Parihaka to Cape Egmont Rd to Parihaka with two Tino Rangatiratanga...

Parihaka to Cape Egmont Rd to Parihaka with two Tino Rangatiratanga Flags and Two Land Rovers, Waitangi Day

On Waitangi Day, 6 February 2009, two red Land Rovers drive in formation, each flying a Tino Rangatiratanga flag. The drive commences at Te Pae Pae Marae within Parihaka Pā where, in the late nineteenth century, Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi upheld a powerful humanity when confronted with Government military incursions.

Ko te parau—the ploughing, cultivations, children offering bread and songs—acts of Māori resistance. Ko te taiepa—the fencing, surveyor pegs, armed constabulary, redoubts, a colonial lighthouse, telegraph poles—acts of state-sanctioned violence. Straight road—forced through Taranaki iwi cultivations and burial grounds—linear aggression.

Externally rigged with mini camcorders, the video simultaneously records the Land Rover 110s ‘NOUN’ and ‘IUAM’ traversing the terrain of brutal military occupation and dispossessed land. In convoy, the drivers—artists Alex Monteith and Natalie Robertson— repurposed their red Land Rovers as a durational performative display of Māori sovereignty to pay explicit attention to the military history of roads in Aotearoa.

— Natalie Robertson (Ngāti Porou, Clann Dhònnchaidh) with Alex Monteith (Clan Monteith, Clan Mitchell), 2023