B.
Ode to Shag Rock / Rapanui
Behind the scenes
We had followed its progress. Reduced to easily half its size after February 22, Shag Rock was made Shagpile as well as something ruder.
Rapanui, Shag Rock, aka Shagpile or Shagged Rock. Photo: Ken Hall
Structural columns that once had meant support were exposed as broken molars, awaiting undignified extraction. Balancing but precariously angled, they had invited a sense of 'job not yet done': another decent wobble would see it finished. And so came June 13.
Edith Munnings, Fisherman's Hut, Redcliffs, oil on canvas, c.1889
Rapanui as it now stands would have hardly figured in Edith Munnings' charming 1880s view of the Redcliffs fisherman's hut. But it's still there, a geological survivor that remains beautiful; a significant landmark for local iwi as well as residents from many different cultural backgrounds.
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Edith Munnings Fisherman’s Hut, Redcliffs
Te Rae Kura, on the edge of Te Ihutai / Avon-Heathcote Estuary, was a significant mahinga kai (food gathering) site for centuries for Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe and Ngāi Tahu peoples. When painted by Edith Munnings, it was known as Fisherman’s Flat and briefly as Watsonville before being renamed Redcliffs in 1898. Munnings was born in Ōtautahi / Christchurch to English immigrant parents. She captured this (already nostalgic) scene while at Canterbury College School of Art, where she studied from 1889–93.
(Te Wheke, 2020)