The Waikato River

Still narratives of the Waikato River
Colleen Ryan-Priest – Glass Artist

The Waikato River by Colleen Ryan-Priest

Colleen Ryan – Priest, has for many years been a landscape architect. Her work has involved observing the environment and knowing how nature behaves when shaped by the intervention of humans. She has grown to love the Waikato region, especially the river. It is her respect for the social history of the region - the land, the river and its relationship to our lives - that informs this particular work. Colleen lives and works as a full-time glass artist in Hamilton.

Artist’s Statement
The richness and strength of the Waikato River are revealed by its many moods and its ability to provide continuity through many changing layers of physical, social and cultural meaning, encapsulating visible and hidden stories, conflict, intensive human use and rapprochement over ownership.

Change is the ongoing constant, with volcanic eruptions changing the course of the Waikato River from one coast to another, and through the impact of human habitation.

Despite the change, timeless patterns of a sparkling life force embrace light and colour at the source of the river, through to a darker slowness and quiet where it meets the sea carrying all the detritus collected on its journey through a land washed by floods and inhabited by many communities; A river loaded with the undercurrents of its own physicality and layers of human meanings.

The use of glass as a medium, communicates the richness and multiple layers of the Waikato River. In its very nature, the qualities of clarity and transparency resonate with the nature of water. This work will take you on the river’s journey, from Taupo, to the Tasman Sea.

Tongariro/Lake Taupo
The source of the Waikato River in the volcanoes of Tongaririo is represented by the Koru. The strong colours refer to the deep water of Lake Taupo and the gathering together of different strands of life, which underpins the meaning of the river. This is the strength and anchor for the river.

Huka Falls – Part I of the journey
From the deep water of Lake Taupo the river is plunged into the light and air. There is an energy and exuberance. The water is crystal clear and pristine. An untamed life force, full of potential and expectation.

Huka Falls – Part II of the journey
After the gathering of the different layers and exuberance of the Huka Falls there is a change. The water becomes quiet again between steep cliffs of volcanic ash towards Aratiatia Rapids and the hydro dam.

Aratiatia Dam – Part III of the journey
This glass represents the first of the Waikato River Dams; Dams built to intercept the flow of the river and hold the water within a lake for the generation of power. Dams, which irreversibly change the physical structure and character of the river. The colour changes, the original course of the river is hidden from view, and a new landscape layer and character is created.

Karapiro – Part IV of the journey
Karapiro is the last hydro dam before the sea. The journey of the river has been slowed and it is now carrying multiple layers of sediment and detritus collected on its way through agricultural land inhabited by many communities.

Rangiriri – Part V of the journey
Wide and broad with its undercurrent of physical and human history layers, islands gently guide the water into sweeping slow currents of water that can rise and fall, depending on the natural climatic regime and human manipulation of water levels; 
A river of many parts; A river of past, present and future life.