The Trembling Current that Scars the Earth

MEDIA RELEASE for immediate release
1 March 2007

MIC Toi Rerehiko presents

Natalie Robertson’s
UNCLE TASMAN: The Trembling Current that Scars the Earth

NZ artist Natalie Robertson’s opens Uncle Tasman: The Trembling Current that Scars the Earth on May 4 in MIC Gallery 2. This striking exhibition is a is a three-screen installation that unfolds a vivid tale of environmental destruction that according to Greenpeace, led to Kawerau becoming New Zealand’s most toxic waste dump.

The fate of Lake Rotoitipaku is one of the key stories featured in the exhibition which begins in pre-colonial times when the attraction to the natural geothermal springs caused a dense population to develop. Newcomers arriving from overseas were also drawn to the geothermal steam and established a paper mill (known as Uncle Tasman), that would scar the land forever.

In 1954 the New Zealand government passed an act allowing waste to be discharged into what was once dubbed as ‘the black drain’ by environmental activists - the Tarawera River,. Robertson visually unearths this physical truth through the words of the locals and documentation of the landscape.

For the Indigenous Kaitaka or guardians of Rotoitipaku the destruction of the environment is the destruction of an important source of their spiritual and economic well being.

Natalie Robertson (Ngati Porou, Clan Donnachaidh) was born at the foot of Putawaki Maunga (mountain) and raised in Kawerau, Bay of Plenty. Robertson has exhibited extensively throughout the Pacific and internationally including “Close Quarters: Contemporary Art from Australia and New Zealand’ and “Mapping Our Countries’ at the Djamu Gallery Sydney 2000. Her work is held in many significant public collections including Te Papa Museum of New Zealand and the Auckland City Art Gallery. Robertson has worked as an educator for 15 years. She currently is programme co-ordinator for Maori Art and Design at Auckland University of Technology in Auckland, New Zealand.

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