Pacific Solution

 in “Land Wars #1, shift”, (Emma Bugden, curator) at Te Tuhi Art Centre Auckland New Zealand, 2008

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“Who has control over land, and who doesn’t? What are the changing circumstances for land use? These are some of the most pressing questions of our time…Pacific Solution compared Australia’s refugee policies to those of New Zealand. In February 2008 the Rudd Government dismantled the policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention centres on island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. The installation space used text and graphics in a room filled with hand-knitted blankets made by New Zealand women - the first gift asylum seekers are given when they arrive in New Zealand. Women from a range of knitting collectives worked and chatted to visitors in the space for the duration of the exhibition.” The Land Wars exhibitions reveal the complex negotiations land is subject to, our anxieties and fears around its control, and various strategies of resistance.”

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More info at: https://tetuhi.art/exhibition/land-wars-part-1-shift/