Archibald Nicoll was born in the country settlement of Tauhinu Lincoln and grew up on a small farm. When his family moved into Ōtautahi Christchurch to the suburb of Spreydon, which was still a rural area at that time, he walked across farm paddocks each day to school. Although he made his living painting portraits and teaching, Nicoll loved to sketch and paint in the countryside around Ōtautahi and South Canterbury, and his keen eye for the details of the landscape can be seen in this shimmering view of the Brooklands wetlands. Te Riu-o-Te-Aika-Kawa Brooklands Lagoon is a long coastal lagoon in east Ōtautahi. It was an important kāika mahika kai for Ngāi Tūāhuriri who gathered tuaki, rōrōa, pātiki and whētiko. The suburb of Brooklands was badly affected by land subsidence during the 2010/11 earthquakes, resulting in the red-zoning and demolition of almost all properties there.

kāika mahika kai ~ food-gathering place

Ngāi Tūāhuriri ~ hapū, or subtribe, of Kāi Tahu, the tribal group of much of Te Waipounamu South Island

tuaki ~ cockles

rōrōa ~ a species of shellfish

pātiki ~ flounder

whētiko ~ mudflat molluscs

He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)