On My Wall, Takurua Winter 2023

When I began working from my grandad’s house last year, my Aunty Catherine gifted me this piece, Native Berries of New Zealand by Fanny Osborne, knowing I would appreciate and love it.

The picture holds a fair amount of mystery. It was framed in Whangārei, where my nana is from, and my aunty found it in a cupboard in Grandad’s house when they were clearing everything out. She assumes it hung in the old family house, and when they moved in the late sixties it was never put up again. My nana passed in 1976 at the age of thirty-six, well before I was born. I love that we have this connection, as I have a passion for learning about medicinal and edible native plants. My sister Arna asked to buy it from me, and I joked that she inherited her other nana’s Crown Lynn swan, so this is my cool thing.

Kara Boyes (Ngāpuhi, Tapuika, Ngāti Raukawa)
Pahoia, Bay of Plenty