Sadly, most Aucklanders won’t remember the Red Admiral butterfly, or Kahukura, the subject of Paul Forrest’s artwork, Bring back the natives, for Sculpture in the Gardens. Endemic to Aotearoa, these beautiful butterflies were common in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and widespread in the country before the turn of the century. Habitat loss and perhaps the effect of the painted apple moth insecticide has caused it to almost completely disappear from the city.

In Bring back the natives, Paul presents a large installation in the Gardens of his sculptural Kahukura. Brightly painted and in varying sizes, this striking work is sure to provoke nostalgia for and generate a conversation about this all but lost but loved New Zealand insect.

The kaleidoscope is to draw attention to the current community drive to reintroduce the Kahukura Red Admiral population to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland