New Day 2022

ROSELYNCLOAKE Patiti 2018 400x8000 180725 web

Original painting by Roselyn Cloake

Media: acrylic on canvas. Framed: stretcher board. (ready to hang, no frame required)
Width: 750mm x 400mm. 
Available direct from the artist: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Reproductions are available here: etsy/RoselynCloakeArtist

This lighthouse was opposite our family home growing up. I see it as a symbol of hope... night has ended, here's the sunrise of a new day.

It's also a comment on push and pull of decision making and how there is light and dark, impact... in choices that are made.
An example of this is the governments marine engineer John Blackett who designed this lighthouse, also recommended we abandon the new harbour because it would change the way sediment moved up the coast.
The Port was key to the growth of our region, if we couldn't efficiently and safely import and export, South Canterbury could have been a different place today. The Port is only one of two independent ports owned in the country. And until recently 100% owned by the local ratepayers.

So you can imagine why Blackett was very unpopular. But he was right. Today we can see a beautiful sandy bay that started to accumulate after the breakwater was built. And the humongous lagoon at Waitarakao Washdyke is now only 10% of its original size, not only is the lagoon disappearing but the water quality has seriously degraded in the last 10 years. Obviously caused by a number of impacts, but the rapid erosion noted after the Ports development is well documented.

I feel for the creatures that live there, a special habitat disappearing before our eyes.
I'm optimistic, and so this painting is about a new day, and opportunity to make better choices.
 


If you wanted to see how large the lagoon was... Canterbury Maps have some great information to study... Digitised 19th century South Island survey maps (Black Maps)
 
Here is the report that Marine Engineer John Blackett produced:.natlib.govt.nz/
 
Some fascinating old maps are here too... once I saw how large the lagoon was, nearly reaching to Arowhenua, I started to better understand why this was a really important area for Maori. Today it's only 10% of the size... arcgis.com/mapviewer
 
And I found this statement on the Ngai Tahu atlas interesting too kahurumanu.co.nz/atlas
Waitarakao (Washdyke Lagoon) is the brackish shallow coastal lagoon south of Tīmaru on Kā Poupou-a-Rakihouia (the South Canterbury coastline). Waitarakao was a renowned kāinga mahinga kai (food-gathering area) for local Ngāi Tahu, with foods gathered there including tuna (eels), inaka (whitebait), patete (fish), and kōareare (the edible rhizome of raupō).
Hoani Kāhu from Arowhenua described Waitarakao as an example of where a significant mahinga kai resource has been degraded. He stated: “Now the Europeans go there and destroy large numbers of eels for ‘sport’, but do not use them. In former times our whata (eel weirs) used to be full of food, but now we do not whata because we have nothing to put in them, through everything being taken from us by the Europeans.”
 
Timaru District Council Storm Water Report
While the coastline is changing (rapidly increased when the Port built the first breakwater), there are other issues that contribute to the decline of the area such as the stormwater management:
"Polluted stormwater is contributing to reduced water quality and diminished ecosystems in our local rivers, streams and other waterways – this impacts how the community and Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua interacts with these ecosystems... .Our climate is changing, and more extreme weather and sea level rise will impact the ability to effectively drain the Washdyke catchment long-term."
https://www.timaru.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/581835/Washdyke-Issues-Summary-Final.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0cdwU1qVjoMEko2Wik2NbJVkXRv7fCgAPVMY5vXFngdT8OqBEKLPcO0FQ