Our special 20th anniversary exhibition – “Celebrating Our Volunteers” – opened in the Bottle Creek Gallery at Pātaka in Porirua on Friday 3 August. Watch the video of the opening function

Make sure you get along to see it! This is a special occasion in the history of Friends of Mana Island. The exhibition is designed to recognise the efforts of the many volunteers over the past 20 years.

It features a new model of the island meticulously constructed by Doug Royson, using a topographical base from a previous Pātaka display.

There are many fascinating photos taken over the years showing volunteers working on the island doing planting, bird and lizard work, maintenance and guiding, plus some beautiful images of the wildlife. We have several panorama photos showing the island in the 1980s and 90s and how it looks now. Quite a transformation!

There will be two short videos showing – one sponsored and produced by Kaboose Media featuring a weekend work party and a guided trip, and the other by Holly Turner of a guided trip she went on.

Two display panels include an interesting timeline showing the work undertaken by Friends of Mana Island and the long list of the organisations who have contributed to the island’s restoration.

We will also have a memories board for people to record their memories of visits to the island. We look forward to reading these.

Thanks – A special thanks to all the photographers whose photos feature in the exhibition; to Doug Royson for his painstaking work on the model, to Kaboose Media and Holly Turner for the wonderful videos, and to Sue Hobbs from Minimum Graphics for designing the fabulous display panels. All these people gave their time freely to these projects. We are very grateful!

Thanks also to our speakers who will be giving public talks in the gallery at 2pm each Sunday in August. See the programme for details. 

Pātaka is located on the corner of Norrie and Parumoana Streets in Porirua. The exhibition is in the Bottle Creek Gallery.