Marcus Nieves

Hope on the Horizon

The story starts in 2125. Raindrops are hitting the glass ceiling harder than it has ever rained. “Load the raft!” Hugo says as he cuts the mooring rope from the anchor. Hugo is a man in his 60s who was raised to believe that Tamaki Makaurau would soon  experience a flood: Paptūāanuku’s revenge for being neglected by the human race.

This belief led Hugo’s parents to design a tailoring shop that focuses on sewing second-hand garments as a mean to help raise awareness to the ever rising carbon footprint that is mainly produced by fast-fashion, and to prepare a raft. It is time for the tailor's shop to be tested. The raft will enable rescue, migration, and a new mobile life once Tamaki Makaurau has been overwhelmed by a flooding caused by climate change and reduced to an archipelago of volcanic islands.

Lisa Doeland writes: “Apocalypse is a helpful prism to look through at the climate catastrophe.” Being conscious of the damage we’re inflicting to Papatūānuku is enables us to grasp the reality of climate change and its ability to take what it has given us: life.