Our vision is for Tamatea Dusky Sound to be one of the most intact ecosystems on Earth, and New Zealand's largest ‘bio bank’ – a source of endangered native species that can be sent to pest free locations throughout the country.

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Thank you for allowing ART to contribute to that vision..

ART supporting Conservation

The Works

Tamatea ArtistS

Tim Wilson

In memory of a beautiful human.. our Master of light.. inside and out.. we'll continue to think of you with every light change across Ata whenua. Thank you...

"Born in Palmerston North, my first trip to the South Island was with my 5th form class during the August school holidays in 1970. As a 16 year old I vividly remember my awe when travelling down the West Coast and through Haast Pass to Queenstown, thrilling at the power of the Landscape on my emotions."

Gerda Leenards

Gerda Leenards was born in the Netherlands and has exhibited widely in both public and private galleries in national and international venues. She was a part of an Auckland Island artist expedition in 1990 and in the following year Gerda was invited to a residency in the Netherlands. Gerda has partaken in numerous expeditions into Fiordland and in 2009 her artwork featured in an award winning film, The Waterfall, by Peta Carey. Between 2007 and 2008, Gerda was involved in a series of artist trips in to China, supported by The Asia NZ Foundation and other current work is exhibiting at Diversion Gallery.

"The journey into Dusky Sound is one of my many ventures into Fiordland. It always feels like a new experience for me, as the dramatic weather patterns and the geographical terrain and sea interacting with light is never the same. The moment between night and day, between light and dark, is the most unique and magical time. The intensity of blue sometimes tinged with pink. Though Fiordland is empty of human habitation, this ironically brings you closer to the explorers gone before. Hodges stays present as you enter Dusky, and the shelter that Cook sought.

I have been on numerous journeys into Fiordland, from 2002 to 2019, mostly in conjunction with conservation or with art/ conservation focussed projects. My first major artist focussed project was my participation in the 2009 documentary"The waterfall" directed by Peta Carey . This film followed the movements of Captain Cook  in Dusky sound in 1773 expedition . In 2014 I was involved in a large Tamatea/Dusky Sound project, organised by DOC, with the objective of creating a travelling exhibition of work from  the artists involved. The subsequent sale of my painting from this exhibition enabled me to donate funds  to the DOC Saddleback recovery programme .  This in turn resulted in an invitation by Lindsay Wilson from DOC to include me in their Chalky/Preservation Inlet trap check so I could see for myself the success of the saddle backs recovery. This was a very interesting experience.

It was during this trip Lindsay introduced me to Maria and Sean from "Pure Salt " who subsequently invited me on board their lovely boat "Flightless" to act as their artist in residence. During this trip we endeavoured to follow Cooks 18th century travels to the same locality around Tamatea/Dusky sound. I made numerous sketches and photos throughout the journey and developed two  waterfall paintings in diptych form  later in my studio .

I discovered that the recent acquisition by Te Papa of a Hodges painting "Dusky Sound and Maori canoe" 1775 was painted from the exact spot that I had worked in. So as this trip was also looking at the the encounter of the the two cultures I decided to include Hodges,s" Maori canoe" in the right hand panel of my triptych and painted Cooks ship the  Resolution in the opposite panel. I discovered that by joining north and south views of  Hodges,s waterfall it created a strong resemblance to a Rorschach test image which strengthened the idea of Huia -the weaving together of two cultures."

NZ$12,000

Media |  Acrylic on canvas    

Original work

Size |  770 x 770mm    

Jo Ogier

Her work is concerned with issues of conservation, ecology and the individual's role in nurturing, protecting and preserving our fragile world. It seeks to raise awareness of the unique and awe inspiring beauty of the landscape, the many endemic species of flora and fauna, plus the fragility of the ecological systems within it. She works full-time as a practicing artist and lives in Sumner, Christchurch.

She has a Master of Fine Art from the Otago School of Art (2000) and a Graduate Diploma in Plant and Wildlife Illustration (NSW Australia, 1995).Since 1992 she has exhibited extensively and completed a number of large-scale commissions for the Otago Museum, The Nelson Provincial Museum/ Pupuri Taonga o Te Tai Ao and the Department of Conservation/ Te Papa Atawhai – Aoraki/ Mount Cook Visitors Centre. Her work is held in many private and public collections throughout the country can also be view through her website www.JoOgier.co.nz.

"For me Tamatea/ Dusky Sound in Fiordland is such an incredibly unique and special place. It is a place that enriches the body and mind, fills the soul, and inspires the hope that we can protect, preserve and nurture the environment around us.

Supporting a project with the vision to restore Tamatea to “one of the most intact ecosystems on the earth” is an exciting prospect. It requires a team effort, which I am happy to be part of.

This work was created as a response to the wonderful opportunity of visiting Tamatea/ Dusky Sound with “Pure Salt” on board the vessel “Flightless” in November 2019. This adventure allowed me to explore some of the underwater environment through snorkeling, something I hadn’t done for such a long time. It emphasised to me the incredibly rich diversity under the waterline, an environment as fragile and precious as the land and sky above. It was also clear to see the importance and result of the introduction of Marine Reserves to the area. In this work I have used an old nautical map to reference the rich and diverse history of Tamatea and its exploration. The map also allowed me to embed landscape drawings form the expedition and float imagery of much of the flora and fauna we experienced."

NZ$ 9,500

Original work

Size |  1260 x 950mm    

NZ$ 480

Limited edition prints  

Giclée Prints 308gsm

Size |  540 x 760mm    

Kai Hau Kai

Simon Kaan | Ron Bull

Part of the Kaihaukai Art Collective agenda is to use food and art as a storytelling tool to connect people to place and identity.  We want to move people through the process of just viewing art as a passive form of consumption into the active process of actually consuming the work as food.  The opportunity to tell the story of Tamatea / Dusky Sound was one that was too good to miss!

"On Tuesday the 3rd of March the Kaihaukai Art Collective, Ron Bull and Simon Kaan and friends, completed an food installation at Te Papa Museum in Wellington. This was part of the official programme at the New Zealand Festival of the Arts and a response to the art installation Tamatea: Legacies of Encounter.  

We decided to break the menu into four component parts, each telling about period of encounter through the medium of food.

The first course related to the time before people encountered the space.  We served fresh fish and tuaki/cockles steamed in kelp bags, whole blue cod surrounded by some roasted kelp tendrils, accompanied by a light soup of kombu pickled bull kelp and kina.  As with all the dishes, people were encouraged to eat with their hands and interact with the food at a very personal level

The next dish told the story of Iwi Maori encounters, this included smoked paua and roe and of course Titi.  We cooked the titi in a broth with seaweed and served the broth with the meal.

Next referenced 1773 when cook came through and planted a garden in Tamatea/Dusky.  We served potatoes and carrots on top of edible dirt, made from seeds and dried olives.  We smoked the dirt with peat flown in from Dusky so people had the experience of actually tasting the land. We made a cold tea with molasas and a rimu infusion.. talking to Cooks first brewery in New Zealand.

The last dish we placed on top of the remnants of the earth. This contained wild venison which was, apart from the peat for smoking, the only other ingredient brought in from the Sounds by our friends at Pure Salt Charters.  A relation of ours, Rex Morgan from Boulcott Street Bistro made a venison tartar with one of the legs and we slow cooked and shredded the other and served it on ships crackers.  

We explained that we had eaten fish and paua and birds and just like Dusky, there are no more left.  Tamatea/ Dusky has been hard hit with introduced predators, deer, stoats and rats.  They, along with human encounters, have pushed this unique ecosystem to the brink of collapse.  

The point we were making is that this once food bowl was now almost empty.  The legacy that we have been left with, due to over fishing and predation, is that all we have left to eat are pests.  When explaining this dish I informed the crowd that "this dish may or may not contain rats!".  There were some very interesting looks on their faces!

Our point was, there is not much left in this pataka (food cupboard), and if we don't take care of our environment, all we will be handing to our children, the legacy of our encounter will be pests.  The Kaihaukai Art Collective works on the concept of koha.  We asked the participants of the installation to make a gift back to Tamatea/Dusky through the conservation project that Pure Salt are part of."  

TE PAPA museum - March 2020

Greer Clayton

Kiwi born Greer Clayton was born in Dunedin and graduated from Elam Art School in Auckland with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1996 and in 2015 a Diploma of Interior Design. In her art the subject matter is always landscape, abstracted using diffused line and glazing with mixed media, flat and pearlised acrylic. Her signature style is often moody, smudged and ethereal. Exploring colour, form and the varied texture of the landscape while evoking visual similarities of a typical New Zealand environment.

“Our landscape has its own original colour with texture formed from native plants, rivers, lakes and coastlines rising to our ever changing skyline. I aim to capture some of that visual energy in my paintings.”

Currently based in Auckland Greer works from her studio in Devonport and exhibits at Parnell Gallery.

"Morning Mauve Light" Dusky Journey

"In 2019 I was lucky enough to be onboard a voyage to the Sub-Antarctics and head back through Fiordland where I had my first taste of magnificent Dusky Sound. Through DOC I learnt of the incredible work Pure Salt and the Flightless team were undertaking in eradicating pests on the islands and how artists had been involved. To have the opportunity to visit and contribute is a huge privilege especially as the area has had such an impact and influence on my work already as I too have fallen under its magical spell and hope my paintings can give the viewer the ‘feel’ and ‘mood’ of this stunning part of NZ and encourage them to be part of it in some way."

Media |  Acrylic on canvas    

Size |  100cm x 100cm    

"Above and Beyond" Dusky Journey

Media |  Acrylic on canvas    

Original work | Available to view at the Parnell Gallery in Auckland

Size |  84cm x 122cm    

Original work | Available to view at the Parnell Gallery in Auckland

...helping us sponsor 50 DOC200 traps to go onto Long Island to further protect Resolution, Indian and Anchor Island from stoat invasion whilst giving the kiwi on Long Island a better chance of survival. THANK YOU!

"Southern quiet"

Media |  Acrylic on canvas    

Size |  930cm x 630cm    

Original work

Original work

Media |  Acrylic on canvas    

Media |  Acrylic on canvas    

Original work

NZ$ 9,500

"Light Lines"

Size |  900cm x 900cm    

Upcoming artists...

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