Haruhiko Sameshima

Haruhiko Sameshima explains:

This photograph is part of my eco-Tourism series—an exploration of Aotearoa New Zealand through the lens of tourism as consumer culture. This moa sculpture stands outside the Bealey Hotel near Arthur’s Pass, the latest in a line of landmark hotels that have served travellers crossing from east to west since the West Coast gold rush of 1865. The work honours Paddy Freaney, an iconic publican who, in 1993, claimed to have sighted a living moa in the nearby Craigieburn Range. Armed with a blurry photo and a good yarn, he sparked a media storm that drew tourists into the area. Freaney’s moa tale spawned a tangle of follow-up myths, including one about a co-conspirator who gained access to the Canterbury Museum by posing as a painter, loaded a stuffed moa into his Holden ute and drove it to the Bealey. After staging photographs in the bush, the bird was quietly returned.

(Bird Land: Te Kāhui Manu 15 August 2026 – 8 February 2027)