Statues tell stories of place. Placed on the land and concreted into permanence, they honour leaders; mark tourism locations; advertise businesses; serve as backdrops for political speeches; and commemorate selective histories. But statues also silence stories: stories seen as not having a place, in that place. Big Things – or larger-than-life roadside sculptures – were first built in California during the 1920’s to boost small-town economies by attracting passing motorists. Forty years later, Big Things started appearing across Aotearoa New Zealand for similar reasons, and their ongoing installation continues. There are currently 117 Big Things peppered across the country; with many widely considered as emblematic town icons, and critically important for tourism and businesses. Yet despite being built for 65 years in Aotearoa New Zealand, there is scarce research about Big Things, and no public archive. So why do these structures keep being built, and what is a ‘Big Thing’ anyway? Importantly, whose stories do these structures tell? And which narratives are obscured by their literal and proverbial shadows?

This filmic geographies project examines Big Things within the context of complex regional identity imaginaries and banal nationalism, and attends to the ways that some of these structures may be considered as an apparatus of forgetting settler-colonial histories. The research demonstrates that despite their fun aesthetic and seemingly-frivolous existence, Big Things merit critical scholarly attention given their ongoing importance within evolving tourism, development and political agendas at multiple scales.

This project is funded by the Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Fast-Start Grant. It was selected as one of 22 projects highlighted on the Royal Society Marsden Fund landing page in 2022, when it was awarded.

The overall project has been completed across different phases, and a separate project website (www.AotearoaBigThings.com) is coming in late 2025.

In the meantime, if you are looking for A Tiny Book of 100 Big Things in Aotearoa New Zealand – a small booklet emerging from archival research with a community kaupapa at its heart – check out Stockists at BookHub.