Onion pickers celebrated in art - come see the exhibition

Sapeer Mayron Reporter from Franklin County News

What is an iconic image that makes you think of Pukekohe?

For many of us it is onion pick­ers, backs bent over the brown soil in the surrounding fields.

Now this annual part of our rural heritage has been celebrated in art.

Ioka­peta Magele-Suamasi has con­trib­uted Onion Picker, a mixed media install­a­tion which is a centrepiece to the Het­ero­dox Us exhib­i­tion at the Frank­lin Arts Centre.

For many school hol­i­days in the 1970s and 1980s Mage­le­-Suamasi would come with her par­ents and seven sib­lings to toil in the onion and potato fields around Frank­lin.

It has left an indelible memory, which she trans­formed into an art­work which has in turn evoked memor­ies and star­ted con­ver­sa­tions among gal­lery vis­it­ors.

Two rows of onion sacks run through the gal­lery, each emblazoned with anec­dotes shared by Magele-Suamasi’s sib­lings when she told them she was cre­at­ing this work.

They cap­ture the hard work of pick­ing: ‘‘Everything and every­one smells like onions’’; ‘‘and then the sound of onion clip­pers all day until sun­set’’ but also the sense of fam­ily and togeth­er­ness that the days of pick­ing brought: ‘‘glass gal­lon bottles filled with orange cor­dial drinks’’ and ‘‘pain, endur­ance, team­work, pride.’’

Come in and see the exhibition for yourself:

Het­ero­dox Us
Frank­lin Arts Centre, Pukekohe
Runs till June 18