Our Research | Toitū te Ngahere
Te Uru Gallery Exhibition
Te Uru Gallery Exhibition
This exhibition featured work created by Years 5-6 students from Konini Primary School in Glen Eden and Kauri Park School in Beachhaven as part of a collaborative research project with researchers from the University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau.
These students examined the implications for their communities and local environments of two plant pathogens: kauri dieback caused by Phytopthora agathidicida and the fungal disease myrtle rust Austropucinia psidii.
Through creative enquiry and practice, combining science, matauranga Maori and the arts - the students explored ways to contribute to ngahere ora (forest health) as kaitiaki, finding ways to generate positive social and ecological action in their schools and communities.
Working in collaboration with local artists, scientists, and arts and science mentors, the students shared messages of concern, hope and connection with ngahere ora.
Toitu te Ngahere: Art in schools for forest health is part of the research theme Mobilising for Action, funded by the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge programme Nga Rakau Taketake.
Exhibition Panorama
You can visit and explore the Te Uru Gallery Exhibition in a 360 panorama by clicking on the Exhibition 360 button below. This panorama will open in a new browser window and you can click and drag your mouse or trackpad to move around in the panorama. Double click on the panorama to zoom in and out.
The panorama has been annotated with hotspots placed on all the exhibition exhibits so you can click on a hotspot to learn more about an exhibit. Many hotspots also contain clickable links that will return you to the different sections of this page for further details and closeup images of the exhibits including photographic prints, artwork, videos and soundscapes created by the students.
Start with the large drop pin hotspot for an introduction to the exhibition. You can also use the buttons on the right hand side of your screen for either a full screen view of the panorama or to autoplay the full range of hotspot annotations.
Exhibition Quicklinks
Konini Primary School - Our Ngahere
Photographic prints and text
Konini Primary School is lucky to have a large area of bush /ngahere on their grounds including a waterfall and stream. This site is a special place for the students, which they help to care for by weeding and planting, and is an important site for learning.
Room 14 took digital photographs in and around their ngahere, which they then edited and wrote about to express their concerns and sense of kaitiakitanga.
The children learned about light and framing of their ngahere through photography and writing. Responding to their learning about myrtle rust, kauri dieback disease, and ngahere ora, they expressed how they felt about the ngahere and how they might become kaitiaki for its future.
View the photos and captions in the slideshow below.
Use the arrows on the left and right of the photos to navigate in the slideshow.
Dylan - A Weed Invasion: This photo conveys how important it is that we must all help to pull out weeds so there will be more plant life in the world. In the future, I hope that plants shall take up most of the world. This will make the Earth so much more amazing.
Emma - The Oil Log: My photo shows a tree that was cut down by people a few years ago. I picked this photo because it would inspire the audience to not cut down trees. I wanted to portray the importance of forest health and why we should plant more trees if we cut them down. Without trees, we will have less air to breathe.
Sia - Light Breaking Through: There's so much sun in the world and we are lucky that we have plants and trees to shade us from the sun. But when the sun does come through it is good for the trees and plants nutrition as the plants uses the sun to make their food. This photo depicts the relationship between the sun and the trees.
Simeona - Killing Trees: This picture represents the health of the endangered forest near us. This is telling you to stop cutting down our native trees and start protecting them. We have to start making an effort to try to stop cutting down the natives.
Rohan - The Mysterious Forest: This photo portrays what we need to do to keep our forest healthy and living. If we lose our forest we lose our lives and the lives of our wildlife. If we don’t change our ways Earth is going to die so it's important we take care of our trees.
Lucas - Jungley Green: This photo captures the healthy and thriving relationship between the trees and their canopy. It is so important that we allow the forest to be healthy.
Lily and Ioana - Space Life: This photo portrays that nature comes in all different sizes and colours and how lots of things can remind you of different objects.
Lily and Ioana - Tuarangatara Wha: This photo portrays that nature is not all the same on each side. If nature was perfectly symmetrical it wouldn’t be interesting. We wanted to show how beautiful nature is. It also portrays that we should always take care of the forest.
Savana - Towering Leaves: My photo represents how important trees are because they protect us. If it’s raining or if it’s really sunny, they shelter us from the weather. They also produce oxygen for us to breathe and suck up carbon dioxide which is really bad for the planet. My key message is that we need to protect our environment.
Khushpreet - Our Arrival to the Ecosystem: This photo conveys the message of the importance of ecosystems. Ecosystems are all around us, from the air to the trees to the wildlife. We need nature so we must take care of our trees because they take care of us.
Lachlan - Ooze of Fame: This photo portrays that humans are destroying nature and we need to take care of it because it takes care of us. So don't hurt or harm the magnificent trees.
Kayla - The Enchanted Forest: I wanted this photo to portray the idea that all of the land, like us humans, rely and depend on each other. The forest has an amazing ecosystem and they have learned to use a helping hand when it is needed.
Laila - Healthy Nature: My photo conveys a healthy forest because people look after it and take care of it. We need trees to live so we should be doing everything we can to keep the forest healthy.
Alanza-Eve - The Broken Kawakawa : This is a Kawakawa leaf and in this photo I wanted to portray the idea that we need to protect our forest. I wanted to send a message if we don't take care of our forest it will be dead and we will not have any trees for us to breathe and live.
Isabella - Mighty Forest: This photo portrays how big trees can grow and how some trees have other living creatures upon them like moss and epiphytes. Trees are powerful and beautiful and we need to protect them.
Carter - Decomposing Forest: This picture shows how our forest is dying because of the weeds.
Dylan - The Dream Tree: Nature isn’t just a dream, it's a real thing from the trees up in the sky down to the grass. Nature will grow and thrive. We need it more than it needs us, so look after nature.
Foxton - Forest in Danger: This picture displays how our forest is in danger because the main focus is a cut down tree and without trees we will run out of oxygen to survive.
Kayden - The Reflecting Forest: This photo portrays the darkness of deforestation and the future. My message to you is that we need to take better care of our environment so that in the future the planet is still growing peacefully and we can live on.
Ryder - Flowing Water: This photo portrays our stream, our beautiful ngahere ecosystem, and the creatures that live there. We are just so so so lucky to have our own stream let alone a forest and I wanted to remind the Konini Kids of how truly special our school is.
Takara - The Tree Web: This photo depicts a tree that looks like a web. This represents the idea that the roots sends messages to each other. The trees are really helpful, They help us breathe. If they take care of us, we should take care of them.
Haylee - Newborn Life: This photo portrays new life forms. Nature is important for animals/humans to live and survive. If nature didn’t exist neither would we. To keep our ngahere safe and pest free we need to stay on the tracks, pick up littered rubbish and set pest traps. Trees are very fragile so please take good care of them. They want to offer peace so we should do the same.
Kauri Park School - The Forest Speaks
Water-based ink on tracing paper, oil pastel, graphite pencil
Kauri Park students worked in collaboration with artist Charlotte Graham (Ngata Mahuta, Ngati Tai, Ngati Tamaoho) learning to make prints from her designs of creatures and plants of Te Wao nui a Tane / The Great Forest of Tane, while exploring ideas of voice and expression of hopes for the ngahere.
This collaborative work brings together their words and printmaking to evoke the fragility of our ngahere in the face of kauri dieback disease, myrtle rust and other pressures on forest ecosystems. Their collective messages position the children as kaitiaki bringing awareness to the wider community of the need to protect the ngahere.
View the artwork in the slideshow below.
Use the arrows on the left and right of the images to navigate in the slideshow.
Konini School Videos
Four Video Productions
The students from Konini Primary School wrote and created four videos to tell the story of how myrtle rust can infect trees. The children created their own props for their video productions, including the distinctive yellow spores of myrtle rust.
Click below to watch all four videos
"Wind Blown Parasite", "The Killer Powder", "The Cruel Killer" and "Myrder Rust".
Forest Soundscapes
Kauri Park School and Konini School
The students recorded and produced soundscapes of the forest using natural sounds recorded in the wild augmented with music and voice to capture their experiences of being in the ngahere. These soundscapes were created for the Urban Walking Festival.
Pieces of us - Kauri Park Primary School
Voices of the ngahere - Konini Primary School
Click on the PLAY buttons below to listen to the forest soundscapes.