Janine Randerson

Performer: Tru Paraha (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Te Tarawa, Ngāti Kahu o Torongare) Sound composition: Jason Johnston Made with support from Kāi Tahu Glacier Guides and Susan Wallace, Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio

In Kāi Tahu cosmology, Kā Roimata-a-Hinehukatere is formed from the frozen tears of Hinehukatere, an agile mountaineer who tragically lost her love. It was renamed Franz Josef Glacier in 1865, thereby losing this meaning. In the work Waiho, Retreat, Janine Randerson follows the glacial water melting from Kā Roimata-a-Hinehukatere, tracking the dramatic retreat of the glacier in recent years as a measure of climate change and a warming world. Live sound recordings of the glacial ice cracking and the Waiho river flowing alert us to the persistent movement of water, a gentle yet powerful force. Performer Tru Paraha appears and disappears in this shifting cryosphere, a reminder that human actions are accelerating the glacier’s retreat through greenhouse gas emissions.