After fire destroyed much of the old Parliament building in Wellington, Malcolm Harrison designed a multi-media installation to fill the Galleria space.

In 1995 he commissioned artists and craftspeople to create a series of artworks involving the land, the sky above, the surrounding sea and the Pacific migrations. The aim was to use the Galleria space to its fullest with large-scale works that could be seen from many different viewpoints.

"Style Pacific", a group of Pacific Island designers and printers, won the commission to create panels which were part of this massive artwork. The canvas panels, 5.1m wide x 6.6m, represent the sails on an outrigger.

Jean Clarkson lead the Style Pacific design team of Sila Lesatele, Alisi Leao, Asau Junior Chan Sau, Kylie Stehlin and Lesley Robb.

They researched tapa design from the 1700's, looking at method, process and imagery; the Auckland Museum was generous in allowing the group to view their extensive collection of tapa.

They set out to represent aspects of historic Polynesian migration across the Pacific and to also reflect issues relevant for Pacific people today.

The canvas was printed using traditional methods such as rubbing hand-made woodblocks, direct printing and stencilling.

The Pacific Panels, which took six months to complete, are on permanent display in the old Parliament Buildings.

Jean Clarkson , POI Research Team, 1999