal and, while being ideal for the purpose of the artists’ environmental concerns, it was also ironically surrounded by the pristine rainforest which once covered the now degraded land.
The park’s concept embraces the sentiment that an island is analogous to Planet Earth in microcosm, and so is intended to encourage discussion on issues such as, pollution, climate change and human co-existence. It is a place where the intrinsic and unique qualities of Niuean Culture and environment can be shared with the world while attracting attention to Niue through the medium of contemporary sculpture, a medium seen nowhere else in the Pacific Islands.
Its intention is to do this through audience participation and the predominant utilisation of the found object; that is to say, the artists and community make sculpture from the inorganic waste created by contemporary consumer society.
With this in mind, the centrepiece of the park is the monumental sculpture called ‘Protean Habitat’ which epitomises the ideals behind the Hikulagi Sculpture Space. On-going and interactive, it is an art project that does not have any perception of a finite conclusion. Based on a wooden substructure, it is an assemblage sculpture fundamentally constructivist in its utilisation of the found object that can easily be attached with the most basic of tools, enabling passers-by to add their own input.
In its state of ever-changing growth the sculpture reflects the state of the world and the refuse that humanity is accumulating in its juggernaut consumerist path to who-knows-where. This vagueness of direction and final outcome of humanity are then reflected in the unexpected directions the sculpture will take during its growth and the fact that it will grow ad infinitum.
The first sculpture to be erected at the park in 1996 was by Niuean returnee Mikoyan Vekula, who grew up in Wellington. His ‘Odesyk’ is a six-metre semicircle of six totem poles of native Kafika hardwood decorated intricately with cut and inverted beer cans. The circle is completed by limestone rocks known as Makatea throughout Polynesia. Resisting the Polynesian artist trend of introspection in his imagery, Vekula draws from a number of indigenous cultures including Australian, American and Celtic .The totems in this esoterically titled sculpture depict a family, with the guardians on each end of the semicircle and the four children in the middle. At the centre of the circle is a bench intended for the viewer’s contemplation and meditation.
Several more ephemeral artworks have been created by artists who just happen to be passing through Niue. A good example is ‘Web’, a sculpture created by environmental artist Meri Heitala from Helsinki which has been made by stringing telephone wire, spider-web-like, between two coconut trees while attaching drink can tear tabs, which suggests captured insects. In this way, such ephemeral sculptures are encouraged to enlist the input from visiting artists who may not have the time to create something more permanent.
A recent project that is more of an enclosure than a sculpture is ‘Sale’s Fale’, an ongoing project in memory of the Niue High School art teacher and sculpture park co-founder Charles Jessop who passed away in 2012. The sculpture is in the form of a monumental montage constructed by the Niue community through the biennial competition ‘The Charles Jessop Memorial Sculpture Prize’
The Hikulagi Sculpture space to date is being created through the voluntary labour of various individuals and businesses on Niue. Initial funding at its inception was provided by the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust as well as the then Aus-Aid Cultural Fund. The space has been supported by Reef Shipping, The New Zealand High Commission to Niue and Niue Tourism has helped with some construction and on-going maintenance.
Protean Habitat is an ongoing monumental assemblage in an ever-changing state of growth and decay, not unlike all life on the planet Earth. It has an interactive element whereby the public are invited to add their own sub-sculptures to the substructure leaving their small indelible mark on the growth of the main construction.
Mark Cross who has had over 40 years of association with the Island of Niue says “I have been alert to the layers upon layers of humanity that has come and gone leaving small elements of their lives making a small community into a living protean organism. In such an isolated community this awareness becomes more acute and then you realize what you are experiencing is a microcosm of the whole world. So, in its state of ever-changing growth, the sculpture reflects the state of the world and the refuse that humanity is accumulating in its juggernaut consumerist path to who knows where. This vagueness of direction and the final outcome of humanity is then reflected in the unpredictable directions the sculpture will take during its growth and the fact that it may or may not grow ad infinitum.”
The concept behind the Hikulagi Sculpture Park has links to the Watts Towers in Los Angles and Palais Ideal in Hauterives, France.
The Watts Towers are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural, structures, built by Simon Rodia over a period of 33 years from 1921 to 1954. The Palais Ideal is a series of constructions built by postman. Ferdinand Cheval over 33 years 1879–1912 in Hauterives, France.
A new project will involve the internationally recognised sculptor Chris Booth who has produced more than twenty large scale sculptures around the world. The sculptor travelled to Niue in 2023 when he ascertained the potential sculptural medium of rocks and stones as well as meeting with potential collaborators such as the leading weavers in the village of Liku,
As weaving is the most dynamic artform existing in Niue today Chris has identified with it and master weavers Enele Kaiuha and Ahi Makaea-Cross have agreed to collaborate and transfuse ideas that may influence the design of the sculpture. This collaboration will in turn enable the project managers to interest the wider community in becoming involved both in a practical way (the collection of rocks and stones) and as an audience in the construction of the sculpture and the finished work. We also anticipate that the schools both primary and secondary to be involved from the outset to the completion, the project being a unique opportunity for the children to be exposed to contemporary art practice if not being more closely involved in its construction.
In 2024 he again travelled to Niue in September to try to decide on a more definite concept for the sculpture. Prior to his arrival the Broadcasting Corporation of Niue (BCN) offered the project a cyclone damaged, 8 metre diameter, aluminium satellite dish which could be inverted to form a dome structure. This would support around 1700 150mm rocks from the quarry while another 500 or so weathered beach rocks would provide a contrast to the more jagged quarry stone which would be employed to create the patterns used in the “tia” coil weaving technique (placemats, bowls etc). The use of the satellite dish also fits within the strong Hikulagi ethos of the re and upcycling of obsolete consumer and industrial materials as an environmental statement.
John Walsh and photographer Patrick Reynolds have just launched “Wellington Architecture, A Walking Guide” their third book in the series of architectural walking tours following on from their books on Auckland and Christchurch. It is a great addition to books which explore and explain our built environment.
John Walsh in the introduction notes that he was born in Wellington which was as “compact and confined as a medieval city-state, intensely impressed itself on me, in the most impressionable part of my life. My mother had moved to Wellington where she met my father, and they were married in the church at St Gerard’s Monastery. I remember the Freyberg Pool, where I learned to swim; the summer lights strung on the Norfolk pines along Oriental Parade; and the council yard where my father worked, next to the Herd Street Post and Telegraph Building. My high school was near the old National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum; we’d be sent to mass at St Mary of the Angels and, in blazers and ties, despatched from Wellington Railway Station on rugby expeditions into the hinterlands of the Hutt Valley.”
Public Trust Building
This reviewer also grew up in Wellington, living in the National Hotel across from the corner of Stout St and Lambton Quay. From our front room we had an impressive architectural vista including The Public Trust Building The Government Departmental Building and The State Insurance Building. Further down the street was the Wellington Railway Station and the Seamans Mission Building.
On my way to school I passed Ernst Plischke’s Massey House, The Old Supreme Court, The Old Government Building, The Beehive, Parliament building, the General Assembly Library, Turnbull House and the rather unfortunate Cathedral of St Paul. These were the background to my life at the time and it was only when I moved to suburban Karori that I noticed the difference in my daily environment.
Shed 7, Wellington Harbour Board
The place of architecture in our environment and in our personal and social history is important often more noticeable when we are in foreign cities. A city’s buildings are important in defining the nature of a place. When visiting a place for the first time the visitor will map a city through its buildings. The materials, the orientation, the colours, the decoration and the forms all help create the language of the way the city is perceived.
The buildings of Auckland Wellington and Christchurch have many similarities but the accumulation of the various periods of construction and styles in each of those places has created very individual environments.
“Wellington Architecture, A Walking Guide” features more than 120 significant buildings describing their purpose and history as well as providing a background on the architects who designed them. The buildings are grouped into five self-guided walking routes, each with a map together with itineraries which collectively create a portrait of the city.
St John’s
The building are a mix of colonial, nineteenth century Gothic, mid-century modernism and buildings of the last fifty years illustrating the changing nature of the architecture along with the changing nature of New Zealand and the city. The buildings are banks, businesses, government departments, churches, apartment buildings libraries, hotels, apartments, and a few private houses.
One of the tours features several of the government institutions surrounding Parliament including the Old Government Building (now the Victoria University Law School) and one on the largest wooden buildings in the world, all those other buildings I passed on the way to school along with the more recent brutalist National Library and the modernist Freyberg Building.
Several architects feature with a number of buildings such as Gummer & Ford, Thomas Turnbull and Ian Athfield who is represented by the Wellington Library (soon to be reopened) and his Oriental Parade flats as well as a few, often controversial, additions he made to existing buildings
DeLoitte, 20 Customhouse Quay
While all the buildings are significant there are a number scattered through the walk which have importance beyond their architectural qualities. There are the Dixon Street Flats which were the first multi-story modernist block of flats created under the First Labour Government which show the influence of overseas trends introduced to New Zealand by Plischke.
There is also the remarkable Futuna Chapel designed by John Scott the Māori architect who managed to combine aspects of Māori and mainstream architecture. Walsh notes that Futuna is one of the few buildings one could refer to as “iconic”.
Asked which building he regarded as the most interesting new building in Wellington he has stated that it is Heke Rua the new building for New Zealand’s Archive beside the National library, both for its architecture as well its signaling a commitment to preserving the nations documentary heritage.
Walsh writes in an informative style, providing wide ranging information to provide a context for the buildings so that while the book is an ideal complement to a walking tour of the city it is also provides a potted history of the social, political and aesthetics development over 150 years in the city as seen through the buildings.
The photography of Patrick Reynolds enhances the text with many of them showing an appreciation of the design elements of the buildings,
John Walsh and photographer Patrick Reynolds have just launched “Wellington Architecture, A Walking Guide” a revised edition of the book first published in 2022. This is their third book in the series of architectural walking tours following on from their books on Auckland and Christchurch. It is a great addition to books which explore and explain our built environment.
John Walsh in the introduction notes that he was born in Wellington which was as “compact and confined as a medieval city-state, intensely impressed itself on me, in the most impressionable part of my life. I remember the Freyberg Pool, where I learned to swim; the summer lights strung on the Norfolk pines along Oriental Parade; and the council yard where my father worked, next to the Herd Street Post and Telegraph Building. My high school was near the old National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum; we’d be sent to mass at St Mary of the Angels and, in blazers and ties, despatched from Wellington Railway Station on rugby expeditions into the hinterlands of the Hutt Valley.”
Public Trust Building
This reviewer also grew up in Wellington, living in the National Hotel across from the corner of Stout St and Lambton Quay. From our front room we had an impressive architectural vista including The Public Trust Building, The Government Departmental Building and The State Insurance Building. Further down the street was the Wellington Railway Station.
On my way to school I passed Ernst Plischke’s Massey House, The Old Supreme Court, The Old Government Building, The Beehive, Parliament building, the General Assembly Library, Turnbull House and the rather unfortunate Cathedral of St Paul. These were the background to my life at the time and it was only when I moved to suburban Karori that I noticed the difference in my daily environment.
Shed 7, Wellington Harbour Board
The place of architecture in our environment and in our personal and social history is important often more noticeable when we are in foreign cities. A city’s buildings are important in defining the nature of a place. When visiting a place for the first time the visitor will map a city through its buildings. The materials, the orientation, the colours, the decoration and the forms all help create the language of the way the city is perceived.
The buildings of Auckland Wellington and Christchurch have many similarities but the accumulation of the various periods of construction and styles in each of those places has created very individual environments.
“Wellington Architecture, A Walking Guide” features more than 126 significant buildings describing their purpose and history as well as providing a background on the architects who designed them. The buildings are grouped into five self-guided walking routes, each with a map together with itineraries which collectively create a portrait of the city.
St John’s
The building are a mix of colonial, nineteenth century Gothic, mid-century modernism and buildings of the last fifty years illustrating the changing nature of the architecture along with the changing nature of New Zealand and the city. The buildings are banks, businesses, government departments, churches, apartment buildings libraries, hotels, apartments, and a few private houses.
One of the tours features several of the government institutions surrounding Parliament including the Old Government Building (now the Victoria University Law School) and one on the largest wooden buildings in the world, all those other buildings I passed on the way to school along with the more recent brutalist National Library and the modernist Freyberg Building.
Several architects feature with a number of buildings such as Gummer & Ford, Thomas Turnbull and Ian Athfield who is represented by the Wellington Library (soon to be reopened) and his Oriental Parade flats as well as a few, often controversial, additions he made to existing buildings.
Asked which building he regarded as the most interesting nee building in Wellington he has stated that it is Heke Rua the new building for New Zealand’s Archive beside the National library, both for its architecture as well its signaling a commitment to preserving the nations documentary heritage.
John Walsh and photographer Patrick Reynolds have just launched “Wellington Architecture, A Walking Guide” a revised edition of the book first published in 2022. This is their third book in the series of architectural walking tours following on from their books on Auckland and Christchurch. It is a great addition to books which explore and explain our built environment.
John Walsh in the introduction notes that he was born in Wellington which was as “compact and confined as a medieval city-state, intensely impressed itself on me, in the most impressionable part of my life. I remember the Freyberg Pool, where I learned to swim; the summer lights strung on the Norfolk pines along Oriental Parade; and the council yard where my father worked, next to the Herd Street Post and Telegraph Building. My high school was near the old National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum; we’d be sent to mass at St Mary of the Angels and, in blazers and ties, despatched from Wellington Railway Station on rugby expeditions into the hinterlands of the Hutt Valley.”
Public Trust Building
This reviewer also grew up in Wellington, living in the National Hotel across from the corner of Stout St and Lambton Quay. From our front room we had an impressive architectural vista including The Public Trust Building, The Government Departmental Building and The State Insurance Building. Further down the street was the Wellington Railway Station.
On my way to school I passed Ernst Plischke’s Massey House, The Old Supreme Court, The Old Government Building, The Beehive, Parliament building, the General Assembly Library, Turnbull House and the rather unfortunate Cathedral of St Paul. These were the background to my life at the time and it was only when I moved to suburban Karori that I noticed the difference in my daily environment.
Shed 7, Wellington Harbour Board
The place of architecture in our environment and in our personal and social history is important often more noticeable when we are in foreign cities. A city’s buildings are important in defining the nature of a place. When visiting a place for the first time the visitor will map a city through its buildings. The materials, the orientation, the colours, the decoration and the forms all help create the language of the way the city is perceived.
The buildings of Auckland Wellington and Christchurch have many similarities but the accumulation of the various periods of construction and styles in each of those places has created very individual environments.
“Wellington Architecture, A Walking Guide” features more than 126 significant buildings describing their purpose and history as well as providing a background on the architects who designed them. The buildings are grouped into five self-guided walking routes, each with a map together with itineraries which collectively create a portrait of the city.
St John’s
The building are a mix of colonial, nineteenth century Gothic, mid-century modernism and buildings of the last fifty years illustrating the changing nature of the architecture along with the changing nature of New Zealand and the city. The buildings are banks, businesses, government departments, churches, apartment buildings libraries, hotels, apartments, and a few private houses.
One of the tours features several of the government institutions surrounding Parliament including the Old Government Building (now the Victoria University Law School) and one on the largest wooden buildings in the world, all those other buildings I passed on the way to school along with the more recent brutalist National Library and the modernist Freyberg Building.
Several architects feature with a number of buildings such as Gummer & Ford, Thomas Turnbull and Ian Athfield who is represented by the Wellington Library (soon to be reopened) and his Oriental Parade flats as well as a few, often controversial, additions he made to existing buildings.
Asked which building he regarded as the most interesting nee building in Wellington he has stated that it is Heke Rua the new building for New Zealand’s Archive beside the National library, both for its architecture as well its signaling a commitment to preserving the nations documentary heritage..
The Collector; Thomas Cheesemen and the making of the Auckland Museum
Andrew McKay and Richard Wolfe
Massey University Press
RRP $65.00
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Museums have had a lot of critical press over the past few years, viewed as agents of the colonizers because their collections often contain artifacts taken from colonized countries, and their early practices reinforced colonial ideologies by presenting the colonizer as superior. They functioned as a means of control, where European museums collected objects from voyages of exploration and colonies to showcase their dominance and justify the imperial project. But a major thrust of museums has also been to preserve, interpret, and exhibit the local cultural and scientific heritage serving as a bridge between the past and present by collecting objects, telling stories, and providing a space for people to learn, reflect, and connect with history, art, and science.
That has certainly been the aim of the Auckland Museum and the individuals who initiated it, guided it and developed it. A new book “The Collector; Thomas Cheeseman and the making of the Auckland Museum” tells how the Auckland Museum, like man y other museums in the nineteenth century were guided by visionary individuals.
The newly opened Auckland and Institute in 1876 Thomas Cheeseman stands in the doorway
Authors Andrew McKay and Richard Wolfe write about the establishment of the museum’s first custom-built building in 1876 at the northern end of Princes Street. When it opened the director was Thomas Cheesman who had been in the post since 1874, remaining in the post remained in that post until his death in 1923.
They write about the original building which was unfavourably compared to the more ambitious Christchurch Museum. It was “plain, improvised and almost invisible … It was housed in an old public building, with little funding and few staff. But that’s what makes the story compelling. The contrast between the buildings isn’t just architectural — it reflects differing levels of civic support, cultural ambition and access to resources. Auckland’s museum didn’t look like much, but it had people with vision, especially Thomas Cheeseman. Over time, he took that underwhelming space and turned it into a serious scientific institution.”
Under his visionary guidance the Museum and its collections flourished, necessitating a further move and the commissioning of a world-wide architectural competition to design a new Museum for Auckland which would be combined with a war memorial to commemorate soldiers lost in World War I. That new museum opened on its current site in 1929.
Not only did Cheesman manage to the institution for nearly fifty years but as a self-taught botanist he travelled the length and breadth of New Zealand, collecting and recording plants, and observing the geography of the country. During his career, Cheeseman also published numerous important papers on a range of flora, described three plant genera, and numerous plant species from New Zealand and the Cook Islands. At the request of the New Zealand government, Cheeseman began his magnum opus, Manual of the New Zealand flora, which was first published in 1906and in 1914 he edited the two-volume work Illustrations of the New Zealand flora.
Thomas Cheeseman
Cheeseman met or corresponded with many of the scientists in New Zealand as well as extensive professional relationships with local and international colleagues, including the German-born geologist and director of the Canterbury Museum, Julius von Haast, the geologist James Hector of the the Colonial Museum, the geologist, zoologist and museum director Frederick Hutton as well as Sir Joseph Hooker at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England.
Early on in his career he even corresponded with Charles Darwin as the authors write. “Charles Darwin was arguably the most famous scientist in the world and also one of the most controversial. And it wasn’t just a lucky moment. Cheeseman’s note was careful, respectful and scientifically rigorous. It showed that he wasn’t just some amateur with an opinion — he was a careful observer who took the work seriously. Darwin saw that. For Cheeseman, it must have been thrilling and validating. It also helped open doors — that exchange helped establish his credibility in the scientific world, and it reinforced the idea that valuable knowledge didn’t just come from Oxford or London, it could come from a young man on the edge of empire, with a sharp mind and a notebook. That Cheeseman dared to write at all — and so confidently — speaks volumes about both his scientific maturity and his quiet self-assurance.”
The book highlights Cheeseman’s efforts to develop the taonga Māori component of the museum and also touches on the ethically sensitive area of collecting the art and culture of Māori noting ‘While Thomas Cheeseman was largely guided by the norms of nineteenth-century science, some of his actions — particularly around the acquisition and display of taonga Māori — now fall into ethically ambiguous, if not outright troubling, territory. His drive to build the Auckland museum’s collections sometimes led him to treat cultural objects as specimens, detached from the communities that made and valued them.
His acquisition methods could also be problematic. In several cases, taonga were obtained through missionary networks, collectors or private sales, often with little documentation about provenance or permission. Cheeseman rarely questioned the ethics of these transactions… These actions were not driven by malice, but rather by an unshakeable belief in the civilising power of museums and the primacy of scientific classification.”
The book tells the history and development of the Auckland Museum and its progress over more than fifty years to the triumph of the building on the present site in Auckland Doman. It also tells of the journey of Thomas Cheeseman who become a great person of influence not just in Auckland but nationally. The book also gives an account of the changing scientific and cultural landscape of the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century.
It is a well-researched and written book, thoughtfully designed with numerous images which help tell the entwined stories of Cheeseman, the development of scientific inquiry, the museum and museum’s collections.
Andrew McKay holds a PhD in art history from the University of Auckland and was a Professional Teaching Fellow in the university’s art history department.
Richard Wolfe is an Associate Emeritus of the Auckland War Memorial Museum and from 1978 to 1997 was Curator of Display. He has written numerous books on New Zealand art, history and popular culture.
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Public Trust Building
Shed 7, Wellington Harbour Board
St John’s
New Zealand Arts Review 