Jeff Mahuika (Kāti Māhaki, Poutini Kāi Tahu) and Sasha Huber after the karakia, symbolically un-naming the Agassiz Glacier. Commissioned photography by Tom Hoyle, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.
A Te Wai Pounamu/South Island glacier has been un-named by Sasha Huber, accompanied by Jeff Mahuika - a representative of Ngāi Tahu.
After a welcome at the local marae by greenstone carver Jeff Mahuika (Ngāi Tahu – Ngāti Waewae/Ngāti Māhaki; Rangitāne), Sasha Huber and her small production team travelled to the area of the Agassiz Glacier, between Kā Roimata a Hine Hukatere/Franz Josef Glacier and Te Moeka o Tuawe/Fox Glacier. There, Mahuika offered a karakia blessing to symbolically un-name and “cleanse” the glacier of its association with Agassiz.
The glacier was named, by German geologist Sir Johann “Julius” von Haast. “When von Haast named over 100 places after British, German, Austrian, French, Australian, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Danish and Swiss scholars, poets, sons of emperors, explorers and scientists (and also after himself and his son), he did so to endear himself to the name-bearers and to solidly locate Aotearoa/New Zealand within white European culture while at the same time ignoring the Māori perspective,” Huber says.
Sasha Huber is known for her contribution to the long-term project “Demounting Louis Agassiz” aimed at removing nineteenth century Swiss-born naturalist and glaciologist Louis Agassiz’s name from a 3,946 m peak in the Swiss Alps. “Demounting Louis Agassiz” creates an awareness that Agassiz (1807-1873) was a proponent of scientific racism and a pioneering thinker of segregation and racial hygienics.
Furthermore, the artist is in contact with officials of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, who – in collaboration with Makawhio Rūnanga – support research for new and appropriate Māori place names for “Agassiz Glacier” and “Agassiz Range”, as there are no currently known Ngāi Tahu names for these landmarks.
