L (detail) Cat Auburn ‘The Memoir of J F Rudd’ (film still) R (detail) Christine Borland ‘Practice Turns; The Spinster’ (digital photograph) 

The over-arching project Approaching Home is collaboratively produced by the artists’ relationship as female artist-friends from different generations who are connected across the world by a shared settler colonial history. The exhibition at Aratoi Art Gallery & Museum (Masterton, 10 Aug – 27 Oct 2024) and associated residency with Te Whare Hēra (Wellington), are first steps in developing enduring partnerships with individuals and communities in both Aotearoa and Scotland. Approaching Home employs slowed-down, intentional knowledge sharing; leveraging craft, making and autotheoretical art practices as powerful mediums for accessible cross-cultural connection.  

In this stage of the project Cat and Christine’s material focus is on flax, linen, harakeke and the global significance of knowledge systems embedded in Māori weaving traditions, to narrate the complex dialogue around the shared colonial histories and futures of these plant-based textiles. Of particular relevance are connections to harakeke growing prolifically in Scotland. Some of the plants trace a lineage back to trial plantations of samples brought from Aotearoa in the nineteenth century, in a (failed) attempt to exploit their potential for industrial production.   

Despite Christine Borland’s physical absence due to illness, her digital engagement through performative artwork, workshops and conversations, establishes a model to explore inclusive participation in an international arena. Approaching Home is a holistic approach to creating a resilient space for engagement, learning, and collaboration, moving beyond the conventional boundaries of institutional knowledge generation to foster future-facing local/global exchange.