Elizabeth Eastmond
The following is a tribute to Elizabeth Eastmond at the time of her memorial service on Waiheke Island late October 2025. It features snippets of our shared correspondence.
Kia whai korōria Te Atua i runga rawa. Kia mau te rongo ki te whenua me te whakaaro ki ngā tāngata katoa. Kanui te mihi ki Te Pūtiki o Kahumatamomoe. Mihi mai ki ngā uri whakatipu o Patuone rāua ko Riria. Mihi mai ki Piritahi te mārae, Ngāti Paoa te tāngata whenua. Ngā mihi ki te whare e tū nei te papa kei waho. Tēnā kōrua.
Ka mahara ki tā mātou hoa kairangi Irihapeti Elenor Eastmond. E te kaiwhakatere. Kaua e tangi ki te hāpori nei, kaua e huri tou mata ki mai, ki uta ki ngā oneroa e toromai ana. Ināianei tonu e hoea ana tou waka ki te paepaetanga o te rangi. Wheriko ana ngā tūātea o ēnei ngaru. Panuku, panuku.
Mā wai atu hoki e haere ana ki te whenua tawhitinui, tawhitiroa, tawhiti pāmamao. Hoea mai tou waka i tua atu i te moananui a Kiwa. Haere tonu ki te tuakoi raki. Ka rongo au ki te tangi mokemoke o te ōi ki te tapātai o Ingarihi ki tonga. Haere mai e hoeroa. Whaia ngā awa e rua ko Exe me Lowman ki tā raua pūtahi me tou kāinga tūturu. Hoki mai hoki mai ki te awhitia mahana o ngā puke o Tiverton i piki ake koe. Moe mai e te whaea, takoto mai rā. Haere mai ki te kōhanga, he whenua mōmona, he hau kāinga nei.
Tā mātou mahara tini nei e rere ana kei muri i te kōrinorino. E Irihapeti āku aroha ki tou whānau whanui, he whānau pani. Kanui te mihi ki Fenner me te hinga o tou Māma. E kara ka hinga te rākau rangatira nei. Ae, he kauri. Ka mate he tete kura, ka tupu he tete kura. Taku aroha ki a koe. Mihi mai ki ngā kaiawhina i Irihapeti. Kua rongo au te rongopai e pā ana ki te tautoko o tā mātou hoa mate. Na reira, e ngā whaea, e ngā mātua, e ngā hoa o te wāhine kairangi. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā rā koutou katoa.
‘To the one who charts her vessel. Right now you paddle your waka out to the sparkling edge of the water. Who else can make this journey? Back to the distant homeland. Beyond the vast expanses of Kiwa. To the distant north. I hear the lonely cry of the storm petrel off the Devon Coast. Welcome home long-traveller. The manu cries follow the river Exe and Lowman to their confluence beneath your ancient homeland. Return to the warm embrace of your ancestors. The hills you once climbed behind Tiverton. Sleep our beloved. Rest there in the fertile lands of your ancestors.
Our many memories are flowing, currents swirling behind the wake of your waka. And while we grieve, these memories occupy for a brief moment the void you have left.’
Here are just a few memories, in random Māori continuum order, plucked from a fuller conversation Liz and I maintained over at least a decade. Words were her love: spoken and written. Often clipped and summary. Stand at attention. Sometimes longer, self-deprecating, sharp, visceral. 26 November 2018, London, ‘Based over here since early September, really enjoyed getting to so many exhibitions and talks. ‘Starting with Oceania [at Royal Academy] the conference itself – a very tepid, colonial affair...Why weren’t critical issues like repatriation, appropriation discussed at all…You of course Rangi should have been a central part of it. I asked about your book in the RA bookstore – and recommended they stock it. Hmmmnnn..’
We communicated over our various projects, we shared our attempts to get our writing published. 28 December 2019. ‘I did give a talk on Hodgkins at the Mahara Gallery. No invitation in Auckland and suggestions rejected…’ 3 August 2022 Submitted an essay to Art NZ…didn’t hear back’
I shared my many job applications, our family situations, our ups and our downs, our hopes and aspirations, our holiday breaks. Waiheke was a place of great solace and amusement. Liz had a wicked sense of humour about London, Tāmaki mainland and Motu Waiheke. 3 January 2021 Photo below of ‘socially distanced’ chairs placed by Oneroa’s mystery man at time Level 4.’…Had an Xmas lunch with friends, later in day hosted at home ‘orphan friends for a drop in drop out for those who had no family or had fallen out with them. All very pleasant and no fallings-out.’ 26 April 2021 ‘Life goes on on the Republic of Waiheke…’ 31 May 2021. Having to walk round with an autograph book these days on Waiheke, Lenny Henry and Neil Gaiman at bookstall at Market, and Lloyd Jones even attending our local Song and Poetry Thing night…10 September 2021 I’m doing OK, much reading, a little writing, some nothinging, and some procrastinating…oh and some e-biking round the back roads, discovering new ones on Waiheke.’ 24 Nov 2021 ‘There is a beautiful big yellow and maroon catamaran registered in Senegal down in the bay…Off to take Ruby for a walk, dog I am foster mum of…She is Perfect!’
She loved this island and enjoyed the company that came her way through the gallery she ran at Tivoli and through her extensive social connections throughout the country. She would regularly write regarding trips she took to places which gave her an excuse to explore towns on her return expeditions to book shops and unexplored parts of the New Zealand countryside.
2 December 2020. Giving talk Adam AG, Hodgkins and second World War art. Decided to make a trip of it back, via op shops, second -hand bookshops and galleries. Have a Mobil guide to North Island. Very good bookshop Whanganui resulted in a haul of 13, mainly vintage Penguins, but a couple of quite rare cartoonist David Low’s booklet cartoons on WW2.’ London was equally an opportunity to meet up with her mates and explore shows across Europe. She travelled abroad regularly while based in her flat in London. 28 December 2019 ‘A couple of good months in London, with half of Waiheke coming to stay – good times and lots and lots of art, super stimulating…’
She always addressed her letters to my wife and I because I sensed that felt aroha for the enormous predicament we faced with a single income living in Tāmaki. Liz had resources to sustain the terrible way in which she too had been treated by the University of Auckland. I did not have the same luxury. She was a fierce advocate for people treated unjustly and we both shared the common bond being terminated by the same employer with no prospect of finding employment in the arts or education industries. I felt very aroha for Liz and the rejections she also received from the artworld.
Perhaps directing Tivoli here in Waiheke was one way of getting around this shared predicament. 11 July 2018. ‘…Still trying to get the Executors of the Hunter Estate to agree with my project, but Alexi’s ‘s twin sister so far blocking my access to the Archives.’ 27 Sep 2021 Attended the Gordon Walters Preview panel discuss AAG – so many people there, had some comments to make, but no Questions allowed, sadly. Afterwards I a woman next to me asked, ‘What was that ‘contentious issue they mentioned?’ I was happy to outline some of the history and the implications of the “appropriation debate, despite moderator Rhana Devenport’s effectively closing down any discussion re. one of Aotearoa’s most lively and significant debates on culture ever. The person was v. interested …and trotted off to do some research.’
I sensed that she was a little English in relation to any attempts to shut down discussion or dialogue. Stiff upper lip. She never complained just related bluntly how this publisher or that publisher or gallery had turned down a manuscript or failed to return a call or neglected to respond to a letter. What I most admire about Liz is she seemed to be focused much more on the issues others were experiencing and yet she herself was undergoing enormous stress.
Some might use the word stoicism: altruism I would venture. A description of self here after a long support letter relating a project I had worked on regarding the New Zealand Land Wars to journalist Carmen Parahi 12 February 2021. ‘I am an old feminist art historian, who started with Cheryll Sotheran the first paper at Auck Uni on women artists in 1981. So feminism central to me. Also involved in the Palestine Human Rights Campaign over 20 years. Also worked beside and learned a bit! From Rangihīroa Panoho and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku at Auck Uni.’ 14 July 2018 ‘I am touched etc by your suggestion of some kind of shared project – except I am sure you don’t need me!’ A self-effacing response to cheer up ongoing rejections. 17 June 2020. ‘How are those damned publishers shaping up? You know I didn’t have much luck when last had a bout of sending off proposals, but I have just been invited!! To write 200 words!…on what? My memories of drinking at the Kiwi Pub in the early ‘70s!!! Rather chuffed at this…’ 11 April 2021. ‘Is it impossible for people to step aside from a position of power without feeling mortally wounded?’
Manawaroa – resilience a word that slips too easily from the lips of some in Parliament at the moment. But a quality Liz possessed in abundance – manawaroa. 6 August 2020. ‘As friends remind me, I am often in danger of being too ‘politically correct’ E hoa kairangi, you are no longer in danger of being politically incorrect and I relish hearing you so resiliently speak again here, amongst friends, amongst loved ones, with NO fear of recrimination, NO fear of danger.
Nā reira, kanui te koa kua huihui mai tātou i tēnei ahiahi. Kia ora mai ano tātou katoa.
Ka pine a koe
e ahau ki
te pine o
te aroha ki
te pine e
kore nei e
wai kura e.
