Ashleigh Taupaki (Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāti Kahungunu) – Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, 2026

Kahikatea is Aotearoa New Zealand’s tallest indigenous tree. Its scientific name, Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, invokes systems of classification through which forests were rendered measurable and available for economic exploitation. Taupaki lays out sixty sections of timber, each one metre long, in the form of a fallen kahikatea. Extending sixty metres, the sculpture matches the full height the tree can reach–roughly that of a twenty-storey building. In 1769, James Cook measured a kahikatea in Hauraki, Taupaki’s ancestral land and assessed its value as timber. Such measurements formed part of voyages that mapped coasts, asserted British territorial claims and identified resources for extraction across the Pacific. Kahikatea were felled and removed from Māori land; although the timber proved unsuitable for long voyages, extensive forests were later cleared. The sculpture gives scale to Taupaki’s dream of kahikatea standing again in Hauraki and links their return to the recovery of Māori land and cultural relationships damaged by colonisation.

Ashleigh Taupaki examines relationships to whenua through installation, drawing and research. Working with minimalism and text, she addresses histories of extraction and dispossession while reasserting the authority of whānau, hapū and iwi. Her work is grounded in specific sites and archival records, where material and narrative remain closely linked. Extending beyond documentation, she proposes forms that measure loss and register absence, opening questions around restitution, responsibility and the long temporalities of land.