Dunedin writer Laurence Fearnley was awarded the 2016 NZSA/Auckland Museum Research Grant (taken up in 2017). Laurence’s project focuses on landscape and scent and is structured in such a way that each section responds to the traditional development and dry-down of perfume.
Laurence said, “The research I undertake at the Auckland Museum will contribute towards a volume based on smell and landscape. The Auckland Museum research is crucial to this project and will form the centre of the ‘base notes’ section. Specifically it will draw on the journals of naturalist and missionary Rev. Richard Taylor and the observations he made regarding scented plant material used by Māori in the creation of The Grand Māori Perfume.”