The Native Section
When Christchurch’s Hagley Park was created in the late 19th century native plants such as ferns, tussock, cabbage trees and flax were replaced by English plants, like beech, elm, chestnuts, pines and oaks. As part of the Scape 2021 public art season Dunedin artist Aroha Novak is currently presenting The Native Section, nine hand-embroidered billboards surrounding the park. They depict removed indigenous flora and reference both Māori and European ways of remembering and cataloguing — whakataukī and botanical drawings. Novak has also arranged for a showing of selected historic endemic plant specimens at Canterbury Museum.
The images in this gallery are used with permission and are subject to copyright conditions.