Gift of the Forest (Koha Ngahere)

Gift of the Forest (Koha Ngahere) – Ballpoint Pen Drawing by Sina Sibler

Sometimes an image lingers long after you first see it. For me, that was a black-and-white 1935 photograph from the Te Hikoi Museum archives. It showed the felling of a native beech tree in the Longwood Ranges. On the surface it was a document of history, a record of men at work. But I couldn’t stop thinking about what it represented, both the strength and skill of the lumberjacks, and the deep, irreversible loss of the forest.

When the Te Hikoi Artifact Art Challenge 2025 was announced, I knew this was the photograph I wanted to respond to. I didn’t want to simply redraw it. Instead, I asked myself: what if that moment of destruction could be reimagined as a gift? From there, the idea of a bouquet emerged, an outstretched hand offering cut trees as though they were flowers.

The hand is deliberately masculine and hairy, symbolizing the men who worked in the bush. Their livelihoods depended on felling trees, and I wanted to acknowledge both their labour and their role in transforming the land.

I chose five tree species, all native to New Zealand and present in the Longwoods: Rātā, Red Beech, Kahikatea, Rimu, and Kāmahi. Their placement in the drawing reflects their natural hierarchy of size, from the towering Rimu to the smaller Kāmahi. Each tree was carefully researched and drawn with as much accuracy as possible, while still allowing space for the surreal nature of the concept.

As with many of my works, birds also appear. Some caught mid-flight, approaching the bouquet. Another, a kārearea (New Zealand falcon), is hidden among the branches of the Rimu, waiting for the careful viewer to discover. They serve as reminders of resilience, presence, and the life that remains despite human intervention.

The drawing took 36.5 hours to complete, rendered entirely in ballpoint pen on Fabriano Fine Art Paper (300gsm). Working in monochrome was important: it echoes archival photographs, but it also allows texture and grain to come forward, emphasizing the weight of timber and the fragility of feathers.

Gift of the Forest (Koha Ngahere) is both a tribute and a question. It acknowledges the history of logging in Southland, but also asks us to consider our ongoing relationship with the ngahere. Are we receiving a gift, or are we taking too much? How do we balance beauty, use, and preservation?

In the end, the piece is about transformation: of trees into timber, of history into art, and of loss into a moment of reflection.