Taarati Taiaroa: a fallen kahikatea and Aotearoa’s strong showing at the Lyon Biennale

Ten of the 120 artists at this year's Lyon Biennale are from Aotearoa, after curator Katherine Nichols was told to return to where she's from. Taarati Taiaroa was at the opening. In the main venue, a former locomotive workshop in the south of the city, visitors walk past a sound installation of a woman's karanga followed by synchronised gunshots, then a 61-metre line of white pine trunk sections in the form of a fallen kahikatea, both by Tamaki Makaurau artist Ashley Topic. John Miller's billboards declare Honour the Treaty, and Fiona Clarke shows a 1970s photographic series that has never been exhibited before. Taarati talks about a day of Oceanic events at the opening and why Aotearoa needs to keep a presence there.