'Your spot': Marking place with roadside memorials

Abstract

On the edge of a rural road in the South Island of New Zealand, two small white' crosses, draped in flowers, mark the location where Conor and Adam were killed The signpost bearing the name Kakahu River stands close enough to the crosses to serve as a message board (Figure 152): Thinking of you', 'Never forgotten', 'Long time no see' and from 'Possum' the poignant words This will always be your spot'. Marking the roadside is a time-honoured way of recognising the presence of meaning in a vast and seemingly endless space. When little spots of roadside space are claimed, memorials constructed and maintained, mourning rituals performed, the separated space defended and protected, the secular made sacred, and public space privatised, then a place is made known and given dimension, Place is space with meaning added.