The intention of this artistic project was to celebrate the memory of the women who ran the Aotea Convalescent home for NZ soldiers in Egypt during WW1.

This body of work connects with my body of work ‘Sand in the Apricot Jam’, which is about the NZ Mounted Rifles who served in the Middle East in WW1. My grandfather who was the inspiration for that body of work was cared for by the nurses at Aotea when recovering from malaria.

An arts project created in 2018 to mark the centenary of the end of WW1 and the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand.

In 2018 I was the recipient of the ANZAC fellowship artist residency at New Zealand Pacific Studios. While there I worked on many pieces that were to form the body of work ‘A Home Away from Home’.

In 2018 ‘A Home Away from Home’ was exhibited at Aratoi in Masterton. Masterton is in the Wairarapa, a region where some of the nurses originated from and where there are still strong family ties. It was also exhibited at WH Millbank gallery in Whanganui. The gallery is situated in a building where 100 years before the exhibition, a dance was held to raise funds for Aotea Convalescent home. There are still many relatives of the nurses from Whanganui who established Aotea, living in the region. It was a real privilege meeting with them at the opening.

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