Leading New Zealand artist Marilynn Webb has issued a strong warning about mining of conservation areas to benefit "a corporate few" while it could "destroy heritage for all future New Zealanders".
Ms Webb, who is also an art educator, highlighted concerns about turning conservation areas into "industrial sites" during the graduation address she gave to about 340 graduates in humanities and health sciences, including dentistry, medicine and pharmacy, on Saturday.
The university conferred an honorary doctor of laws degree on Ms Webb at the capping ceremony in the Dunedin Town Hall.
Mining conservation land, an approach recently proposed by the Government, was "very significant for long-term environmental impact", Ms Webb said.
"Mining may create fleeting economic returns for governments, but it totally risks long-term renewable benefits for us all.
"We need to work collaboratively to find a proper balance between economic growth and environmental protection, as we need collaboration to break down economic and cultural barriers.
"In view of landscapes and tourism, we cannot allow our conservation areas to be turned into industrial sites that benefit a corporate few, and destroy heritage for all future New Zealanders."
She congratulated graduates on their achievements and said this was an exciting time for looking forward, with many pathways open to them.
With respect to research, she said that "competition should not drive out co-operation, and compliance should not push out personal creativity".
"As teachers, you will be sensitive to the needs of individual students, and nurture their creative thinking," she said.
"Hopefully, you will promote progress, protection and preservation of all these things and remember that New Zealanders have worked for a century to protect our public conservation estate."
She recalled first arriving in Dunedin in February 1957, having come from the Eastern Bay of Plenty and "inappropriately dressed in my rock and roll gear, with no socks and no jacket".
She subsequently studied at the Dunedin College of Education and had her first exhibition of paintings at Stewart's coffee bar, then situated in the Octagon.
After working in the North Island and overseas in the Pacific for some time, she had returned to Dunedin in 1974 as Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the university.
"My art practice was committed to landscape values and environmental issues, which were further enriched by trips into the upland tussock country surrounding Dunedin."
Otago Vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg said Ms Webb was widely considered one of New Zealand's most distinguished and influential artists and, during her long career she had won many national and international awards.
