Kua ngaro mamao ‘ua atu te ‘enua (The Land faded into the distance) is a photographic installation that explores the layers of time, memory and my personal cultural history as a person with Samoan, Cook Island and New Zealand European heritage. My Grandfather emigrated from Samoa, my Grandmother from the Cook Islands to New Zealand where they met and had seven children. My mother being the fifth. Although I was not able to meet my Grandmother I see her in the faces of my mother and her siblings, the way groups of Cook Island women will speak in a language I know to be of my heritage but I do not understand and the family house that still stands on Avondale Road. Using these memories, imagery and site specific installations I am attempting to make some kind of sense of the emotional distance between familial ties and history when you are physically and geographically so far away.
Documentation credit: Document Photography