Offsite talk at Ellerslie Racecourse Grandstand with Bhaveeka Madagammana and Tane Pamatatau: A collaborative conversation with Waiatarua

In 1960, construction of the Ellerslie Racecourse Grandstand filled the ancient subterranean lava caves of Waiatarua with concrete, one of many acts of irreversible terraforming since human settlement. This offsite kōrero takes that act as a starting point to question how an expanded acknowledgement of the long and eventful histories of our landscapes might inform the ways we conceive of and develop Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Bhaveeka Madagammana, a PhD candidate at Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning and Research Analyst at the Waitangi Tribunal Unit, explores Indigenous architectural food spaces. Tane Pamatatau, an architect at Monk Mackenzie, works at the intersection of contemporary Western new materialism and Indigenous Moanan ontology, with particular emphasis on architecture that honours the whenua and moana.