Aparima Photo: supplied
30 kilometres west of Waihōpai Invercargill, is the town of Aparima or Riverton.
It’s the gateway to spectacular and remote West Southland, an area sitting between the mountains of Fiordland and the Takitimu mountain range, with an infamous wild ocean out front.
Riverton is one of the earliest European settlements in New Zealand and before that Aparima was a substantial Māori settlement, due to its proximity to the ocean and a river estuary.
The area is said to be home to a surprising number of artists alongside fisherfolk, and it’s also home to a strong Aoteaora cultural advocate, writer Pauline Vaeluaga Smith.
Little Red Caboose Gallery, West Southland Photo: supplied
Smith is the director of the Murihiku Māori and Pasifika Cultural Trust, which delivers a programme of events including Polyfest in both Murihiku Southland and Queenstown.
An educator with a passion for Pacific histories, Smith is known for her book My New Zealand Story: Dawn Raid, a finalist at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young People
Matarik Pou at Aparima Photo: Pauline Vaeluaga Smith
In our Regional Wrap we speak to Pauline the day after the announcement of the local Southland Creative Arts Awards.
Amongst what she celebrates in West Southland is the work of multimedia artist, Andrea Sexton who operates the innovative LIttle Red Caboose Art Gallery in the small settlement of Orepuki. From there you can drive on to one of Aotearoa’s more surprising giant public sculptures, of a surfer on a wave at celebrated break Colac Bay.
Pauline also shouts out to her local Te Hikoi Museum and its current Art Challenge, a teacher and champion for all things literary Lynn Grove and the Matariki wayfinding pou project.
Colac Bay sculpture, West Southland Photo: Mark Amery
