Exhibitions
Events
On display
Fools & Dreamers: Regenerating A Native Forest
Film
Past event
Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū
Free
A free 30-minute documentary about Hinewai Nature Reserve on Banks Peninsula, and its kaitiaki/manager of 30 years, botanist Hugh Wilson.
When, in 1987, Hugh let the local community know of his plans to allow the introduced ‘weed’ gorse to grow as a nurse canopy to regenerate farmland into native forest, people were not only skeptical but outright angry – the plan was the sort to be expected only of “fools and dreamers”.
Now considered a hero locally and across the country, Hugh oversees 1,500 hectares resplendent in native forest, where birds and other wildlife are abundant and 47 known waterfalls are in permanent flow.
This screening celebrates the beautiful local landscape of Banks Peninsula, which features in artworks included in the Ship Nails and Tail Feathers exhibition.
Running time: 30 minutes
Related
Exhibition
Ship Nails and Tail Feathers: Historic Treasures from the Collections of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū and Canterbury Museum
10 June – 23 October 2023
The stories told by rare, extravagant – and even curiously ordinary – objects.
Collection
Louis Le Breton Baie d'Akaroa
Louis Le Breton was an artist accompanying the French explorer Dumont D’Urville’s voyages throughout the Pacific, North America and Antarctica between 1837 and 1840. D’Urville’s two ships, the Astrolabe and the Zélée, both seen here alongside a pair of whaling ships, visited Akaroa in April 1840 where they sought respite from the open ocean and replenishment of their supplies. It was a significant time for the region: a month later, at nearby Ōnuku, local rangatira (chiefs) Iwikau and Hone Tikao signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi, Aotearoa New Zealand’s founding document. This was followed by the arrival of French and German settlers on the ship Comte de Paris in August.
(Ship Nails and Tail Feathers, 10 June – 22 October 2023)