Taranaki’s energy industries have provided employment, supported communities and profoundly shaped the region’s identity. They have also generated complex environmental, cultural and social questions.
Presented alongside Economies of Deferral, this two-part public programme brings personal experience into conversation with artistic perspectives.
Together, speakers and participants will consider the relationships between industry, whenua, workers and communities—reflecting on what the region’s energy history has made possible, what it has cost, and how Taranaki might approach future change in ways that are environmentally responsible, locally informed and socially just.
Part One: Working Lives and Industrial Legacies
1:00pm - 2:30pm
Find out about part one here.
Tea Break
Part Two: Shaping a Just Transition
3:00pm - 4:30pm
What would a fair and locally grounded energy transition in Taranaki’s look like—and who might help shape it?
This community kōrero builds upon Part One by looking towards Taranaki’s changing energy future. As governments, industries and communities consider moving toward lower-emissions energy, how can change respond to the aspirations and concerns of workers, hapū, iwi, landowners and local communities?
The discussion will explore what 'clean' or renewable energy looks like in practice, how environmental claims can be critically assessed, and how the benefits and burdens of new infrastructure are distributed. It will also consider tensions between national targets, commercial priorities and community responses to where and how projects are developed.
Bringing environmental advocacy and mātauranga Māori into conversation, this session invites participants to consider how future decisions might uphold relationships with whenua and taiao while supporting secure livelihoods and meaningful local participation.
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Image: Left: Matthew Galloway, Fragments of the Motunui Synthetic Petrol Plant Visitor Centre, 2026, Waitara Valley Methanol Plant Model, plastic wood, model produced c. 1981; Mari Kokako Model, metal, plastic; Cabo Negro Model, metal, plastic; Motunui Synthetic Petrol Plant Model, aerial view, wood, plastic, metal, model produced c. 1981, detail. Models from the collection of Methanex New Zealand Ltd. Right: Matthew Galloway, From the Minister of Energy — Carless Days, 2026, 4k digital video, Videography: Grant Priest, installation view, Economies of Deferral, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre, Ngāmotu New Plymouth. Courtesy of the artist.
