WHALE TALES 2022

Guardian Kaitiaki

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Watch and watch over, look at and look after, take and give, ebb and flow. Surrounded by coastline, Aucklanders are deeply connected to the ocean. We drink in its natural beauty and gather from it myriad economic and cultural benefits. Instead of taking for granted unsustainable consumption, we must remember our role as the guardians and kaitiaki of our backyard marine environment, symbiotically balancing the gifts we receive from our ocean with our responsibility to return them. Binoculars represent the spectator-protector duality, while the hair waves, with their aquatic inhabitants (including two Bryde’s whales), interweave humans and the sea.

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I had such a blast painting a whale tail sculpture essentially the same height and arm span as me for the Whale Tales 2022 immersive public art trail masterminded by WWF NZ and Wild in Art, featuring 80 tails (two painted by me!) dotted across Auckland telling their tales for 12 weeks from 12 January 2022. The aim of the project is to fundraise for WWF's conservation efforts to protect and restore the Hauraki Gulf and the Bryde’s whales that call it home.

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Thanks to Smales Farm Business Association for sponsoring this design, which you can find fluking on the corner of Taharoto Road and Shakespeare Road across from Westlake Girls High School in Takapuna/Smales Farm until the end of April 2022.