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can be perceived to be partially correct. 23 However it would be prudent to dwell momentarily on the statement that the sense of place is ‘made’. When the word ‘made’ is used, do we speak of a conscious making? Or is it an entirely unconscious act? Certainly it is an unconscious act first and foremost, as through the process of creating ourselves we simultaneously create place, and often vice versa. Places ‘insinuate themselves’ into our bodies, our consciousness, slowly gathering meaning as time passes and history coalesces. Geoff Park postulates that ‘at its most meagre’, a sense of place is a fundamental and intuitive human skill we depend on to analyse our surroundings and interpret them. It is about the forces which determine the uniqueness of each place and how we differentiate these places from each other through these uniquenesses.24 The phenomenon of people interacting with that landscape and the forms within it is a dialogue that occurs between land and people, and form and people unconsciously. We have a script that we define for ourselves in relation to our own personality and upbringing; we then use that internal script to interact with the landscape. It is an improvisation of acting, within which all objects, senses, people and forms are players. This ‘play’ tends to be over-simplified and summarized with picturesque pictures of pure and untouched landscapes; the tourism identity of New Zealand is an especially notorious culprit. However we need to start admitting that our identity is much more complex than that. We have a huge cultural and historical story, one which is often difficult and painful to revisit. But it is ours, and it allows us to re-construct and re-stage our identity as a country into a more complex and exciting concept.
23 Menin, S. (Ed.). (2003). ‘Constructing Place: Mind and Matter’. New York: Routledge. 1. 24 Park, G. (2006). ‘Looking for Signs of Life - Nature and the genius loci in the Austral City.’ Theatre Country: Victoria University Press. 47.