Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Open every day 10am-6pm
(except Christmas Day)
Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Photographers Caroline McQuarrie, Johanna Mechan, Cora-Allen Lafaiki-Twiss, and Natalie Robertson discuss their works showing in Slow Burn | Ahu Tāmau and what the works mean to them.
Caroline McQuarrie talks about the series ‘No Town’ documenting the eerie ruins of once-thriving towns on the West Coast of Te Wai Pounamu South Island, and also imagining the lives of the towns’ forgotten inhabitants – especially the women and children often overlooked in official histories.
Each year, Natalie Robertson returns to her whānau land at Omaewa, Tai Rāwhiti. Over time, she has photographed the devastating impact of deforestation on the Waiapu River. Here she talks about how her images respond to iwi aspirations to restore the awa.
In 2023, Cora-Allan journeyed around Aotearoa by boat, retracing the late 1700s voyages of James Cook and the Pacific people who accompanied him. She talks about the proces of responding to that trip.
A deeply personal meditation on physical and emotional transformation, Johanna Mechen made this film around her home over a four-year period – overlapping in time with the COVID-19 pandemic and growing anxieties about climate change.
Slow Burn showcases the diversity of photography by women and non-binary artists in Aotearoa New Zealand from the 1960s to today.
Opening soon
Sat 28 Feb 2026
Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga
