NZ Visual Diary - entry 321

food pantry - no clothing please

Our recent trip to Northland was our first journey to the west coast of the North Island’s most northern region. My wife and I have been to the east coast of Northland on several occasions, including a couple of trips to Russell, the country’s colonial capital.

Our trips to the east coast had the welcomed feel of tourist adventures, perhaps more typical holidays focused on beaches, good food, hikes and relaxation.

Historical and cultural exploration and education was the predominant theme of our recent trip to the west coast, aided and abetted by the company of our dear friend Hazel, a Māori Studies scholar and author.

And so, today’s photograph: an image that encapsulates a bunch of themes that ought to ground any discussion on New Zealand’s history and contemporary circumstances. I see in this photograph a millennial-long echo of proud traditions that valorise community wellbeing, mutual support and social cohesion; of the legacy of century-long warfare over land and the inter-generational consequences of material expropriation that imperialist conquest has wrought upon an indigenous people; of the rightful insistence, in practice, that Aotearoa New Zealand is a bilingual nation.