Studio of Ralph Hotere (Former), PORT CHALMERS (List No.9762, Category 1)
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New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero – Report for a Historic Place Studio of Ralph Hotere (Former), PORT CHALMERS (List No.9762, Category 1) Ralph Hotere’s former studio, 2 Aurora Terrace, PORT CHALMERS, Sarah Gallagher, 4 September 2019. Sarah Gallagher 5 April 2022 Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3
1. IDENTIFICATION 5
1.1. Name of Place 5
1.2. Location Information 5
1.3. Legal Description 5
1.4. Extent of List Entry 5
1.5. Eligibility 5
1.6. Existing Heritage Recognition 6
2. SUPPORTING INFORMATION 6
2.1. Historical Information 6
2.2. Physical Information 22
2.3. Chattels 31
2.4. Sources 32
3. SIGNIFICANCE ASSESSMENT 34
3.1. Section 66 (1) Assessment 34
3.2. Section 66 (3) Assessment 36
APPENDICES 39
3.3. Appendix 1: Visual Identification Aids 39
3.4. Appendix 2: Visual Aids to Historical Information 43
3.5. Appendix 3: Visual Aids to Physical Information 52
3.6. Appendix 4: Significance Assessment Information 56
Disclaimer
Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero identifies only the heritage values of
the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of
its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary
conditions.
Archaeological sites are protected by the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, regardless of
whether they are entered on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero or not. Archaeological sites include
‘places associated with pre-1900 human activity, where there may be evidence relating to the history of New
Zealand’. This List entry report should not be read as a statement on whether or not the archaeological
provisions of the Act apply to the property (s) concerned. Please contact your local Heritage New Zealand office
for archaeological advice.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Purpose of this report
The purpose of this report is to provide evidence to support the inclusion of Studio of Ralph Hotere
(Former) in the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero as a Category 1 historic place.
Summary
Situated on the vestigial stump of Oputae / Observation Point in Kōpūtai / Port Chalmers, the Studio of
Ralph Hotere (Former) is the last remaining house on Aurora Terrace near the Flagstaff (List No. 2319)
on the slope overlooking the awa Ōtākou / Otago Harbour and Muaupoko/ Otago Peninsula. The
property is situated south of and adjacent to the Hotere Garden Oputae and was the first studio he
owned and is the only surviving building that embodies him and his work.
Both iwi history and archaeological evidence show Māori occupation in the Ōtākou / Otago region
since the 12th century. 1 Early Kōpūtai was a small settlement recorded as abandoned in the 1840s. 2
Following the settlement it continued to be a tauraka waka within the awa Ōtākou / Otago Habour, an
ara tawhito and provider of abundant resources. 3 Kōpūtai was the location of the signing of the Otago
Deed between representatives of the New Zealand Company and 25 chiefs on 31 July 1844. 4 Today,
Kōpūtai is an acknowledged Wāhi tapu area. The simple square cottage on Aurora terrace was built in
1876 by William John Putnam an engineer and foreman stevedore for the New Zealand Shipping
Company. 5
For a century the cottage was home to several watersider families. During this time the cottage
received few recorded alterations or additions. The cottage is a typical square plan four room cottage,
1 Jill Hamel, The Archaeology of Dunedin, Department of Conservation, 2001, p. 11.
2 Anderson, p. 172.
3 Atholl Anderson, The Welcome of Strangers: An ethnology of southern Maori A.D 1650-1850, University of Otago Press,
Dunedin, 1998, p. 169 and figure 10.2; Muaupoko, Kā Huru Manu https://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/atlas accessed 15
September 2021; Note Muaupoko has only recently been adopted. Megan Potiki,’The Otago Peninsula, a Unique Identity’,
Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures, 10.1 (2016), p. 5. Kohi’s story is recounted in Ian Church,
Port Chalmers and its People, Otago Heritage Books, Dunedin, 1994, p. 10; Ellison, p. 6; The Toitū Tauraka Waka List No.
9774) is one such example https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/9774 accessed 10 September 2021.
4 Otago Deed, 1844, Harry Charles Evison Collection, Ngāi Tahu Kareao
https://kareao.nz/SCRIPTS/MWIMAIN.DLL/227497286/2/2/14487?RECORD&UNION=Y accessed 17 September 2021; New
Edinburgh Purchase Plan https://kareao.nz/SCRIPTS/MWIMAIN.DLL/227497290/4/3/17074?RECORD&UNION=Y accessed
17 September 2021; Currency conversion was conducted using Reserve Bank Inflation Calculator
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator accessed 17 September 2021’ Potiki, p. 15.
5 Deeds Index C144. Putnam is noted as owning the house and part section 144 Constitution Street freehold in Electoral
Roles of Port Chalmers in 1879-80, 1887 and 1890, via Otago Nominal Index
https://www.otago.ac.nz/library/hocken/oni/ accessed 30 August 2021; Star (Christchurch), 19 July 1898, p. 2.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 3
built of rusticated weatherboard with a hipped corrugated iron roof, lean-to veranda on plain posts
and a central door flanked by double-hung sash windows. Early photographs show it was unadorned.
Internally the ceilings were board and batten and the walls lined with vertical tongue and groove. The
ground level comprised four rooms, two of which were separated by a chimney, and two bedrooms.
Downstairs was galley kitchen with coal range and external door leading to the garden.
Hone Papita Raukura (Ralph) Hotere purchased the property in 1970 as his first studio and altered the
interior significantly, pulling down several internal walls to create a larger working space on the upper
level, adding windows, and a kitchen annex downstairs. 6 Evidence of his style and craftsmanship can
be seen throughout the house in painted windows, handmade stairs and shelves, and kitchen built
from recycled timber. The imposing entrance gate which he designed, built of carefully composed
recycled items, still stands. The studio has been a place of companionship and creative communion for
many of New Zealand’s most notable artists, writers, and creatives. The studio is in the same layout it
was when Hotere sold it to his very good friend Naomi Wilson in 1984. The cottage has been
exquisitely maintained with additions and enhancements made in harmony with Hotere’s ethos of
‘making do’ with what is available.
The atmosphere of the building provokes a strong emotional response and is a particularly important
place for the wider Hotere whānau. Many significant artworks were conceived or created in this space.
Hotere was widely considered New Zealand’s greatest living artist before his death in 2013, his work
resides in significant private, national, and international collections. Known particularly for his use of
black, he was a master of darkness creating powerful poetic pieces threaded with symbolism and
historic references, imbued with uncompromising emotion; grief, loss, remembrance, and outrage -
strong feelings founded in a deep love of people and place. The studio is an intimate insight into his
life, his generosity of spirit for his friends, respect for the materials he worked with, and as a space he
manipulated and embellished where he could conceive and create his work. The studio resonates with
its outstanding aesthetic, historic, and cultural values and has special social significance. The studio
remains a powerful symbol of the historically and artistically significant work he created while living in
Port Chalmers.
6 OT226/227; Cilla McQueen, In a Slant Light, Otago University Press, Dunedin, 2016, p. 80-81.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 4
1. IDENTIFICATION 7
1.1. Name of Place
Name
Studio of Ralph Hotere (Former)
1.2. Location Information
Address
2 Aurora Terrace
Port Chalmers
Dunedin
Otago
Local Authority
Dunedin City Council
1.3. Legal Description
Pt Sec 144 TN of Port Chalmers (RT 226/227), Otago Land District
1.4. Extent of List Entry
Extent includes the land described as Pt Sec 144 TN of Port Chalmers (RT 226/227), Otago
Land District and the building associated with Ralph Hotere, the flagpole and street-fronting
fence, Upper Port Chalmers sign and gate thereon, and the chattels, sculpture by Chris Booth
and sculpture by Marté Szirmay. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for
further information).
1.5. Eligibility
There is sufficient information included in this report to identify this place. This place is
physically eligible for consideration as a historic place. It consists of a combination of land,
7 This section is supplemented by visual aids in Appendix 1 of the report.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 5
buildings, structures, that are fixed to land which lies within the territorial limits of New
Zealand.
1.6. Existing Heritage Recognition
Local Authority and Regional Authority Plan Scheduling
The Studio of Ralph Hotere is not scheduled in the Dunedin City Council District Plan.
2. SUPPORTING INFORMATION
2.1. Historical Information
Early history
Both iwi history and archaeological evidence show Māori occupation in the Ōtākou / Otago
region since the 12th century. 8 Tradition tells us the atua Tū-te-rākiwhanoa discovered the
wrecked celestial waka of Aoraki (Te Waka o Aoraki / South Island) and carved out places for
people to live, including Muaupoko / Otago Peninsular. 9 In another telling, the atua Kahukura
was believed to have shaped the Otago coastline, eaten out the harbour and thrown up the
earth either side thus forming the western shore and the peninsula. 10 Other traditions claim
the taniwha Matamata carved out the harbour before crawling over the hills to the Taieri
plains where he dug out the rivers and was transformed into Puke Makamaka / Saddle Hill. 11
Today, Kāi Tahu mana whenua is recognised over a large part of Te Wai Pounamu. 12 Kāti
Māmoe and Waitaha shared occupation are always acknowledged. 13 The hapū Kai Te Pahi,
Kāti Moki, and Kāti Taoka still maintain their presence and responsibility as kaitiaki in this
region. The harbour was shallow before Europeans arrived and provided abundant resources
for hapū. Awa Ōtākou / Otago Habour was an ara tawhito for access to the north, south, and
8 Jill Hamel, The Archaeology of Dunedin, Department of Conservation, 2001, p. 11.
9 Muaupoko Kā Huru Manu https://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/atlas accessed 1 Feb 2022.
10 Michael Stevens, "The Names Are in the Land, Our History Is in the Land " (B.A. Dissertation, University of Otago, 1976), 19-
20 cited in Jonathan L. West, An environmental history of the Otago Peninsula: dialectics of ecological and cultural change
from first settlement to 1900 (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy). University of Otago, 2009, p. 70-71.
11 Tahu Potiki, How Otago Harbour was Formed https://youtu.be/m1SxyJG8E4w accessed 1 Feb 2022.
12 Ngāi Tahu http://www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz/About-Ngai-Tahu/Ngai-Tahu.php accessed 12 Dec 2019.
13 Kāi Tahu Ki Otago, Natural Resource Management Plan, 2005 https://aukaha.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/kai-
tahu-ki-otago-natural-resource-mgmt-plan-05.pdf accessed 12 Dec 2019; Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou
http://www.otakourunaka.co.nz/our-harbour accessed 12 Dec 2019.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 6
inland for access using waka hunua to tauraka waka where there were sites for mahika kai,
nohoaka. 14
Edward Ellison’s submission to Otago Regional Council of 2011 details a significant number of
named places indicating a vast knowledge as well as historic and continual use of the wider
harbour area. 15 The awa Ōtākou / Otago Habour was an ara tawhito for access to the north,
south, and inland using waka hunua to tauraka waka to each mahika kai, and nohoaka. 16
Kōputai was such a landing place from which hunting parties would venture to
Kapukataumahaka / Mt Cargill to source weka. 17
Ōtākou on Muaupoko/ Otago Peninsula was historically, and continues to be, the main
settlement in the area. In the 19th century there were additional small settlements on the
other side of the harbour. These were mainly occupied by Taiaroa at Otaheiti, his son at
Otawhero, and his cousin Kohi at Kōpūtai. 18 Kōrero states Ōtākou warriors landed their waka
here and named it after the high tide that stole away with their craft. 19 Herries Beattie
interprets Kōpūtai as, ‘filled up with the sea’ or ‘full tide’. He notes an elderly man told him
about a tuaha (sacred altar), a taipo (haunted place) on the hill above the current site of Iona
Church (List No. 7165). 20 This may account for an earlier name for the place identified by
Beattie as Potakere or Pou-takere. 21 The settlement at Kōpūtai was recorded as abandoned in
the 1840s. 22 Oputae is a noted place on the New Edinburgh Purchase map from 1844. 23
14 Statement of Evidence of Edward Ellison on Behalf of Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou, 2011, p. 6
https://www.orc.govt.nz/media/3157/submission-evidence-of-edward-ellison-on-behalf-of-te-runanga-o-otakou-12-apr-
11.pdf accessed 15 September 2021.
15 Ellison, pp. 18-21.
16 Ellison, p. 6; The Toitū Tauraka Waka List No. 9774) is one such example https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/9774
accessed 10 September 2021.
17 Tim Vial, Cultural Impact Assessment: Project Next generation Otago Harbour, Kāi Tahu Ki Otago Ltd, May 2010,
https://www.orc.govt.nz/media/3258/25-cultural-impact-assessment-2010-va275966.pdf accessed 30 September 2021.
18 Atholl Anderson, The Welcome of Strangers: An ethnology of southern Maori A.D 1650-1850, University of Otago Press,
Dunedin, 1998, p. 169 and figure 10.2; Muaupoko, Kā Huru Manu https://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/atlas accessed 15
September 2021; Note Muaupoko has only recently been adopted. Megan Potiki,’The Otago Peninsula, a Unique Identity’,
Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures, 10.1 (2016), p. 5. Kohi’s story is recounted in Ian Church,
Port Chalmers and its People, Otago Heritage Books, Dunedin, 1994, p. 10.
19 Church, p. 9.
20 Herries Beattie, Maori Place-names of Otago, second edition, Cadsonbury Publications, Christchurch, 2020, p. 44.
21 Herries Beattie, Our Southernmost Maoris: their habitat, nature notes, problems and perplexities, controversial and
conversational, further place names, antiquity of man in New Zealand, Cadsonbury Publications, Christchurch, 1994, p.
130; This early name, along with Oputae for Observation Point feature in several of Hotere’s works.
22 Anderson, p. 172.
23 Malcolm McKinnon, 'Otago region - The Otago settlement', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand,
http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/zoomify/22634/new-edinburgh-map accessed 24 January 2022.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 7
Other named places close to Kōpūtai are Koperekakahu, Te Ana o Te Makau, Te Waitohi,
Rakiriri / Goat Island (List No. 7504) and Kamau Taurua / Quarantine Island (List No. 7503). 24
Following the arrival of European sealers in the first decades of the 19th century saw Māori
enter into trade with them, cultivating and supplying potatoes, flax, pigs and fresh water.
Independently Māori traded with Sydney supplying dried and salted fish, port, and tītī. A
successful whaling station was established at Te Umukurī / Wellers Rock by the Weller
brothers, who married Ōtākou women and worked with local Māori. 25
Kōpūtai was included in a 16-mile² (41 km²) tract land that had previously been sold by Chief
Taiaroa to Captain Pierre Darmandarits for £100 ($19, 470) on 18 May 1840. 26 This purchase
predated the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi at the Otago Heads on 13 June 1840 but post-
dated Sir George Gipps proclamation in January 1840 which saw New Zealand fall under the
jurisdiction of New South Wales. This made any land not acquired by the Crown or its
appointees invalid and despite verifying the purchase and appealing, Darmandarits claim to
the land failed. 27 It also followed the 15 February 1840 sale of the South Island by a number
of Chiefs to John Jones and William Wentworth. 28 The signing of the Otago Deed between
representatives of the New Zealand Company and 25 chiefs occurred at Kōpūtai on 31 July
1844 and saw the sale of a half million acres for £2,400 ($300,000) which included the site of
the New Edinburgh Settlement, the site of Ōtepoti / Dunedin. 29 During the 1879 Smith-Nairn
Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Ngāi Tahu land claims, Ngāi Tahu kaumātua recorded
Kōpūtai as a kāinga nohoanga, urupā, and wāhi tapu. 30 Kōpūtai is the site of Ngā Whenua
Rāhui, the Port Chalmers / Kōpūtai Native Reserve. However, the original site was never
reserved, the land was used for other purposes, and the Crown was required to purchase an
24 Ellison, p. 18-21.
25 Potiki, p. 12-13.
26 Note the New Zealand Reserve Bank Inflation Calculator does not go back further than 1860 so the Bank of England
Inflation Calculator has been used and the current rate was then converted to NZD. Bank of England Inflation Calculator
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator accessed 17 October 2021.
27 Norman Ledgerwood, Deborah Bay: The People and Events of a Lower Otago Harbour Community, University of Otago
Print, Dunedin, 2006, p. 9.
28 Wentworth Indenture, Nags Head Press, Christchurch, 1979.
29 Otago Deed, 1844, Harry Charles Evison Collection, Ngāi Tahu Kareao
https://kareao.nz/SCRIPTS/MWIMAIN.DLL/227497286/2/2/14487?RECORD&UNION=Y accessed 17 September 2021; New
Edinburgh Purchase Plan https://kareao.nz/SCRIPTS/MWIMAIN.DLL/227497290/4/3/17074?RECORD&UNION=Y accessed
17 September 2021; Currency conversion was conducted using Reserve Bank Inflation Calculator
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator accessed 17 September 2021’ Potiki, p. 15.
30 Kōpūtai, Kā Huru Manu https://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/atlas accessed 10 September 2021; Note SO 14728 shows graves
near the Flagstaff which may be the urupā.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 8
alternate site. 31 A statutory acknowledgement exists for Te Tai o Arai Te Uru / Otago Coastal
Marine Area of which Otago Harbour catchment / Te Riu o te Whāka o Otago, is a part. 32
Ōtākou whanau continue to live at the kaik, and Ōtākou runaka hold multiple business
interests in the area and wider Dunedin today.
European settlement
Following the sale of the Otago block, the move to settlement was swift. Charles Kettle,
surveyor for the New Zealand Company, surveyed the new town of Dunedin at the head of
the harbour in 1846. He was based at Kōpūtai which he designed as a seaport and while
there made observations of the moon. 33 The settlement saw the arrival of the first settlers
who arrived on the John Wickliffe and Philip Laing in 1848 and was renamed Chalmers in
after Thomas Chalmers, a leader in the Free Church of Scotland who had died the previous
year. 34 In 1860 the crew of HMS Acheron made the first detailed cartographic study of the
harbour from Observation Point in 1860. 35 Following the discovery of gold in 1861, Port
Chalmers was flooded with settlers and sojourners seeking their fortunes, and the number of
ships coming into port grew to the extent a signal station was required in 1864 and was
erected on Observation Point / Flagstaff. Dredging of the harbour commenced in 1868 and
has been carried out continuously since that time. 36 In 1872 a private railway company
constructed a line linking Dunedin and Port Chalmers. The Otago Harbour Board opened in
1881 and dredged the Victoria Channel from Port Chalmers to Dunedin. This opened a
debate between Port Chalmers and the City as to who would have the main port. Today Port
31 Kōpūtai, Kā Huru Manu https://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/atlas accessed 10 September 2021; OT88/60 Sec 412 and
OT253/21 Sec 401 TN of Port Chalmers and Māori Land Online https://www.maorilandonline.govt.nz/ ; this area is
acknowledged as Wāhi Tapu in the Dunedin City Council Second Generation plan.
32 Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, Schedule 103 Statutory acknowledgement for Te Tai o Arai Te Uru (Otago Coastal
Marine Area) https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1998/0097/latest/DLM431353.html accessed 10 September
2021.
33 Church, p. 11; Peter Entwisle, Charles’ Kettle’s Dunedin, Port Daniel Press https://portdanielpress.com/charles-kettles-
dunedin/ accessed 15 September 2021; Surveyor's Field Book - Charles Henry Kettle - Lunar and Other Observations at
Koputai [Port Chalmers] Archives New Zealand (R23192622)
https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE25210098 accessed 15 September 2021.
Kettle stayed in one of the few houses in the small settlement, see Key plan to Kettle’s picture of Lower Harbour and Port
Chalmers. Copied by E.M. Hocken after Charles Kettle, 1898 https://otago.ourheritage.ac.nz/items/show/5539 accessed
17 September 2021.
34Malcolm McKinnon, 'Otago places - Otago Harbour', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand,
http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/otago-places/page-4 accessed 15 September 2021.
35 A commemorative plaque to this effect stands near the Flagstaff (List No. 2319), the point itself was removed in the
reduction of the headland.
36 Duffill Watts Ltd., Next Generation – Channel Development. Short History of Otago Harbour Development and Dredging.
Prepared for Port Otago Ltd., 9 June 2009.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 9
Chalmers remains a significant port and the township which is full of historic buildings, has a
distinct character and identity.
The house at Aurora Terrace
In 1870 the site near the junction of Constitution Street and Aurora Terrace on Observation
Point in Port Chalmers was undeveloped land in the possession of William John Putnam, an
engineer. 37 The house appears to have been constructed by Putnam in 1876. 38 It was a
square cottage of rusticated weatherboards with a door placed symmetrically between a
pair of double sash windows. It had a hipped corrugated iron roof and lean-to verandah
without brackets and with plain posts. 39 It followed the typical square plan with living and
kitchen on the left separated by a shared chimney and wall, and two bedrooms at the right. 40
The house underwent few recorded alterations for close to a century.
William John Putnam (c. 1854-1926) was an engineer / stevedore, eventually becoming
foreman stevedore with the New Zealand Shipping Company. 41 Putnam was a Port Chalmers
Councillor from 1886-1889 and was nominated for the Port Chalmers Licencing Committee in
1887. 42 He was a member of the Loyal Prince of Wales Lodge, No. 5254, Port Chalmers. 43
This Lodge was part of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows which was
established at the Ropemakers Arms in Salford in 1809. 44 This is worth noting as the Lodge
appears in title documents for the property, presumably as a source of mortgage funds to
subsequent owners, several of whom were watersiders.
Putnam sold the house in 1887-8 to Frank Juste, stevedore, who passed it to his wife Annie
Juste in about 1900. Juste sold to Perry in 1905, Perry to Clifford and Clifford sold to the
37 Aurora Terrace was named for the Aurora, the first New Zealand Company ship to take emigrants to Wellington, Ian
Church, Port Chalmers and its People, Otago Heritage Books, Dunedin, 1994, p. 182.
38 Deeds Index C144. Putnam is noted as owning the house and part section 144 Constitution Street freehold in Electoral
Roles of Port Chalmers in 1879-80, 1887 and 1890, via Otago Nominal Index https://www.otago.ac.nz/library/hocken/oni/
accessed 30 August 2021.
39 The style of the cottage is similar in form to Fig. 83 in The Age of Houses Illustrated, pp. 54-5. See Figure 8 and Figure 12.
40 Jeremy Salmond, Old New Zealand Houses 1800-1940, Reed Methuen, Auckland, 1986, p. 75, fig. 66 and p. 76, fig. 68.
41 Star (Christchurch), 19 July 1898, p. 2.
42 Evening Star (ES), 10 Feb 1887, p. 3; Ian Church, Port Chalmers and its People, Otago Heritage Books, Dunedin, 1994, p.
188.
43 ES, 23 Aug 1883, p. 3.
44 Lodges of Southern New Zealand, Friends of the Hocken Collections Bulletin No. 43, November 2002
https://www.otago.ac.nz/library/pdf/hoc_fr_bulletins/Bull_43_Lodges.pdf accessed 30 August 2021.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 10Prince of Wales Lodge in 1924. 45 It was then passed to Charles Seale, the Dunedin City
Council valuation book noting it was sold on 30 December 1909 to William Clifford. 46 Thomas
Porter, customs officer, owned the property from 1928 until 1948 when he sold to Frank
Searle McDonald, watersider. McDonald owned it until it was transferred to his wife Ettie
McDonald in April 1969 after his death. 47 Ettie then sold to Hone Papita Raukura Hotere in
December 1970. 48
Hone Papita Raukura Hotere
Hone Papita Raukura (Ralph) Hotere (1931-2013) is considered one of Aotearoa New
Zealand’s greatest artists. He was born at Taikarawa, near Mitimiti, in the north of New
Zealand, in 1931. He was the third-born son and eighth child of 15 born to Tangirau
Kirihimete Hotere and Ana Maria Hotere. His hapu is Te Tao Maui and he affiliated to Te
Aupouri, Te Rarawa and Ngāti Whatua ki Kaipara. The Hotere family lived modestly and self-
sufficiently. Hotere’s father laboured and later ran cattle; his mother maintained a vegetable
garden, looked after the family, and assisted at the church. Seafood was plentiful. Despite
limited finances, Hotere’s parents provided a spiritually and emotionally rich environment,
steeped in Māoritanga and with close links to the marae and Catholic church. Hotere was a
quiet boy with a great sense of fun, and a good listener who paid attention when his father
shared tikanga with him. 49
Following his schooling, Hotere studied at Auckland Teachers College which he completed in
Dunedin as an arts specialist. He received a New Zealand Art Societies Fellowship which he
used to study at the Central School of Art and Design in London from 1961. 50 He left in 1962
to take up a residency at the Michael Karolyi Memorial Foundation in Vence, France which
45 Frank Juste is registered as a stevedore in the Port Chalmers Electoral Roles for 1884, 1887. 1890, 1893, via Otago
Nominal Index https://www.otago.ac.nz/library/hocken/oni/ 30 August 2021. Annie signed the Women Suffrage Petition
at Port Chalmers in 1892, sheet 85
https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE37711071 accessed 30 August 2021.
Deeds Index T 744 https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE26859933 accessed 30
August 2021.
46 DCC archives – electrical records for 2 Aurora Terrace.
47 OT226/227; McDonald Frank Searle, Port Chalmers – retired Wharf Labourer
https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE61976601 accessed 30 August 2021;
Dunedin Cemetery Records C19690413.
48 OT226/227.
49 This biography is drawn from Andrea Hotere’s biographical essay in, Undreamed of … 50 years of the Frances Hodgkins
Fellowship, Otago University Press, Dunedin, 2017, p. 53 (reproduced with permission); Megan Tamati-Quennell. 'Hotere,
Hone Papita Raukura (Ralph)', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 2019. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of
New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/6h3/hotere-hone-papita-raukura-ralph accessed 25 August 2021.
50 Vincent O’Sullivan, The Dark is Light Enough, Penguin Random House, New Zealand, 2020, p. 80.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 11provided him with a more conducive physical environment to work in. 51 On his return to
New Zealand in 1965 he continued teaching until he was awarded the Frances Hodgkins
Fellowship and returned to Dunedin in 1969 where he lived and produced a prodigious
amount of work until his death in 2013. 52 Hotere is credited with the genesis of the Māori art
movement despite his ambivalence for labels, or interpretation and definitions of his work. 53
He was a member of the New Zealand Māori Arts and Writers Association / Ngā Pua
Waihunga, formed at Te Kaha in 1973, the oldest Māori arts group in New Zealand. 54 He was
the first artist of Māori descent to have been written into a history of New Zealand art by
Pākeha. 55 Hotere was the recipient of Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council grants in 1970 and
1978, and was bestowed with several significant honours including: a University of Otago
Honorary Doctorate 1994, Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon Award 2003, University of
Auckland Honorary Doctorate 2005, Te Waka Toi ‘sTe Taumata Award recognising
outstanding leadership and service to Māori arts and culture 2006. On 31 December 2011 he
became a Member of the Order of New Zealand. 56 At Hotere’s Requiem Mass, Minister
Christopher Finlayson described him, saying,
‘Raukura refers to the most highly prized feathers and means ‘most precious’ – and
we can certainly say that of Ralph’s legacy to New Zealand. He was named ‘Hone
Papita’ in honour of Jean Baptiste Pompallier, New Zealand’s first Catholic bishop. Like
his namesake, Ralph was a pioneer. A pioneer of contemporary art and a pioneer of
new techniques and materials. And like his namesake, he was a man with a mission.
Ralph certainly confirmed the pen and brush can be mightier than the sword. He used
his creative gifts to confront issues such as social and political justice for Māori,
threats to the environment, nuclear war, apartheid, racism – all of which he examined
in his work. He felt compelled to speak through his work about the events and
51 Te Ao Hou, December 1965, p. 57; Hamish Keith, The Big Picture: A history of New Zealand art from 1642, Random House,
Auckland, 2007, p. 277; O’Sullivan, 2020, p. 100, 112.
52 O’Sullivan, 2020, p. 134; University of Otago, Francis Hodgkins Fellowship Recipients,
https://www.otago.ac.nz/otagofellows/allprevious_hodgkins.html accessed 3 Sep 2021.
53 Ibid; Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, ‘The Black Light Paradox. The Sumptuous Austerity of Ralph Hotere’s Art’, Art New Zealand,
98 Autumn, 2001 https://www.art-newzealand.com/Issue98/hotere.htm
54 Witi Ihimaera, Conference at Te Kaha, Te Ao Hou, Nov 1973, p. 22-24; Ngā Kete Wānanga-o-Ōtautahi, Pūawaitanga o te
Ringa - Fruits of our busy hands, https://christchurchcitylibraries.com/maori/puawaitanga/waihanga/ accessed 1 Dec
2021.
55 Ibid.
56 Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,
HOTERE, Mr Hone Papita Raukura, ONZ, Citation prepared 2011 https://dpmc.govt.nz/honours/recipients/hotere-mr-hone-
papita-raukura-onz accessed 8 October 2021.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 12debates which continue to shape our nation and our place in the world.’ 57Later at
Hotere’s tangi in Northland, Selwyn Muru (1937-) spoke of Hotere ‘as a tohunga
whaikorero’, a great honour and a recognition of the oral legacy which linked Hotere
via his father to the esoteric knowledge held by the elders of the Hokianga. 58
2 Aurora Terrace (1970-1984)
Hotere had a strong connection with Port Chalmers, living and working in the area for over 40
years and it was from this place that many of his most important works were created. The
former studio at 2 Aurora Terrace was his first studio, purchased in December 1970 after
completing the Frances Hodgkin’s Fellowship which provided him with use of the studio at 407
Castle Street. 59 The second studio was the stables associated with Willowbank further along
Aurora Terrace which were demolished in 1993. 60 The third studio was in the former Bank of
New Zealand (List No. 2317) on George Street in Port Chalmers. 61 Hotere’s contemporary
Katerina Mataira claims he came into his own in Dunedin, ‘he became really aware of himself
as an individual, and his work began to develop a personality essentially its own.’ 62 He created
the spaces he required to work in. Cilla McQueen describes his daily visits to the new studio
from their residence at 121 Forth Street in 1971,
‘He goes every day to the new studio at 2 Aurora Terrace, Port Chalmers, on the hill
below Bully Hayes’ flagpole. There are four small rooms upstairs; downstairs a low-
ceilinged kitchen. He’s fixing up the kitchen and rickety steps down the narrow garden
full of blackberry, sloping to the harbour, islands and channel, the hills and Hereweka,
the peninsula across the water, different in all lights and weather.’ 63
57 Minister Christopher Finlayson at the Requiem Mass for Ralph Hotere, St Joseph’s Catholic Cathedral on 28 February 2013.
https://mch.govt.nz/news-events/ministers-speeches/address-requiem-mass-ralph-hotere-st-joseph%e2%80%99s-
catholic-cathedral-28-f accessed 5 March 2021; Note: Hotere identified his name, Raukura with Te Whiti’s white feather
of peace, and said he was named after John the Baptist rather than Jean Baptiste Pompellier, Andrea Hotere, 12 October
2021.
58 Personal communication with Andrea Hotere, email, 22 Nov 2021, ‘This was all very esoteric and privileged knowledge so
was not to be bandied about lightly, but treated with due respect/significance. It was a running current, under everything’;
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmakai, Selwyn Muru, https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-
ideas/artist/1270/selwyn-muru accessed 3 Feb 2022; Ministry for Culture and Heritage, ‘Kohatu by Selwyn Muru', NZ History
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/kohatu-selwyn-muru, accessed 3 Feb 2022.
59 O’Sullivan, 2020, p. 158; OT226/227.
60 Simon Hartley, Hotere studio for artists, process unclear, ODT, 21 Mar 2019; Cilla McQueen, In a Slant Light, Otago
University Press, 2016, p. 110.
61 Note the Bank still bears a gate built by Hotere. Email from Andrea Hotere 21 May 2021 10:56 am.
62 O’Sullivan, 2020, p. 67.
63 Cilla McQueen, In a Slant Light, Otago University Press, Dunedin, 2016, p. 80.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 13‘He needs more room to work, knocks out all the upstairs to make
an open space, leaving the brick chimney free-standing in the middle.
Lead light windows across the front wall
divide the panorama into delicate frames.’ 64
O’Sullivan describes the studio as, ‘compact, richly decorative, typical of the places where he
chose to work and imposed his own taste. As Tony Stones noted, ‘you never took where
Ralph worked for anything other than a place an artist had devised.’’ 65 The studio at 2 Aurora
Terrace was created as a place for work, and a place where Hotere’s famous generosity was
shared. A ‘social solitary’ Hotere often worked at night under fluorescent lights, sustained on
whisky laced cups of coffee and cigarettes, listening to classical music or jazz while the
darkness outside, punctuated with pulsing harbour lights, pressed against the lead lights.
Working on the Port Chalmers paintings at the studio, Hotere reflected his frustration in a
letter to James Mack,
‘Staying nights on end at Port and working till early hours yet fucking things have not
been coming out right.’ 66
The studio took on an important role in Ralph and Cilla’s lives as it was here where they were
married on 8 June 1973. Andrea, Cilla’s daughter who was adopted by Hotere, remembers a
view of people’s legs from her position hiding under a table, in the sitting room upstairs.
‘The Reverend Donald Phillipps conducts our wedding, a simple
ceremony at the studio in Aurora Terrace.
Maureen Hitchings has transformed the light-filled room
into a chapel, surrounding us with sculptures, paintings, candles,
flowers, vibrant panels and test-pieces for the mural.’ 67
64 McQueen, 2016, p. 81.
65 O’Sullivan, 2020, p. 209-210.
66 O’Sullivan, 2020, p. 194.
67McQueen, 2016, p. 88; Maureen was living at the studio at the time and it was the Founders Theatre panels that were
used as decoration for the wedding, O’Sullivan, 2020, p. 210.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 14Following their marriage in 1973, Ralph, Cilla and Andrea left their cottage at 121 Forth
Street, Dunedin and moved to 27 Harbour Terrace, Carey’s Bay, Port Chalmers around 1975.
A comment by Cilla in Merata Mita’s 2001 film, Hotere, filmed at Carey’s Bay reveals the
symbiotic relationship between the artist and his places of work,
‘… his life and his work are inextricably intertwined so he’s working all the time in his
heart and in his mind. He’d never really start working until the space around him was
right, the atmosphere’s right. The things he looks at while he’s working have to be
harmonious too.’ 68
Ian Wedde notes Hotere’s appreciation of ordinary things went beyond ideology. 69 Russell
Moses, friend and artist, reflected on Hotere’s holistic approach to life and art,
‘With Ralph, his life and his work permeate everything. Whether it’s building a studio
or pulling a wall down in his house and rebuilding it … yeah, he’s an artist. That
intensity is there. I think it’s always pervaded everything.’ 70
Marilyn Webb reflected,
‘Hone Tuwhare calls him the tohunga – and he is. I think he’s good at anything he
touches. I mean Ralph’s really good at making doors … He’s good with wood. He
makes beautiful buildings. He can embellish stuff. He’s just fantastic and whatever he
touches.’ 71
The importance of the University of Otago Burns and Hodgkins Fellowships in creating a
network work for artists and writers can’t be overestimated. Over the years this group and
their associates became a community of friends and creatives who inspired each other’s
work. O’Sullivan reflects the relationships had the ‘solidarity of a guild’. 72 Bill Manhire, Hone
Tuwhare (1922-2008), Ted (O.E.) Middleton (1925-2010), Ian Wedde, Marilynn Webb (1937-
2021), Chris Booth, Bill Culbert (1935-2019) and Pip Culbert (1938-2016), and Marti
Friedlander (1928-2016) all spent time at the studio and Hotere was really the central force
68 Metera Mita, Hotere, 2001, Pt 6, 05:56 https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/hotere-2001
69 Gregory O’Brien, Hotere Out the Black Window, Godwit Publishing, Auckland, 1997, p. 8.
70 Mita, 2001, Pt 8, 03:22.
71 Marilyn Webb, Mana, Issue 111, April-May 2013, p.22-23.
72 O’Sullivan, 2020, p. 174.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 15of the group, actively supporting Francis Hodgkins Fellows and creatives. Their presence is
still felt in the fabric and their work which hangs in the house, similarly to how Hotere and
McQueen lived at Carey’s Bay, his own and their friends work surrounding him, art, and life
intertwining, informing, and inspiring each other.
‘Beautiful things all around – the house replete
with art, the studios, the view, the visitors.’ 73
Bill Manhire reflected, ‘I don’t think Ralph works as a collaborator. He has friendships and
people he works with; he brings life in the gaps and spaces and accidents that other people –
and circumstances – make available.’ 74 These connections mutually inspired each other’s
work, and it was at the studio that much of Hotere’s early significant work was conceived
and created. The Black Paintings (1970), Hotere’s Malady Series, was inspired by Manhire’s
poem of the same name (1970). 75 It was at Aurora Terrace that Hotere received weekly
postcards from Manhire from London, inscribed with a single word for his inspiration which
resulted in Pine (1972). 76 Examples of Hotere’s work generated from this place include: Port
Chalmers paintings (1972), Sangro (1972), Pine series (1972), Requiem series (1973),
drawings for Pathway to the Sea (Ian Wedde) (1975), Song Cycle banners (1975-1976). It was
also here that major large commissions like murals, Founders Theatre (1973) and
Godwit/Kuaka (1977) for Auckland Airport, were designed at the studio but the work was
completed in larger spaces nearby. 77 The importance and influence of his early work was
recognised when The Malady Panels, were selected to represent New Zealand’s first
appearance at documenta 14 in 2017, one of the most critically acclaimed art exhibitions in
the world. 78
73 McQueen, 2016, p. 127.
74 O’Brien, 1997, p. 55.
75 Manhire once referred to Hotere as ‘the best publisher a poet could ever have.’ Gregory O’Brien, ‘A Note on the Cover
Painting’, PN Review, Vol. 39, Iss. 6, (Jul/Aug 2013): 13; See Pine Pine Pine Pine Pine on the wall behind Hotere in Figure
14.
76 Email from Bill Manhire, 9 September 2021; Ian Wedde (ed), Ralph Hotere: Black Light, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2000, p.
114-119; O’Brien, 1997, p. 48.
77 O’Sullivan, 2020, p. 202, 235; Ian Wedde (ed), Ralph Hotere: Black Light, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2000, pp.114-119.
78 Matariki Williams, The Continuum, the river: On the need for critical writing on Māori art
https://counterfutures.nz/5/Williams.pdf accessed 30 November 2021; documenta 14
https://www.documenta14.de/en/artists/21969/ralph-hotere accessed 30 November 2021.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 16Many, many artists, and creatives frequented the property. Hotere’s generosity extended to
making the place available for visiting artists, friends and ‘refugees from life’. 79 Some like
Maureen Hitchings stayed for a while, and in the case of renown potter Barry Brickell (1935-
2016) spent considerable time there living and working. Hotere wrote to Brickell in 1971,
positively fizzing with enthusiasm and abundant generosity,
‘I’ve got a very beautiful old house which I’m turning into a workshop. It looks out on
the harbour to the Otago Peninsular … There is also a longish shed which would be an
ideal workshop for you with a kiln and spaces for trees to be grown – and a bed and a
very beautiful coal range that works … and the most magnificent view in the world to
stop you working too hard and ships that pass the kitchen window and seagulls, and
fishermen, so why don’t you come down. You’re welcome to share it if you do. I also
have my Land Rover which can carry lots of bricks and coal and clay and things.’ 80
Brickell finally stayed and worked at the studio in 1975. During this time, he and Hotere
made further renovations to the building. 81 A concrete pad adjacent to the current extension
was the location of Brickell’s kiln. Andrea remembers being snuggled in a sleeping bag in a
coal bin one night under a lunar eclipse while Brickell bounded about in his notoriously small
shorts tending the kiln. 82 While resident at the studio Brickell produced a collection of
pottery for the Hotere’s which was acquired by Otago Museum in 2014 and includes pieces
Hotere painted.83 Brickell’s workshop and kiln were a feature for some years and the
recycled fabric from both his workbench and bricks from his kiln have made their way into
the house, given a new life as stairs, shelves, decorative elements, paving and walls, created
by Hotere and later by Naomi’s friends.
Many of Hotere’s works created at Aurora Terrace were in response to people, place and
events, both local, national, and international; The Port Chalmers paintings, Malady Series,
Sangro Series and Te Whiti Series and Pine Series, pathway to the Sea and Song Cycle banners
and Founders Theatre mural. International subjects included war, apartheid, and nuclear
79 Conversation with Naomi Wilson 19 October 2021.
80 O‘Sullivan, 2020, p. 219-220.
81 Conversation with Naomi Wilson, 19 September 2019.
82 Conversation with Andrea Hotere, 24 May 2021; McQueen 2016, p. 94; See Figure 10.
83 Otago Museum, Intersections: ceramics from Ralph Hotere’s personal collection https://otagomuseum.nz/intersections-
ceramics-from-ralph-hoteres-personal-collection/ accessed 27 Aug 2021; John Gibb, ‘New home for Hotere’s ceramics’,
ODT, 10 July 2014; John Gibb, ‘Hotere’s ceramics collection focus of exhibition’, ODT, 23 Mar 2015.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 17activity in the Pacific. Locally, he addressed New Zealand’s most significant contemporary
issues including the NZ Springbok tour, the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, and the
environment of the Otago Harbour. Even after he no longer worked at the Aurora Terrace
studio, his work continued to reflect the area as environmental concerns arose with the
proposed aluminium smelter at Aramoana, and then closer to home, the reduction of
Observation Point for the expansion of Port Otago. 84 Protest works included various
iterations of Oputae / Po-Takere (1989), lithographs, sketches, and blowtorched aluminium,
sometimes incorporating phrases from McQueen’s Poem, Daisies Falling. 85 These works, and
others, restored the traditional names of places. At Hotere’s tangi, Tahu Potiki noted,
‘For whatever reason, he also took on the task of revitalising many of the long-
forgotten Māori placenames in the harbour. He wrote them into his artworks, giving
them a life they had not enjoyed for well over a century. Some of them are now again
a part of the modern nomenclature.’ 86
Black Phoenix I and Black Phoenix II (1984-88) were both created from the remains of the
Poitrel which burned in Port Chalmers in 1984. Black Phoenix II resides in the Hotere Garden
Optuae next door at 4 Aurora Terrace along with other sculptural works by friends that had
also been on his property at the stables. 87 Para Matchitt recalled, ‘Anything at all, that’s
painful to people – where they’ve been bulldozed or bullied, he’ll feel that pain, and
something will come out in his work.’ 88
Hotere was a notable figure in the wider Port Chalmers community, frequenting the pub at
Careys Bay, fishing, and playing golf but never discussing his work. He would trade art for
services and at times sell paintings to help others get by. 89 As his work reflected local issues,
so he supported local fundraising ventures, for example, he allowed the public to visit to the
84 Pricilla Pitts and Andrea Hotere, p. 51.
85 Examples of works are: Oputae, Blue Gums and Daisies Falling, blowtorch on corrugated stainless steel, 1989, Collection of
the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Oputae Po-Takere, lithograph, 1989, Te Papa Tongarewa 1991-0015-1.
86 Tahu Potiki, A send-off worth of Hotere, Stuff, 1 March 2013 https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/columnists/tahu-
potiki/8367546/A-send-off-worthy-of-Hotere accessed 1 December 2021;
87 The studio at 2 Aurora Terrace was followed by the Stables studio further down the street on the headland. This was
demolished in 1994 and the Hotere Garden Optuae was opened in 2005. Hotere later had a studio at the house in Carey’s
Bay. Allison Rudd, ‘Phoenix returns from the ashes’, New Zealand Herald, 22 Dec 2005
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/phoenix-returns-from-the-ashes/3UWBA7QB3EZLJATPHDGXER4IMA/ accessed 30
September 2021; ‘Design award for Hotere garden’, ODT, 20 Aug 2008 https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/design-
award-hotere-garden accessed 4 October 2021.
88 Para Matchett, Mana, Issue 111, April-May 2013, p. 20.
89 O’Sullivan, 2020, p. 280-81.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 18studio at the old stables prior to its demolition to raise money for several community
fundraisers. 'By this time Ralph was an international artist of great repute. He didn't have to
do that for a community, but he was happy to do it for the community. He was generous,
kind, gentlemanly. His generosity, his gift of artworks to people, was phenomenal.’ 90 He
helped raise the court costs when the action against Port Otago and their plan to reduce
Observation Point was unsuccessful. 91
Ralph Hotere’s influence is well documented. George Hubbard reflected in the catalogue for
Korurangi: New Maori Art, that ‘Ralph is an anchor-stone, an inspiration. He really did open
the way for a lot of younger artists to explore mediums not traditionally associated with
contemporary Maori art.’ 92 Jonathan Mane-Wheoki (1943-2014), New Zealand art historian,
academic, and curator and pioneer of the study of Māori and Pacific art history wrote about
his enduring influence, ‘Hotere was the first modernist Māori painter to be wholly embraced
by New Zealand’s mainstream art establishment and he was to become one of New Zealand’s
most revered and honoured artists’. 93 In the year following Hotere’s death, artists Paratene
Matchitt (1933-2021) and Shane Cotton met in conversation with curator Megan Tamati-
Quennell to discuss Hotere’s influence and impact. Matchitt acknowledged Hotere’s
influence, ‘… you have to admire the guy for who he was … he was one of the best teachers
out, he had a knack for passing things on …’ 94
From studio to home
Close friend and assistant, Naomi Wilson took up residence at 2 Aurora Terrace in 1981 and,
purchased the studio from Hotere in 1984, ‘for what Ralph insisted was not a cent more than
its rateable value.’ 95 Naomi worked with him regularly, printing silk together at the cottage,
90 Bruce Munro, ‘Artist in Port’, ODT, 2 March 2013 https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/artist-port accessed 3
September 2021.
91 Wilma McCorkindale, ‘Ralph Hotere Remembered’, Southland Times (ST), 24 Feb 2014 http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-
times/9757717/Ralph-Hotere-remembered 10 September 2021; The extent of the proposed excavation can be seen in
Church, 1994, p. 176.
92 Chris Szekely, Korurangi: New Maori Art, Auckland Art Gallery Toit te Tāmaki, 1996, p.37 cited in Kirsten Rennie, Urban
Maori Art: The Third Generation of Contemporary Maori Artists: Identity and Identification. A thesis submitted in partial
fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Art History in the University of Canterbury,
Christchurch, 2001.
93 Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, The Class of ’66, March 2013, https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/document/4130 accessed 3
February 2022; Art Mogul Jonathan Mane-Wheoki Dies, Stuff, 11 Oct 2014, p. 4
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/10606361/Art-mogul-Jonathan-Mane-Wheoki-dies accessed 3 Feb 2022;
Jonathan Mane-Wheoki Ralph Hotere (1931-2013), Art New Zealand, n.146, Winter 2013, pp. 32-35.
94 Te Papa Tongarewa, The Impact and Influence of the Work of Ralph Hotere, 11:58, 22 December 2014
https://youtu.be/UQLtGRu_2PY?t=718 accessed 3 Feb 2022.
95 OT226/227; O’Sullivan, 2020, p. 292.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 19and contributing her exacting grinding skills to Black Phoenix I (1984) and Pathway to the Sea
– Aramona (1991). Naomi believes the studio should be saved as it is imbued with Hotere’s
wairua and mana. 96 Over the years she has employed friends to assist with renovations and
additions to the cottage and garden, all embodying Hotere’s ethos. Some of the additions,
like the acoustically treated conservatory were to mitigate noise from the Port. 97 Port Otago
has successively purchased and demolished residential properties on Aurora Terrace and
Constitution Street prior to and after the reduction of Oputae / Observation Point in the mid-
1990s. 98 All properties on the headland beyond where the cut was to be made were
purchased and demolished, including Ralph’s studio at the stables. 99 Hotere himself spoke
out about the loss of the land,
‘This is a sacred spot. It has historic connections with early Otago. It’s an ancient
urupa, and ancient living, dwelling place. And it should never be devastated. They can
put their wharves up in town. They don’t need to devastate the hill, to change the
landscape, you know?’ 100
Two decades later, O’Sullivan reflects on Hotere’s response to the reduction of Observation
Point,
‘The threads of his anger were entwined – the destruction of an ancient landscape,
the loss of a site’s traditional significance, his personal distress at being kicked out
from where he worked best as an artist, and from a building that his time and skill had
transformed into something like a work of art in itself.’ 101
The Hotere family have visited and stayed at studio over the decades, under Hotere’s
ownership and latterly under Naomi’s including during his later years following his illness and
96 Simon Hartley, ‘Hotere studio for artists; process unclear’, ODT, 21 March 2019
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/hotere-studio-artists-process-unclear accessed 2 September 2021.
97 Simon Hartley, ‘Hotere studio for artists; process unclear’, ODT, 21 March 2019
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/hotere-studio-artists-process-unclear 2 September 2021; Marshall Day Acoustics,
Noise Management Plan prepared for Port Otago Ltd., 2020, https://www.portotago.co.nz/assets/Uploads/Rp-001-r05-
20190116-CMF-Port-Noise-Management-Plan.pdf 2 September 2021.
98 Heartland – Port Chalmers, 1993 https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/heartland-port-chalmers-1993 accessed 2 September
2021; See Figure 4.
99 Heartland – Port Chalmers, 1993, 28:20 https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/heartland-port-chalmers-1993; O’Sullivan,
2020, p. 311-312.
100 Mita, 2001, Pt 6 02:50
101 O’Sullivan, 2020, p. 322.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 20after his death. As the only remaining building that maintains a strong physical and spiritual
connection with Hotere and so is particularly significant to the Hotere whānau. Andrea
Hotere reflected,
‘Today I love visiting the studio and Naomi, because it’s a place where I can feel that
special connection with Dad, touch the things he touched and look at the view he
loved and which inspired him, to know that he sought to acknowledge the Maori
connections of this place which were everywhere. He honoured them and expressed
himself in his work. This is now the only remaining place where people can go to get
that true sense of Dad and how he worked. I would like my children and our cousins
and others to be able to experience this in the future. Dad was very aware of the
significance to Maori of Koputai/Port Chalmers and surrounds. It was heart breaking
for him when the end of the hill (aka Observation Point, on which his other studio
stood) was chopped off. He thought it was cultural vandalism. The fact that this Studio
remains is highly significant.’
Hotere’s siblings Hareta (Charlotte), Ellen, Maraea, Winiata, Moss and Suri have all visited or
stayed at the studio and feel aroha for the place and for Naomi and her connection to Ralph.
‘[at the studio] I feel wairua, his wairua, that the paintings and the place speak for him.
It’s a feeling. You are seeing, feeling his voice. There are lots of memories. Naomi has
looked after that place. You feel like you could walk in there and be at home. It gives us
something of Ralph.’ 102
Ana Tahere (Ralph’s niece) commented, ‘Naomi’s door has always been open to uncle
Ralph’s siblings and whanau. It is a special place for us to visit when we are in Dunedin. There
is so much of Uncle Ralph’s wairua present.’ 103
Naomi hopes to see the studio become an artist’s studio again in the future. Over fifteen
years earlier, renowned Dunedin art historian and curator, Peter Entwisle, called for the
establishment of a museum dedicated to the display of Hotere’s works. 104 Whaiora Hotere
(Ralph’s Niece) expressed the importance of safeguarding the studio for the future,
102 Hareta Courtney in Hotere criteria d significance with some additions by AH, Feb 2022, Dunedin Office File: 12013-1927.
103 Ana Tahere in Ibid.
104 Peter Entwisle, ‘Hotere museum a worthwhile cause’, ODT, 29 Aug 2005, p. 17.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9762 21You can also read
