Mike Crawford at Mamaku, Tamatea Dusky Sound, March 2024

Lucy Hammonds recounts her journey to the southern islands with glass artist Mike Crawford and what it revealed of a whenua (land) remote from human control.

One evening in early March 2024, with the first southerly storm of the season just over the horizon, my whānau (family) and I departed by boat from Motupōhue, or Bluff, the southernmost seaport of Aotearoa New Zealand. We were accompanying my husband, glass artist Mike Crawford (Ngāti Raukawa, Pākehā), on a research trip bound for Rakiura (Stewart Island), on to Fiordland, and finally out to Tini Heke (the Snares Islands), which is the closest of Aotearoa’s subantarctic islands group.

In the week ahead of the journey my anxiety had been mounting. The idea of venturing into the southern ocean by boat was fast becoming a reality and I was nervous. Searching for distraction, I turned to thinking about the histories of voyaging and migration that shape our narratives here in Aotearoa. Our ancestors were ocean travellers, expert navigators that arrived on ocean-voyaging waka, European sailing ships, and the ever-changing fleet of modern vessels that would follow. As I obsessively checked the wind and swell forecast and we prepared to depart with our children in tow, I thought about how distanced the average New Zealand family had become from these voyaging origins. How few had experienced the open ocean, or seen this whenua (land) from the perspective of the moana (sea). How lucky we were to set out on this adventure to visit some of Aotearoa’s most remote and fragile places.

Mike works in glass, kiln-casting handbuilt sculptural vessels. His practice has often focused on the environment and the margins between land and sea. These are the places from which he finds space to weave together connections between his Māori and Pākehā ancestry, the craft histories that shape his making processes and his own experiences of the natural world. This journey was the first time that we had accompanied him on a research trip, leaving behind our daily routine and completely disrupting Mike’s typically solitary studio practice.

Mike stepped into glass casting in the early 2000s. He had finished a sculpture degree and found a place in the studio of Ann Robinson, an artist acclaimed internationally as a pioneer in the development of glass casting as an art form. Her studio, set deep into the bush on the west coast of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, provided unparalleled experience in both the technical intricacies and creative potential of lost-wax glass casting. It also placed Mike amongst a small group of artists connected to Ann’s studio who shared a dedication to glass casting and would offer a context and support for his practice as it developed.

By 2010, our life had taken us away from Tāmaki Makaurau and Mike had established his own studio. However, the origins of his practice remained imprinted in his work, extending from an exacting technical rigour to a close attendance to craft histories and vessel-making, and the importance of the natural environment as both a resource and subject. With a growing interest in Māori history, Mike’s research into customary practices of food preparation and storage led him into thinking about manu (birds) and other food sources. This developed into a series of sculptural vessels informed by native manu. These works created intersections between traditions of making and the knowledge systems of te taiao (the natural world).

It was in following this research thread that Mike was introduced to some of Aotearoa’s most remote wilderness areas. In 2021 he joined an expedition cruise to the subantarctic islands, a series of isolated island groups located over 500 km southeast of the southern tip of the mainland.  These islands are an uninhabited wilderness area of extraordinary diversity, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to abundant birdlife.  The trip delivered Mike into some of the world’s largest colonies of sea-birds, home to many species that are rarely seen in mainland locations.  The experience offered a glimpse into a world in which humans were no longer the dominant force.  The subantarctic islands are a hostile environment to humans, subject to extreme weather and ocean conditions, and with little to no infrastructure or connection to the modern world. However, birds, plants and other wildlife thrive under these conditions, living their best lives on these ecological liferafts deep in the southern ocean.

In the year following, Mike developed a series of works directly connected specific to islands and bird species from this journey. Moho Pererū (Maukahuka) referenced the banded rail seen on Maukahuka (Auckland Islands), Tutukiwi (Motu Ihupuku) the snipe seen on Motu Ihupuku (Campbell Island), and Kākāriki (Moutere Mahue) the distinctive species of vivid green parakeet found only the subantarctic islands including Moutere Mahue (Antipodes Islands). Toroa celebrated the many albatross species seen in their thousands, a stark contrast to our encounters here in mainland Aotearoa. Presented in the 2022 exhibition Punanga (refuge), the works were characterised by strong, resilient and animated forms and clear, bright colours. In Mike’s words “I think often in these times there is a feeling of futility in relation to the environment, however, in the subantarctics it seems the opposite—animal, bird and plant species thriving together, without our interference.  I just wanted to convey a sense of that positivity in these works.”

Language and naming are also significant to these works. Mike has long used te reo Māori (Māori language) in the naming of his work, relating his objects to Māori histories and mātauranga (knowledge) connected with his subjects. On visiting and researching the subantarctic islands, the dominant stories were those of European discovery, of whalers and sealers, shipwrecks and survival against the odds.  However within the Māori names of species and places are different stories: descriptions of place, experience and connection back to the indigenous explorers who visited, and at times resided, on these islands.

This journey was an impactful one on Mike’s thinking and his work. When the opportunity arose in 2024 to travel to another major wilderness area of Aotearoa, this time Rakiura, Fiordland and a return to Tini Heke, he saw the potential in introducing our children to the experience. It was a different voyage from his previous one, travelling closer to the mainland and into some of the more isolated areas of Fiordland including Tamatea (Dusky Sound), Patea (Doubtful Sound) and the most well-known, Piopiotahi (Milford Sound).

Led by experienced guides, we had the opportunity to tramp through some of the sanctuary islands of this area, home to endangered species such as tīeke, mohua and kākāpō. Even in these refuges, predator species are a constant threat and the challenges are confronting. While it remains to be seen how these experiences will leave their trace on Mike’s work, as a whānau we disembarked with a clearer understanding of the magnitude of the issues facing our threatened species and environment.  Importantly, we also regained the perspective of encountering the whenua by sea, the prevailing wind and swell reconnecting us to an experience that underpins our histories and binds generations together.

About Mike Crawford (Ngāti Raukawa, Pākehā)

Mike Crawford is a full-time cast glass artist based in Ōtepoti Dunedin, Te Waipounamu, Aotearoa New Zealand. Through his work, he explores histories and traditions of craft and decorative art, and the connections between his Māori and Pākehā ancestry. Mike’s work is held in collections throughout Aotearoa, including Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, Dowse Art Museum, and Waikato Museum of Art and History. Visit www.mikecrawfordglass.com. Mike is represented by Milford Galleries and Masterworks Gallery and we travelled with Heritage Expeditions.

About Lucy Hammonds

Lucy Hammonds is a Curator at Dunedin Public Art Gallery, one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s metropolitan art galleries. She was previously Curator of Art and Design Collections at Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery/MTG Hawke’s Bay, and trained in the Critical Studies programme at Unitec School of Design, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Lucy currently lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin with her family, where much of their spare time is spent exploring the beaches and mountains of Te Waipounamu, the South Island.

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Aotearoa | G35 | glass | Lucy Hammonds | south