Coastal Cannibals

I *Coastal Cannibals*, 2020, kei te hoki atu a Ngahuia Harrison ki te Whangārei-te-rerenga-parāoa, ki te Maunga o Manaia, ki te Marsden Point Oil Refinery i Te Tai Tokerau. He wāhi whakahirahira tēnei i runga i tōna ahurea, tōna hauropi, tōna hītori – he kaupapa e arongia ai e ia inā tata nei. Ko tēnei whakaahua takiraha he tirohanga tawhiti o te wheketere tātari hinu i te taha o ngā whare hou; kua āraitia te katoa e te moana kei te papamua.

Kua āta whakaritea e Harrison ngā ata kia puritia te rārangi kotahi i te paewai o te moana, ānō nei kei roto te kaititiro i te wai – he tohutoro i te whakataukī o Ngātiwai, ‘Ahakoa e tū ana ki te whenua, e noho ana ahau ki te moana’. Ko te ariā o te tū ki ngā wāhi e rua i te wā kotahi he whakaatanga o te matatini o ngā tūhonotanga ki te wheketere i hangaia ai i ngā tau 1960, ko tāna mahi he whakaputa i te hinu mā te rua-hautoru o te motu. Nā taua wheketere i whāngai ngā whānau o ngā kaimahi mō ngā tau maha, tae atu ki tō Harrison, engari nōna hoki ngā raruraru ā-taiao – ki tuawhenua, ki te moana hoki.

In *Coastal Cannibals*, 2020 Ngahuia Harrison returns to the entrance of the Whangārei Harbour, Mount Manaia and the Marsden Point Oil Refinery in Northland. This is a site of cultural, ecological and historical significance which she has examined in recent bodies of work. This panorama features distanced views of the refinery alongside new housing developments, all of which are eclipsed by the ocean in the foreground.

Harrison arranges the images in a staggered fashion to maintain a single horizon line which creates the feeling of being on the water and builds upon the Ngātiwai whakataukī (proverb), ‘Ahakoa e tu ana ki te whenua, e noho ana ahau ki te moana’ (Although you stand on the land, you sit also on the sea). The notion of standing in two places at once speaks to the complexity of connections to the refinery, which was built in the 1960s and supplies oil to two-thirds of the country. It has provided economic stability to generations of families in the area, including Harrison’s, yet it also creates environmental issues for both land and sea.

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