Follow the River traces the legacies of land loss and colonial reclassification in Aotearoa. Drawing on deeds, surveys, and maps, Robyn Hughes overlays archival text with imagery of rivers, wetlands, and coastal sites. Executed in layered acrylic on paper, these works create a space to reflect on the enduring impacts that these land transactions leave behind.

The series began during lockdown, when Hughes visited Cox’s Creek in Tāmaki Makaurau—once the Opoututeka River. This led to a wider inquiry into wetlands and whenua, long dismissed as “wastelands,” drained or polluted through urbanisation, and systematically acquired and subdivided for profit. Referencing deeds of sale, Native Land Court records, and Waitangi Tribunal Reports, Hughes combines diagrammatic clues, text, and image as historical markers.

Rather than protest, these works invite reflection, offering accessible entry points into complex narratives of ecological change, colonisation, and cultural displacement.

Artist bio:

Robyn Hughes is a New Zealand artist whose work traces the layered relationships between land, loss, history, and memory. Through her distinctive use of text, image, and vibrant colour, she explores the enduring impact of colonisation and the fragile ways in which histories are recorded, remembered, or erased. Working primarily with acrylic pigment on Hahnemühle paper, Hughes draws from archival records, deeds of sale, and maps, embedding fragments of language into her compositions to expose the weight of past transactions and their ongoing presence in the landscape. Her latest exhibition, Follow the River (2025), continues this inquiry into land, loss, history, and memory, offering a visually arresting and contemplative space for audiences to consider the enduring outcomes of these early exchanges.