Looking at the legacies and political dynamics of agriculture in Aotearoa New Zealand, What thrives on these soils considers how we might think about growth and prosperity. The exhibition includes artworks that illuminate the experiences of workers and the economies of working-class towns like Heretaunga Hastings–communities shaped by their proximity to farming industries.

The marketing slogan of Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke’s Bay, “Great things grow here,” promotes an abundance of opportunities for investment, industry, and personal success. Yet, the artists in this exhibition complicate this narrative. They examine the realities of working the land and the cycles of economic growth and decline in food and fibre production—asking who truly reaps the benefits. Their works interrogate global systems of exchange that shape markets for labour and produce, as well as entrenched settler-colonial perspectives that frame the land as a site for individual profit.

Together, these artists foreground lived experiences and histories, and moments of collective resilience—gestures that might, in turn, seed new possibilities.