Through The Rose Window
Interpretation by Kay Duncan
I have written several songs in response to the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes and this one is the most recent. It’s looking at where we are at now as a community, what we have been through and honouring those who lost their lives back then. In relation to this, I also did a painting of a rose from the botanical gardens in response at the time also titled ‘Through the Rose Window’. The idea behind the painting was that if we were able to stand and look through the Rose Window in the Christchurch Cathedral before the quake we would be looking towards the Avon River and the Botanical gardens. After the quake, the beauty and permanence of nature was providing much solace to us as we worked through our grief and were surrounded by our broken city. The rose, being a symbol of love and hope seemed to be an appropriate representation of our honouring the past, being grateful for that which remained and eventually moving forward to where we are now. The other idea of viewing things through ‘rose tinted glasses” was another perspective that I brought into the song and relates to our desire to see the best in ourselves, and in each other, even when things aren’t perfect. It relates also to the old ‘Clean Green’ image of Aotearoa that we hold dear, but that sadly seems to be slipping away as we look at the poor condition of our rivers. Are we still choosing to look through the rose tinted glasses, imagining that our rivers are still so clean?