Seeping Ugly

This thesis examines the human experience of encountering manifestations of historical pollution from the Houghton Bay legacy landfill in Wellington New Zealand. While much scholarship has already been dedicated to researching the broad characteristics of environmental victims, there exists a gap within the literature regarding the specific human experiences of historical pollution within urban contexts. This thesis tells the experiential stories of the Houghton Bay residents and their encounters with the landfill and examines their efforts to have overseeing institutions acknowledge their victimization. Through the examination of institutional documents, scientific evidence, visual illustrations and ten qualitative interviews with Houghton Bay residents, the research constructs a holistic view of how a deliberately confused and obfuscated informational landscape concerning a case of historical pollution can not only inhibit institutional acknowledgement of the experience of becoming and living as an environmental victim, but exasperate it. The thesis concludes that the human experience of historical pollution within urban settings is complicated by means of state and corporate propagated agnosis and ainigmology, and that in that process the question of ‘who is responsible’ becomes evident.