Pukekaraka, Otaki
Photographs by Janet Bayly
JANET BAYLY
JANET BAYLY Candle holder, Pukekaraka 2006 Unique SX-70 Polaroid, 790 x 780 mm.
A short distance from Rangiatea Church in Otaki, Te Rauparaha Street turns into Convent Road and it feels like a different country opens up. Pukekaraka, ‘the hill where the Karaka trees grow’, was established as a Catholic Mission in 1844 by the French Fathers and Brothers of the Society of Mary (Marists). There is a wharenui dedicated to ‘Mary Mother of the Whole World: Hine Nui O Te Ao Katoa’, alongside the French-influenced St Mary’s Church, which was built in 1859 by Ngati Kapu-manawa-whiti of the adjacent Tainui marae, and is still in use today.
Hine Nui O Te Ao Katoa (1904) and the smaller whare Roma (1905) stand between the church and Pukekaraka Hill with its Grotto of Lourdes and Fourteen Stations of the Cross. From the hilltop, the whare Ohaki (c.1846) looks south towards what was then Te Rauparaha’s base on Kapiti Island, and north towards the Tararua Ranges.
The two-storey Presbytery (1897) was about to undergo a major restoration supported by Historic Places Trust in 2006 when Gerald Barnett, then director of Mahara Gallery, suggested that I photograph it before work started. With the blessing of Pukekaraka Parish and a small grant from the Kapiti branch of Creative Communities New Zealand, I made many 35mm photographs in rooms where people had lived, prayed and studied for over a century, and also of the church, vestry, wharenui and whares.
I also made a small number of SX-70 Polaroids, knowing this was the last year this film, which I had worked with since the late 1970s, would be produced. The small scale and particular qualities of SX-70 colour inhabit more intimately the outlines of place. The merging of French and Maori content in the communal environment was rich enough, but I was also drawn to the modest domestic spaces, where simple objects and details also signify the larger story of Pukekaraka.
JANET BAYLY Brass gong, Pukekaraka 2006 Unique SX-70 Polaroid, 790 x 780 mm.
JANET BAYLY Crown of thorns, Pukekaraka 2006 Unique SX-70 Polaroid, 790 x 780 mm.
JANET BAYLY Nga Moteatea, Pukekaraka 2006 Unique SX-70 Polaroid, 790 x 780 mm.
JANET BAYLY Bowl, Pukekaraka 2006 Unique SX-70 Polaroid, 790 x 780 mm.