Neil Pardington, Rehutai #2, 2005

Rehutai is the name of the house, and also the name of this photograph by Ngai Tahu artist Neil Pardington. Rehutai was built by DH.Menzies in Menzies Bay, Banks Peninsula in the late nineteenth century. And it is still standing today. What caught Pardington’s eye in this richly coloured almost moody interior, was the extraordinary blend of painted Maori kowhaiwhai and carved detailing within the classical colonial wooden villa. Menzies executed all of this himself, achieved a similar mix in the nearby Church at Little Akaloa, and went on to publish a booklet on Maori kowhaiwhai. Rehutai is an evocative and carefully lit photograph, a shining light of bicultural hybridity in colonial Aotearoa.