Selves (Martha) references the last known wild kaikōmako Manawatāwhi (Pennantia baylisiana). Rākau Mokemoke (Lonely Tree) was found in 1945 on the side of a cliff on Manawatāwhi (Great Island, Three Kings Islands Group) north of Cape Reinga. It survived by chance, with all others destroyed by goats introduced by colonial settlers in the 1889s.

Through the efforts of Ngāti Kuri and plant biologists, a combination of Mātauranga Māori and science has brought the plant back from the brink of extinction. Over 240 kaikōmako have since been cloned from the Lonely Tree, initially through cutting propagation, then artificially induced seed germination from resulting saplings. This process eventually resulted in the emergence of a tree capable of self-fertilisation in 1985, which plant biologists named ‘Martha’.

Each image in this series is derived from a photogrammetry model of a kaikōmako progeny photographed at the Hundertwasser Art Centre, Whangarei. The photogrammetry process is imperfect, with the digital program meshing images together and filling in missing information through approximation. The work attempts to visualise the kaikōmako's restoration process and the surreal state it now exists in as a species: a multitude of cloned plants, each both individual and identical in genetic nature, and an entity with its own agency in both stasis and an ongoing process of artificial self-regeneration. 


Further information about the kaikōmako and its regeneration can be found here: https://tearawhanuiresearch.com/manawatawhi/.