Wastelands

Graham’s sculpture Wastelands, situates a carved pātaka

(storehouse) on wheels implying mobility, transience and

separation from homeland. As a raised architectural structure on

poles, the pātaka was traditionally used by Māori as a house for

food and treasures, often bearing particularly ornate carving

itself across the lintel, indicative of the wealth and prestige of

the iwi (tribe). Instead of using traditional carved patterns,

Graham covers his pātaka in an abundance of eels, in direct

reference to the food source and reverence given to the natural

world of his Tainui people. In 1858 the New Zealand Government

would pass a ‘wastelands’ act as part of the colonial project to

shift the definitions of large swathes of swamp land, a rich

resource for Māori to ‘waste’. The act thereby claimed these vast

swamps as unoccupiable land redefining them as territories of

wetland to be drained and turned towards agriculture. Graham’s

dramatic presentation of this storehouse of eels is a reminder

that for Māori these

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