Climb Every Mountain

Signed Print by Lester Hall
Giclee print on paper

Ed Hillary's five dollar face emblazoned with the legend TANGATAWHENUA challenges all Maori to say he was not and challenges all Pakeha to say they don't care. This image recognizes the commitment I made to publicly assert the idea that I, as a Pakeha New Zealander, am Tangata Whenua. This loomed before me like a mountain at the time and has required every moment I have spent since forming an understanding of what it means to me to be a 1956 Pakeha Male citizen of Aotearoa/New Zealand. I first painted this idea 20 years ago in my "Hories and Whities" diary page series. I reprise the image here in a monotone stamp style and incorporate it into an already successfully used New Zealand stamp design. “Climb Every Mountain” tips it's hat to the energy and optimism of the song and charges New Zealanders to climb the mountain of race relations and equality. It is time to "knock the bastard off".