Allbalad Alam: the Land We Rest Upon

In tandem with the Corbans Estate Heritage commemorations, Allbalad Alam: the land we rest upon presents a series of works lead by Nicola Fraser, with accompanying makers Meg Mahy, Scarlett Kean, Karlene Groves and Tonina Ngatai.

Intrinsic to Fraser’s practice is the intimate thread tethering whānau to her craft - with whakapapa to the Corban family, Fraser uses crochet to connect to her maternal ancestors. Each movement of her wrist echoes the tipuna she carries with her - the sweeping movement of picking the grape vines, of threading the crochet hook, of plaiting a grandchild’s hair.

Fraser is able to exhibit these works within the bedrooms her ancestors once lived, intimate in space and distant through time to her loved ones. She is supported by a collection of artifacts from fellow craftspeople, similarly extending a hand to their tipuna, the places they planted and grew, and the places they were uprooted.

Fraser, and accompanying makers, give thanks and gain connection to their own experience of homeland, whether that be an ethereal ancestral home, the whenua below, an imagined home, or the weatherboard house they grew up in.