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The sculpture of two labrador dogs playing with a ball is destined for lower Esk Street, despite it lacking any cultural significance to the city’s history.
Invercargill city councillors voted 7-6 in favour of Mayor Nobby Clark’s Notice of Motion to accept the sculpture from the Invercargill Public Art Trail Charitable Trust, and its placement in the CBD.
But they listened as mana whenua representative Evelyn Cook gave a passionate speech expressing disappointment about how the process was handled, and its impact on her people.
Asking councillors to address her by the correct title, “I am the Reverend Evelyn Cook, I am the mana whenua representative, I’m not Evelyn when I sit around this table. Always give respect.”
Councillors initially discussed the sculpture in a public excluded meeting, which meant they were hampered by discussing it within the community, but it had been leaked to the media, and Rev Cook said that had diminished the integrity of the table.
“The mana of my whanau is being undermined by the factors that are even outside of this council’s control,” she said.
She said looking around Invercargill, there were places where things belonged, such as soldiers at the war memorial, and she believed the process for accepting the sculpture had been deeply flawed.
“I love labradors but they didn’t exist in the city in 1856.”
Cr Ludlow backed Rev Cook that labrador dogs weren’t even around when Invercargill was founded and totally irrelevant to the city’s history.
“It just doesn’t quite fit in that space…it’s not quite the right piece in the jigsaw puzzle.”
Cr Trish Boyle said she understood from her involvement with the Infrastructure Committee that the two dog sculpture was breaching a commitment by council to Ngai Tahi for the exclusivity to use Esk Street for their cultural story.
But Mayor Clark said he was unaware of any exclusivity commitment to Ngai Tahu, despite Waihopai Runaka representative saying it was the only space in the city where their story should be told, and therefore protected.
Crs Alex Crackett and Steve Broad agreed Esk Street was just not quite the home for the dogs - “pick anywhere but that 2m strip down Esk St,” Cr Crackett said.
But deputy Mayor Tom Campbell said the dog was a huge part of Invercargill history, used by surveyors to access areas around the city where they couldn’t.
"We shouldn’t be a killjoy council for not supporting that.”