Brett Graham | Wastelands

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is proud to exhibit Brett Graham’s monumental sculpture Wastelands, 2024 for the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand following its debut at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024. With the generous support of the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, the Gallery was able to acquire this significant work by one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s preeminent contemporary artists.

In this haunting installation, Graham (Ngāti Korokī Kahukura, Tainui) displays Wastelands with a new video work, Whangamārino, 2025, to powerfully express the enduring mamae (pain) caused by the loss of tribal lands. Over 1.2 million acres of Waikato-Tainui land were confiscated by the colonial government following the Waste Lands Act (1858), the Waikato War (1863–64) and the New Zealand Settlements Act (1863), with devastating consequences for tangata whenua (people of the land) and te taio (the natural environment). In this exhibition, Graham powerfully addresses the resulting degradation of the Waikato River and its surrounding wetlands, a precious resource and taonga (treasure) for his iwi (tribe).

In 2014 the Crown acknowledged that its breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi had left Ngāti Korokī Kahukura ‘virtually landless’, and that the development of hydroelectric dams on the Waikato River had destroyed precious wāhi tapu (sacred sites) and historic places, including burial caves. However, the legacies of the land raupatu (confiscations) remain, continuing to impact the wellbeing of the whenua (land) and tangata whenua.

Described by Graham as an ‘anti-monument’, Wastelands is powerfully symbolic of the enduring resilience and hope of a people across generations, determined to maintain their cultural health, wealth and ahi-kā-roa – the long burning fires of continual occupation – beyond the impact of colonisation.

Wastelands is on display on the Gallery's ground floor, in the Taimoana | Coastlines: Art in Aotearoa exhibition. 

Image credit: Brett Graham, Wastelands, 2024. Installation: 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere. Photo by Marco Zorzanello. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia