Shared Moments


Shared Moments is an ongoing process of community learning through workshop and korero, with groups connected through diverse whakapapa and community relationships. 

This work is a social, collaborative and adaptive community project that weaves absorbing knowledge about myrtle rust with collectively creating spoken word, and sharing kōrero. Participants then create their own prints from images by Graham of plants and creatures of the forest, giving them the option of leaving the encounter with a physical artwork, an uplifting reminder of the knowledge exchanged.

Participating groups have included whānau of the artist, rangatahi, local community and primary school students, with knowledge shared via presentation or videos from researchers, scientists and field-workers involved with myrtle rust. 

Working with a process that draws on Māori ways of learning and creating collectively to engage, connect and ignite awareness, Graham creates a space for shared learning, building awareness of myrtle rust through conversation, then collective creativity. 

“Māori are a collective that’s really the simple basis of it. We operate under a collective vision you know and whakapapa is always the collective.”

Charlotte Graham comes from a lineage of artists, including her aunt Emily Karaka, uncle Mikaara Kirkwood and cousin Te Rongo Kirkwood.

 Graham studied a Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts from Massey University, graduating in 2001 and studying under the tutelage of Robert Jahnke, Shane Cotton and Kura Te Waru Rewiri. She subsequently completed a Postgraduate Diploma of Māori Visual Arts at Toioho ki Āpiti in 2008.

Harnessing repurposed objects, mixed media materials, illustrative designs and a distinctive pastel colour palette, Graham’s painting practice explores collective well-being, healing and the interrelationships of natural life in te ao Māori (the Māori world).


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What shall we do about Myrtle?