The Smell Brings it Back

The Smell Brings it Back draws on interviews with three Southland women who gave birth at the former Dee Street Maternity Hospital, Waihōpai Invercargill, NZ, in the 1960s and 1970s. One recalled being given castor oil mixed with orange juice before labour. "The smell brings it back," she said. The title comes from that moment, where memory, body, smell, and place collapse into one.

Their stories describe a structured and often isolating system in which women had little control over how they gave birth. Yet they speak without resentment. "They looked after me very well." "It was just the way things were done back then."

Movements along the exterior walls of the former hospital, holding on, letting go, pushing, seeking comfort, sit in dialogue with the interview excerpts shown as subtitles. Together, they reflect on how past experiences linger in both bodies and buildings.

Shown as part of VICTORIA, He Waka Tuia, Waihōpai Invercargill, NZ, 2026.

The Smell Brings it Back
2025
single-channel HD video
audio
subtitles
duration 5:38
size variable
edition of 5