30/05/2026
๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐บ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด - ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฐ๐น๐ผ๐๐ฒ ๐บ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ป๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ ๐ผ๐ป ๐ฆ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฏ๐ญ ๐ ๐ฎ๐.
Cecilia Walker 2019 Marginal, photo printโ
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"The Tahuna Torea wildlife reserve on the Tฤmaki Estuary is just a short walk from my fatherโs house โformerly a ramshackle ex-state, now replaced by shoulder-to-shoulder townhouses. At the time of my visit to the reserve in late summer to collect plant cuttings, the water in the freshwater pond was stagnant, a deep and toxic shade of brown, with rank kikuyu and other invasive plants competing with the natives around the edges.โ
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Despite their imperfect condition, the fragments of oi-oi and wiwi, straggling mฤnฤwฤ and native plantings around the waterway at Wai O Taiki Bay and Tahuna Torea provide an important relict of natural habitat that is almost absent from this area of development and infill housing. These liminal zones of salt marsh, mangrove and wetland that transition between water and land act as a carbon sinks and are of much more than just marginal significance to the Tฤmaki Estuary and the wider city, and their status becomes more and more threatened by sea-level and temperature rises and through neglect."โ
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The 20th Estuary Art and Ecology Awards are generously funded by Auckland Councilโs Howick Local Board and supported by the Tฤmaki Estuary Protection Society, the Rice Family Partnership, and Gordon Harris The Art & Graphic Store.โ
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