In The Highlander’s Farewell, Ayesha Green (Kāi Tahu (Ōtākou), Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Pākehā) draws out conversations around the migration of Scots to Aotearoa New Zealand in the nineteenth century, considering the underpinning social and political factors behind it and the implications for a new nation.

In 2024 Green spent five months travelling through the UK visiting historical sites and her own ancestral whenua. During this trip she developed an awareness of the commonalities between the dispossession of land and suppression of Scottish culture imposed on the Scots under British imperialism, and the situation faced by Māori through colonisation.

By endeavouring to bring a more nuanced understanding of Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonial history, this exhibition will attempt to trace the affinities between peoples in shared grief through loss of sovereignty. It gestures with optimism towards an ongoing construction of a national identity based on mutual empathy and recognition.

This exhibition was developed with the support of Creative New Zealand.

Opening: Friday 20 November, 6pm

Artist Talk: Saturday 21 November, 12pm 

Image: Ayesha Green, Sheep at Shiaba (detail), 2024, acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy of the artist. Photography Emily Hartley-Skudder.

Left image: Ayesha Green, Dancing Girls #2, (detail), 2026, acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy of the artist.