Nina Oberg Humphries is second-generation Aotearoa-born Cook Islander, and part of a new generation of artists exploring how art might evolve beyond colonial hierarchies and priorities. As an artist in residence at the University of Canterbury in 2020, she examined items from the Oldman collection of Māori and Pacific artefacts, inviting members of Canterbury’s Pacific community to engage with the items and recall stories of living and growing up in Aotearoa. Through this experience, Oberg Humphries created an installation called Avaiki (A Place of Remembering), of which this large god stick was the centrepiece. This work emphasises her determination to maintain and strengthen her connection with Pacific people and customs, while also keeping private knowledge safe by wrapping these stories into the heart of the work.

(Living Archives, 25 October 2025 – 8 March 2026)