- Opens
- 16 November 2026
- Closes
- 14 February 2027
The Highlander's Farewell
Ayesha Green
In The Highlander’s Farewell, Ayesha Green explores the migration of Scots to Aotearoa in the 19th century, considering the underpinning social and political factors behind it and the implications for a new nation.
Ayesha Green, Dancing Girls #2 (detail), 2026, acrylic on canvas. image courtesy of the artist.
In 'The Highlander’s Farewell', Ayesha Green (Kāi Tahu (Ōtākou), Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Pākehā) draws out conversations around the migration of Scots to Aotearoa New Zealand in the nineteenth century, considering the underpinning social and political factors behind it and the implications for a new nation.
In 2024 Green spent five months travelling through the UK, visiting historical sites and her own ancestral whenua. During this trip she developed an awareness of the commonalities between the dispossession of land and suppression of Scottish culture imposed on the Scots under British imperialism, and the situation faced by Māori through colonisation.
By endeavouring to bring a more nuanced understanding of Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonial history, this exhibition will attempt to trace the affinities between peoples in shared grief through loss of sovereignty. It gestures with optimism towards an ongoing construction of a national identity based on mutual empathy and recognition.
This exhibition was developed with the support of Creative New Zealand.
- Exhibition Hours:
- Open Daily: 10am–4pm
- Free Entry
About the artist
Ayesha Green
Ayesha Green, (Kāi Tahu (Ōtākou), Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Pākehā)
b.1987, Christchurch. Based in: Bangkok, Thailand
Ayesha Green (Kāi Tahu (Ōtākou), Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Pākehā). Her practice explores mātauraka māori, nation building and the relationship between empire and indigeneity.She graduated with a Bachelor of Media Arts from Wintec in 2009 and went on to finish a Master of Fine Arts from Elam in 2013. In 2016 she completed a Graduate Diploma in Arts specalising in Museums and Cultural Heritage. In 2019 she was announced the winner of the National Contemporary Art Awards, in 2020 she received the inaugural Springboard Award through the Arts Foundation and in 2021 was the recipient of the Rydal Art Prize. In 2022 she undertook the McCahon House residency follow by a residency at Sacatar in Brazil from March until May 2023. Most recently she was awarded the Harriet Friedlander Residency where she was based in New York from September until December 2024.Green has exhibited throughout New Zealand working with galleries such as City Gallery Wellington, Tauranga Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery, The Dowse Art Museum and Hastings City Art Gallery. Since 2018 she has been working with Paemanu - a Ngāi Tahu contemporary visual art collective.
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