Pictures paint thousand words
Activism through art is the way one Patea woman is choosing to express herself.
Bianca Mitchell is organising the Artists Against Seabed Mining auction on Friday, October 14 in a bid to help stop potential development off the coast of her town.
‘‘For me, it started about four years ago when the Raglan application came up.’’
Her son was deeply concerned and that made his mother think further about the concept of seabed mining.
‘‘I think it’s so easy just to overlook it if it’s not affecting you personally,’’ she said.
‘‘When it came up again I knew I had to do something about it. I thought an art auction was a good way to start some conversations.’’
Mitchell doesn’t consider herself an activist so she is letting her work do the talking.
‘‘My husband and the boys are avid fishermen, all the boys surf and for the last 10 to 15 years I’ve been painting the coastline. It’s been my muse and inspiration.’’
Artists participating in the auction have been offered the opportunity to nominate a percentage of the sale of their works to the organisation and Mitchell said most had opted to give it all.
‘‘We’ve got 22 artists contributing and most of them are Taranaki-based.’’
Pieces created by artists Paul Rangiwahia, Margaret Scott, Beck White and Peter Lambert will all be going under the hammer.
‘‘I’ve yet to come across anyone who has said they want to exchange economic growth for environmental decline.’’
Funds raised will be used to help with costs associated with retaining a lawyer to attempt to stop TTR- Trans Tasman Resources- from ironsand mining along the Patea coastline.
‘‘It could be irreparable - the damage caused out there with the mining - because it’s so invasive. It’s crazy.’’
TTR’s mining consent was declined in 2014. However a change in government regulations and seabed mining of New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone mean the company has re-applied.
Their goal is to extract the iron ore from 50 million tonnes of seabed sand using a giant magnet before returning 44 million tonnes.
The auction and exhibition at Patea Old Folks Hall, Egmont St, Patea, will start at 6.30pm, Friday October 14. recently released some staggering numbers. In the year up until the end of August this year, visitor arrivals in New Zealand reached a new all-time record of 3.36 million, that’s up a significant 11 per cent compared with the previous 12 months. And there is more good news: those visitor arrivals are forecast to keep growing by a steady 5.4 per cent each year to reach 4.5 million visitors in the year 2022.
For those of us who live here that means more opportunities for local businesses along with associated new job opportunities.
As a result the Government is assisting regional communities to invest in the infrastructure and planning that supports the growing tourism sector as the regional economy also diversifies into specialist manufacturing and agriculture, sports and education.