Charka Conversations

Cat Auburn and Christine Borland, Charkha Conversations, 2024, hand-made harakeke paper, charkha spinning wheel

Approaching Home includes a new, collaborative artwork by Cat and Christine based on two archival sources: The Report of the Flax Commissioners, 1870 from the archives of the Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and an exhibit of plant-fibres at the Colonial Museum, Wellington in 1871 which was included as an Appendix to The Flax Commissioners Report.  This artwork introduces a historic dialogue between Aotearoa and Scotland around harakeke, which can be found in locations around the world that follow extractive colonial routes, including in the artists’ own neighbourhood in Argyll, Scotland. 

Counter to the many letters between Aotearoa and the UK which form part of The Report of the Flax Commissioners, the artists’ exchange is a conversation between friends, led by personal encounters with harakeke. The dialogue forms an important part of on-going communication and collaborative planning throughout the duration of the exhibition; Cat and Christine were originally meant to travel to Aotearoa together, however Christine remains in Scotland due to illness. 

The letters are handwritten on paper made from harakeke, sourced from gardens and public spaces around Argyll during lockdown in 2020. Embracing the slow, dis-jointed exchange of information, the artists share encounters and learn from the individuals and communities who care for harakeke in Scotland and Aotearoa, acknowledging the global significance of Māori traditions in narrating complex dialogues around the shared colonial histories and futures of textile production.

The letters are exhibited alongside a portable spinning wheel called a Book Charkha, considered by Christine and Cat as a tool for binding both artist’s practices, through the production of numerous hand spun threads incorporated in Approaching Home. The apparatus was designed by Mahatma Ghandi as both a means to financial independence for all India’s citizens, and a method of non-violent protest, successful in re-establishing the local textile industry, away from Colonial British control.