Rokowhiria
Opens
7 March 2026
Closes
23 August 2026

The Word Witch - Flights of Fancy
David Elliot

David Elliot’s illustration Goodness Gracious, showing a woman flying into the air above a breaking wave.
David Elliot, Goodness Gracious, 2008/2009, mixed media illustration on paper

Margaret Mahy ONZ (1936-2012) is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s best-loved young person’s authors; a literary hero to generations of young Kiwi.

Published in 2009, The Word Witch collected together the total of Margaret’s known poetic output – sourced from picturebooks, school publications, magazines, anthologies, and her own private papers – spanning a period of over fifty years.

Margaret’s seemingly boundless imagination and her ability to spin up vivid imagery of fantastical occurrences is perfectly complimented by Whakatere Ashburton-born illustrator David Elliot’s capacity for capturing the liveliness of her verse.

In this exhibition, illustrations accompanying some of the more outlandish of the book’s poems are presented – both the working and completed drawings outline the imaginative thought processes involved in providing the visual accompaniment to the rich literary worlds Margaret conjured.

Exhibition Hours:
Open Daily: 10am–4pm
Free Entry

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