"I am honoured to be a small
part of the High Country Parks initiative, and send my congratulations today,
and best wishes for its permanent success.
Of the six parks nominated thus
far, two are particularly well known to me - Pisa Range and the Hawkdun/Oteake
Range - and have staked out segments of both my heart and work. I lived beneath
the glowering bulk of Mount Pisa for eight years until 1983; and I built my present
house in order to have the pleated wall of the Hawkdun's as my daily companion
to the north: as I write this the sun is turning the Hawkdun's white winter coat
peach-pale, and soon that snow will glow like a line of dull scarlet embers before
the rising shadow line claims it for the night. That beautiful, slow show is one
of the cherished gifts of my daily life.
I believe many of us identify
ourselves most tellingly by the landscapes we find running deepest inside. For
me, when I am overseas and thinking of New Zealand I am not thinking of the map
of New Zealand, but of specific local points on that map - a view, a valley, a
road, a private place. I believe each of us carries such a treasured image within
us wherever we are, and it helps us know who we are, helps define us to ourselves
and others. It's an experience, or visual version of the curl of hair lovers used
to wear close to their heart, cased in a silver locket, and never removed.
Many
New Zealanders know this lingering power of the landscape, and painters like me
try to give it a form, to show what it feels like for me, and why it might matter.
Writers do it in careful words dredged from their hearts. Photographers look for
the moment which can deliver that memorable image, and make it more significant
still. We all do it because it matters, and we care.
So we care about the
protection of these landscapes, and believe absolutely that they are an essential
part of our New Zealandness.
I wish all strength to the arms of those
who are making these Parks a reality, and thank them for the gift they represent:
to remain preserved as places of deep and natural pleasure, the eternal symbols
of what it's like being us, and where we belong."
Grahame Sydney,
Cambrian Valley, Central Otago. 14 June 2005
