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| "Once a Grand & Noble Forest..." by Toni Hartill |
Inspired by a quote from an article in the NZ Herald, 1937.
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| "Once a Grand & Noble Forest..." by Toni Hartill |
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| "Once a Grand & Noble Forest..." by Toni Hartill |
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| "The Butter Book" by Toni Hartill |
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| "Imagined Journeys Through Lost Forests I, II, III" by Toni Hartill |
Inspiration and earlier blog posts
This book was created as part of a larger body of work focussing attention on the destruction of the once mighty kahikatea forests of New Zealand, particularly of the Hauraki Plains.
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| The Butter Book by Toni Hartill |
This work includes the Butter Book which was created to highlight the fact that the timber
was perfectly suited to the production of boxes to transport butter to the UK.
Read about the creation of the BUTTER BOOK here.
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| Imagined Journeys Through Lost Landscapes by Toni Hartill |
Also included in this body of work are the three small meander books "Imagined Journeys Through Lost Landscapes I, II, III". In creating these watery paintings I attempt to revisit the landscapes that once were the swamps of the Hauraki Plains and feel bereft for all we have lost.
Read the blog post "Imagined Journeys Through Lost Landscapes I, II, III" here.
Initial research into the disappearance of the kahikatea forests
including on-location photography.
Just prior to my exhibition opening I had a blog published on Heritage et Al by the Auckland Libraries and Research Centres:
Heritage Et Al Blog: Artful Narratives and the Destruction of the Kahikatea Forests
"Where the Village Slew the Forest"
While researching the history of the transformation of the Hauraki Plains from majestic forest to lush pastural land I came across a newspaper article written by a descendant of the Le Baigneau/Bagnall brothers who ran a mill on the banks of the Waihou River at Turua. There they milled kahikatea trees to be made into butter boxes. The descendant expresses regret for their family's part in the destruction of the forest. I found the language used to be incredibly poetic and emotive and couldn't help but be moved by the writing and inspired to create this book.
I can't seem to read the article without a lump forming in my throat and tears welling.
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| Detail from "Once a Grand & Noble Forest..." |
A short excerpt from the article is included at the back of the book:
“men with axe and saw, slashing their way into the doomed
bush… It was the beginning of the end for many of the feathered world that
inhabited its depths… The massive trunks came faster and faster… but a grand
and noble forest lay dying.”
Le Baigneau, “Where the Village Slew the Forest”, NZ Herald, 24 April 1937.
The full news article can be read online on the Papers Past website by the National Library of NZ:
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/new-zealand-herald/1937/04/24/25
The newspaper page as it appeared in 1937 HERE.
Turning the pages
As the pages turn, the trees become ghostly in transparent layers,
and thin out to be the mere straggly remnants we see today.
As a child, traveling to visit my grandparents, I could never understand
why these trees were in such sad little huddles on the plains.
Now I do.
Making Of
and completed
I hope that this body of work has helped to share some of the stories of the history of our nation with a wider audience and, in turn, that it encourages more people to be mindful of what we have lost and what we need to do to protect and nurture what we still have.
POSTSCRIPT:
Since publishing this post I have just leant of the resource DigitalNZ.
Created by the National Library of NZ, DIGITALNZ is a free to use search site for OPEN NZ CONTENT from more than 200 organisations, taking you right to the source of the material you are searching.
OF COURSE: I threw in some key words to see what I might discover and found this article written by (one assumes) the same Le Baigneau who wrote the article above.
This one is published 2 years PRIOR and describes, in the same poetic and emotive tones, the demise of the old mill at Turua that his grandfather established.
Take a read and be transported!
THE OLD MILL AT TURUA
Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 18, June 1974
A TALE OF HUMAN TOIL (N.Z. HERALD 1935)
By (le Baigneau) STANLEY W. BAGNALL
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