Unutai e! Unutai e!

Unutai e! Unutai e! is an exhibition that harnesses the power of contemporary art to showcase the deteriorating state of freshwater across the Ngāi Tahu takiwā.

Photographer Anne Nobel says, “Photography is a wonderful medium for engaging audiences in social and environmental issues." Dirty water doesn’t make very pretty pictures, she says, so the challenge was to find some imaginative ways to bring the issues alive.

“Art can ask deep and challenging questions. And cut to the heart of the politics of our relationships to whenua and our wai.”

Anne speaks enthusiastically of the Ngāi Tahu leaders she worked with to create the exhibition. She says Gabrielle Huria, Chief Executive Te Kura Taka Pini Ltd (TKTP), the division of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu responsible for lodging the Ngāi Tahu Statement of Claim on Freshwater in the High Court, and others within TKTP introduced her to the case plaintiffs, including the upoko, kaumātua and rangatira, who would explain in court the impact of water pollution on mahinga kai, customs and places.* “The kaupapa was to work collaboratively… To build an archive of photographic images that made the impacts of ongoing degradation of our waterways visible.”

“Every New Zealander has to understand the impact of engineering and agriculture on the environment. We are sold so many stories about the importance of economic growth and there are not enough voices talking about the impact of seeing water as primarily an economic resource on the environment.” In her discussion with the Ngāi Tahu plaintiffs, it was felt photography could make an important contribution to presenting the issues underpinning the claim.

“Each person I photographed took me to a place of great significance to them and to the case.” Through careful listening and working collaboratively the mana of the people in the portraits is enhanced and protected.”

Into Te Waihora by Anne Noble.

“My role as an artist was to be an observer, interpreter and translator.” The key narrative in the exhibition is the voice of the people and places represented, she says. “The exhibition narrative flows like a river through their stories of water degradation and the impact on customary practices, places and relationships to mahinga kai.”

“Photography is truly one of the most democratic visual mediums we have. It enables collaboration; to present a person or a landscape but for the meaning of that place to be expressed by the people and the places represented.”

The Unutai e! Unutai e! exhibition closes at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery on Sunday, October 12, and will reopen at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū on Saturday 13 December.

* The High Court concluded hearing the Ngāi Tahu Freshwater Statement of Claim case on Friday April 4, 2025. The claim was brought by 15 of our upoko, kaumātua, rangatira, and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. Justice Harland, who heard the case, noted that her decision would take several months.