The Portland Art Museum recently hosted a captivating showcase, “Te Moana Meridian: How the Prime Meridian Shapes the World and the Case for Relocating,” presented by interdisciplinary artist Sam Tam Ham, also known as Sam Hamilton. A New Zealand-born artist of working-class Pākehā descent, Hamilton is known for his multi-faceted, immersive approach. His eclectic, boundary-pushing artistic practice spans across sound, film, visual installations, creative writing, painting and movement performance. In this exhibit, Hamilton proposes a daring re-establishment of global time and space, as we know it.
As I prepared for the performance, I reached for the creatively stimulating and visually enhancing effects of a homegrown Durban Poison, securely preserved in my RE:STASH jar. After grinding, packing, blessing and hand rolling this hemp paper joint, I set out on an evening stroll to the museum. Two inhales and one exhale later, I was quickly greeted by the zesty, pungent pinene and linalool flavor notes that stimulated my palate and uplifted my mind. This potent sativa is the perfect paring for a night of thought-provoking, earth-conscious visual art.
Set on tribally recognized grounds, the Portland Art Museum honors the Indigenous peoples of this region, on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands, invoking a sense of appreciation for the community that continues to shape the city’s vibrant tapestry.
As the doors opened on this private debut, I was instantly struck by the illuminated grid lines parceling up the space and the intentional sound vibrations reverberating through the museum walls and into the chambers of my body. I stepped into the room with a meditative reverence; this was not a typical performance — this was ceremony.
Presented as an experimental opera, this work boldly reimagines one of humanity’s oldest constructs: the Prime Meridian. Viewers are immersed in a space that bridges colonial histories and Indigenous futures. The operatic performance invites the audience to question the colonial and Eurocentric influences within global geography. Is the placement of the Prime Meridian a lingering symbol of systemic injustice? Could moving it represent a move toward Indigenous sovereignty and the reclaiming of spatial narratives long dominated by Western power?
The multi-sensory journey wove sound, lighting, movement, language and critical inquiry. As sacred song filled the air, vocalists Holland Andrews in English and Mere Tokorahi Boynton in te reo Māori stood as mirrored vessels of ancestral wisdom, educating the audience of the Prime Meridian’s historical purpose and guiding viewers toward a vision of what the future could hold if the Prime Meridian were restored to the South Pacific.
Their voices, like ceremonial incantations, carried the weight of Hamilton’s radical proposal, urging us to reflect on the deep colonial histories embedded within our maps. This idea, presented operatically in both languages, fosters an inquiry that extends beyond the geographic — a movement towards decolonization, guided by the very languages of the colonized and the colonizer. Boynton’s rich, emotive Māori vocals, paired with Andrews’ haunting English delivery, create an echo of shared histories and future visions.
Reverberating with ancestral tone, this performance serves as both a tribute to Indigenous sovereignty and a question posed to all who bear witness: Could the act of moving the Prime Meridian be a symbolic reclamation of systemic justice — an act of the decolonization of Mother Earth as a living body? This ceremony of sound and inquiry invites us to envision a world where sovereignty is not just reclaimed but fully realized. Through Hamilton’s vision, the opera isn’t just a performance; it’s a statement. Viewers are invited into a new ecological and philosophical space — one where sovereignty of global space is reevaluated. As I exited this opera, the question lingered: Is the Prime Meridian simply a line, or does it serve as a representation of deeper systemic imbalances? Could shifting this line open a path toward
justice and Indigenous autonomy?
