Standing at Bondi’s Marks Park headland, sixty carved pou by Waiheke Island-based sculpture Anton Forde look out to the horizon, as if searching for the place, far to the southeast across the water, where another group of tall figures also holds formation, at Warkworth’s Brick Bay Sculpture Park. Papare / Protection (2023) was installed in Sydney as part of the 2023 edition of Sculpture by the Sea. Forde was one of 112 artists included in the presentation, and he was recently announced as the recipient of this year’s Artists’ Pick award, as nominated by the exhibition’s participants.

Papare is one half of ‘Ngā Manaaki and Papare’, which also comprises Forde’s new installation at Brick Bay. Both sets of regal, slightly foreboding figures are arranged in kao kao patterns, chevrons that point outwards, symbolising, in Forde’s words, “kotahitanga —unity—and whakamaru— protection.” Crossing oceans and connecting neighbouring lands, the works call for international partnership and solidarity in the face of climate change, particularly through the amplification of global Indigenous and First Nations voices, knowledge and culture.