Hello Mr Kāwana was part of an ongoing project that engages with colonial narratives as a means to understand the histories that have shaped identity and landscape in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Presented on Te Tuhi’s Digital Billboard, the artwork depicts a young man seated in a pose reminiscent of late 19th-century colonial portraiture, acting as a response to the statue of Governor Grey located in Auckland’s inner-city Albert Park. Grey was a prominent figure in the colonisation of Aotearoa, resulting in many grievances towards Māori communities and Māori land that have indelibly structured the society we live in today. Stolen Land, the second of Hassett’s artworks on the Digital Billboard, is a simple yet complex image that is intended to be a bold comment for each viewer to digest on their own terms.

Viewed together, the artworks interweave tensions of land, history and culture, serving as a prompt for dialogue around the ways in which people are memorialised, the values of representation and whose narratives exist in public space.