1991: Edmund Hillary in Orewa

May 29, 2023

By AHNZ

Visit Orewa and you’ll soon find this 1991 statue of Edmund Hillary (left.) But if you’re like me you’ll wonder what possible business this very non-mountainous seaside town has to do with him and….you’ll be disappointed. Zip’o. Maybe Hillary’s father visited and performed some landscaping tasks for money at some stage. That’s the lot.

Hillary’s most famous act was, with the local support of  his Napalese companion Tenzing Norgay, climbing to the summit of the world’s tallest mountain, Everest, on 29 May, 1953. Ref. 1953: Conquest of Everest, AHNZ

‘Sir Ed’ made many climbs in the Southern Alps so, understandably, has a statue at the Hermitage. I think he lived from mid-life in Remuera Auckland and even had his phone number in the telephone book. But during his climbing days he lived in Papakura, a long way from Orewa, yet there is no statue of him there despite a strong proposal in 2009. However, Papakura does have a library, school, and a street named for Hillary. Why does Orewa have a statue of Edmund Hillary?

The 1991 statue is the work Chinaman Chen Weiming, publisher of Chinese paper ‘New Times’ and an annual business directory called ‘the Chinese Business Page.’ So he has even less to do with Hillary than Orewa does! Chen is a Permanent Resident of the United States but also holds a New Zealand passport, having moved to this country in 1998. Not only is Chen not a New Zealander, did not and does not live here, he was given the commission for the Orewa statue without even knowing who HIllary was!

How does this make any sense? Surely somewhere there must have been many New Zealanders who missed out on this project who did belong to this country and did have an affinity and valuation of Hillary? Or, at least know who he was? Maybe someone in the New Zealand art world could have been worthy of being imbued with Hillary’s fame and having “many doors” opened for them worldwide?

Surely a nation that needs to outsource its own stories has abrogated its function, even its right, to generate and transmit its own culture? Rather than be self-expressed about who we are and celebrate our own heroes New Zealanders, in this case, have welcomed in an outsider to feel our feelings for us. We gave away the honor, the reputation, the artistic space, pride, the money, and the career boost to an outsider. Hillary himself evidently went along with this, siphoning off some of his own fame and giving it (selling it?) to the Chinaman rather than a Kiwi. Why? To his credit, Chen Weiming has not wasted the opportunity and has gone on to live the life he wants to and is engaging in the art and the activism he is evidently passionate about. Yet, again, why couldn’t one of our own have been launched into orbit and had a lifetime of taking New Zealand values and art globally?

Nothing about this situation makes sense, not the artist choice or the Orewa setting. We must turn on our Anarchist Cynical Scanner and look again for an answer.

“A Papakura primary school, the town library and a street are already named in honour of Sir Edmund.” – Papakura looks to honour Sir Ed, Stuff (2009)

“Though Hillary (1919 – 2008) lived and worked as a beekeeper in the Counties area to the South of Auckland, his father Percy planted Orewa’s iconic Norfolk pines, and contributed to the Orewa community…statue…is by immigrant sculptor Chen Wei-Ming.” – Places.nz

“But the artist…from Zhejiang province in China…confessed to not knowing anything about Sir Ed back then. “I was only a new immigrant when I got that assignment and I was keener to prove that I could do the job – and doing it well – rather than finding out about the person.” – Sir Ed statue opens doors worldwide. NZ Herald (2008)

“Sir Ed’s fame has also become his fame, and has opened many doors for him – including..” – ibid

“”Sir Ed is probably the most famous New Zealander, and sculpting his statue has added to my credibility not just in New Zealand, but internationally,” Chen said.” – ibid

” Chen and his wife Er Yu also publish New Times, a weekly Chinese newspaper in Auckland, and an annual business directory, the Chinese Business Page, ” – ibid

“1991, Authorized by Hillary Funds Committee, create the bronze statue of Mr. Edmund Hillary over three meters, the national hero of New Zealand and the first one reached the Everest. The bronze was unveiled by the Governor-General Dame Cath Tizard, the Mayor and Mr. Edmund Hillary. Majesty Queen Elizabeth II sent a congratulatory message.
For memorizing Chen’s artistic achievement, Auckland Institute of Technology wrote his story in the permanent teaching material of the college.” – Art Next Gallary

“Chen is the first Chinese artist accepted by the Maori.” – ibid

“The New Zealand passport is very useful, you do not need visas.” – I didn’t die in Syria: Kiwi artist, Stuff (2014)

“Art money laundering involves the buying and selling of art and antiquities – often at inflated prices – to disguise the origins of illegally-obtained funds and reintroduce them into the legitimate economy.” – What is Art Money Laundering?, Comply Advantage

Some of the most absurd and out-of-place artworks attract huge fees even when the value of the painting, sculpture, or statue is very suspect. It seems like the art market has been corrupted into serving as tokens for big businesses to transfer vast payments to each other without coming under the radar of usual rules of commerce or taxation.

With that in mind the most likely explanation is not that, of all the towns in New Zealand, the community of Orewa woke up one day and said ‘How about a statue of Hillary and we get a Chinese guy in to make it?’ More likely that Chen Weiming’s out-of-place artwork is the token of transfer between unidentified China-based business interests in New Zealand. There’s a theory that the statues of Easter Island work the same way so now Sir Ed, within his own lifetime, is our very own version of one of those!

Of course these heuristics could be wrong. I’m just Occam’s Razoring with the only information we have.

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Image ref. AHNZ Archive (2019)

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