Reinstatement

Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand, 2026

In 2026, forty years will have passed since homosexual law reform in Aotearoa New Zealand. In legal terms, the 1986 Act decriminalised consensual sexual activity between men. Yet this legislative change can also be understood as an act of reinstatement. Same-sex intimacy was not inherently criminal; it became so through the imposition of British colonial law, which introduced moral and legal frameworks foreign to earlier social orders. The reform therefore did not grant a new freedom, but reinstated a legal condition that had been removed. Commissioned by Precinct Properties Group, this work reflects on reinstatement as a historical correction, while recognising that the effects of criminalisation continue to shape queer lives beyond the moment of legal change. Installed across various sites in Auckland and Wellington, the project's approach, visual language, and naming were co-created alongside local queer communities.