This work is from Fiona Clark’s ground-breaking project ‘Te Iwi of Te Wāhi Kore’ which can be translated as ‘the people with nothing’ and relates to traditional Maori fishing grounds in North Taranaki and the threats posed to them by sewage and the synthetic petrol plant at Motunui. Clark produced a series of 104 photographs, of which the Sarjeant Gallery purchased 10 images for the collection in 1986. In 2017 the Dowse Art Museum wrote about the 55 images from the series in their collection:
It “acknowledges the historical confiscation of the vast majority of iwi (Ngātiawa and Te Atiawa) land along the coastline north-east of Mount Taranaki. The series positions kai moana as one of the community’s last remaining culturally significant environmental assets: not only a food source, but a taonga that brings pride and prestige crucial for undertaking manaakitanga.
These photographs also became an important political tool. In the early 1980s the entire ‘Te Iwi o Te Wāhi Kore’ series of 104 photographs was presented numerous times, most significantly for the Motunui-Waitara Treaty of Waitangi Claim (Wai-6) to assert iwi as kaitiaki of their ancestral land. Using contemporary photographs as evidence was an innovative approach, as claims could not relate to historical occurrences at that time. The photographs showed how the exploitation of the local foreshore and seabed was unlawful under the Treaty of Waitangi, because it stopped iwi carrying out their responsibility and right to care for and use their taonga.
… While the photographs from the original ‘Te Iwi o Te Wāhi Kore’ series assisted in gaining interim measures to alleviate the pollution of the local foreshore and seabed, little has been done to deal with the issues properly. In the twenty-first century, these photographs, along with Clark’s newer work, become a new kind of evidence – showing a way of life that has almost disappeared and could be entirely lost. Clark has continued to work for this cause through her photographs and lobbying, forming relationships with the children and grandchildren of the people she collaborated with in the 1980s. As a result of these bonds, she continues to work as part of the local community, highlighting environmental issues to help save this unique coastline.”
- Dowse Art Museum exhibition ‘Fiona Clark: Te Iwi o Te Wāhi Kore’ 15 Jul 2017 – 5 Nov 2017