For A Gathering Distrust, Daegan Wells centres his research on the contested foreshore of Lake Manapouri, working with video installation and ceramic pieces formed from clay gathered along the lake's edge.


In October 1969, a group of local campaigners met in a house in Waihōpai Invercargill, setting in motion a plan to counter the proposed raising of Lake Manapouri as part of the Manapouri hydropower project. The campaign launched by Save Lake Manapouri Committees across Aotearoa demonstrated the power of protest in shaping government policy, and has since come to symbolise a turning point in Aotearoa's engagement with environmental issues. A Gathering Distrust revisits the tense relationship between Save Lake Manapouri supporters and the National Government under Jack Marshall in the lead-up to the 1972 election.