New Zealand photographer Fiona Pardington (born 1961, Auckland) is representing Aotearoa at the 61st Venice Biennale with her exhibition *Taharaki Skyside*, on view from May 9 to November 22, 2026, at the Aotearoa New Zealand Pavilion. The show features large-scale portraits of taxidermied birds from museum collections across New Zealand and Australia, focusing on endemic species including the extinct huia and whēkau. Curated by Felicity Milburn and Chloe Cull, the exhibition is presented by the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.
The exhibition matters because it brings Indigenous Māori perspectives into dialogue with Western museology and ornithological illustration, using photography to explore themes of extinction, colonialism, and spiritual intermediaries. Pardington's work, which draws on Māori creation narratives and Dante's vision of the Southern Hemisphere as Purgatory, challenges how institutions have classified and contained both species and cultures. It also highlights the role of contemporary Indigenous artists in reshaping global biennial discourse.