Fiona Pardington’s portraits of the lost birds of Aotearoa New Zealand – in pictures

For more than two decades, Pardington has been photographing taonga (Māori cultural treasures) and natural history specimens in museums around the world. In the South Canterbury museum, she was struck by a collection of stuffed native birds which had been subject to taxidermy – many of them now extinct or endangered. They inspired a new human-scale portrait series of these manu (birds), revered within Māori culture as intermediaries between human and divine worlds. The resulting works will be exhibited at the 2026 Venice Biennale.

Pardington invites viewers to reconsider how they think of birds, and how we might better protect them.

Dee Jefferson
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