Delivered
Edith Amituanai’s photographs of present-day Cook Islands are featured alongside historical images from the late 1800s.
A celebration of the community offering a glimpse of lives that lived in the Cook Islands over 100 years ago, with a new photo exhibition.
Edith and George: In Our Sea of Islands, on display at Whare Toi, the Palmerston North Art Gallery, contrasts historic photographs with recent depictions of Auckland’s Pasifika communities.
The exhibit offers “an intriguing conversation through time,” says Te Manawa program developer Talei Langley.
Edith Amitunai took the most recent photos, while George Crummer, who settled in the Cook Islands from the late 1800s, took the historic photos.
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Jaenine Parkinson, director of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, worked with Amituanai to develop the exhibition.
The photos show the daily lives of the photographers in two communities 100 years apart.
“We don’t have that idea anymore because photography is so accessible now,” Parkjnson said. “But it’s the idea that a photographer can bring a different perspective to a community and uplift and celebrate them in a different way.”
The title “In Our Sea of Islands” is both a reminder that New Zealand is part of the Pacific Ocean, and a reference to a quote from Pacifika theorist Epeli Hau’ofa.
From a European perspective, there are patches of land with nothing in between, but from a Pasifika perspective, the moana is the central thing connecting these islands.
It was like a highway, Parkinson said.
Crummer’s many works are kept at Te Papa and displayed on its website.
Amituanai will give a public lecture at Whare Toi on July 8 at noon, focusing on the genesis of the project, its broader significance in the context of colonization and intercultural exchange, as well as its broader artistic practice.