Country Life: South Auckland artist absorbs life on high country station

Raymond Sagapolutele was not sure what to expect when he arrived at Castle Hill Station for a Creative NZ residency. The photographer hadn't spent time on a farm before.

"I've spent most of my life around glass and concrete. Farms are one of the last places I'd ever wanted to be when I was younger. So, it was a bit of apprehension that I took with me," he said.

His accommodation is an old shearer's cottage with a good supply of firewood and several woolly merino rams as neighbours.

"My ram friends have kept me company for the past few weeks. They still haven't quite gotten used to me but we've tried!"

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Sagapolutele is a guest of the Upper Waimakariri Catchment Group which was invited to join a pilot programme that Creative New Zealand is trialling for Pacific artists.

"I think the general idea was, let's see what Pacific artists, in this case a Pacific artist that's done photojournalism, make of an environment that's way outside of their comfort zone," he said.

Arriving with an open book and not really knowing what he was going to do creatively, the AUT lecturer attended a catchment group meeting hosted by Castle Hill Station managers Anne and Jason Hann.

"That's where I first had my introduction and I got to meet everyone. In that meeting the discussions were about land management and land protection."

From then on, the photographer spent most of his time capturing the daily lives of the catchment's farmers and shepherds.

As well as getting to know about farming at Castle Hill Station, he also spent time at Flock Hill, Longhill, Craigieburn, Mount White and Cora Lynn.

"Each of those stations have given me different experiences and I've been really humbled to be able to watch what goes on. They're not only farmers, they're guardians."

One of his favourite images is of shepherd Brendan Smart while on the autumn muster. Brendan is the head shepherd at Castle Hill Station and has become a good mate to the Aucklander.

"I nearly ran out of firewood a week or so ago and he turned up in the Can-Am [vehicle] fully loaded for me. He's really looked after me. All of them have. All the shepherds have been incredible."

Finding cultural connections between a high country farming community and the Samoan community back in South Auckland has been a highlight of the residency.

"Where I'm from if something's needed, the community is so tight that people are there to help.

"The key things for a lot of our Samoan families are tied down to faith. You know, alofa, aiga, love and family and those things are reflected here as well."

The artist has his own links to the agricultural industry through his parents. His mother worked as a nurse at the Westfield Freezing Works in Otahuhu and his father worked for a wool broker in Wiri. Raymond also spent a season working at an AFFCO processing plant.

"Now, I'm seeing the front end of that around here."

With a large body of visual work in the can, Sagapolutele plants to build a story that explores his high country journey.

"Having that ability to see from a Samoan perspective has given me another way to reframe what I'm looking at."

It's not yet clear when and where the photos will be exhibited. That's a discussion that he'll take up with Creative New Zealand.

"But I'm really hoping to take this back to our own communities and one of the things that I thought about was there's scope and scale in here for this experience to be given to some of our younger ones."

Learn more:

• You can learn more about Creative New Zealand here