If you’ve ever wondered what the induction of a new judge into the court system in New Zealand might be like, you might have imagined rows of dark-suited lawyers, and elderly be-wigged Pakeha men presiding. When we were invited to the swearing-in of Auckland barrister Faumui Penelope (Lope) Ginnen as a Judge in the Manukau […]
Best Book, Best Writers, Best Bookshop…
August 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment
(Charmaine’s unabashedly personal views…) A Teaching Life, by Carol White, has just been published by The Cuba Press. It has been eleven years in the making, since Carol retired from her position as Co-Principal of Selwyn College, in East Auckland. I was delighted to be asked to write a foreword to it, and then to launch […]
Charm from the Chathams
August 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Kaa’i and Francesca, our friends from Rekohu/Chatham Islands have been in Auckland again, this time supporting and judging the culinary efforts of children in South Auckland, and extending the marketing of their new unique freeze-dried honey from the Chathams. They are also finalists in the NZ Artisan Awards…to be decided later in the year.. It’s […]
“Inside keeping the silence of peace at Parihaka”
June 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This title of a lecture by Maata Wharehoka comes from her lived experience of Parihaka for more than thirty years, since she arrived, newly-married to one of the local people. She has become one of their highly respected kuia. The occasion was one of a series of lectures organised at the Auckland campus of the […]
Marks of Mana
June 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Lisa Taouma is a film maker and TV website producer of great skill. //www.nzonscreen.com/person/lisa-taouma Her recent film release, Marks of Mana, screened in the Doc Edge film festival, documents the involvement of women in Tatau, the art of tatooing, throughout the Pacific. This is a beautiful film, showing women both giving and receiving tatau, […]
.SAME BUT DIFFERENT!
May 24, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Another film worth seeing! A very feel-good film- funny, romantic and true- a real-life love story between two women – Rachel (Pakeha), and Nikki (Samoan)- the two have been together for some years now, and decided that their own story was a good one to make into a film, with two other great women playing […]
Closer to Home…
April 19, 2019 by 1 Comment
… the opening of Pacific Sisters, an amazing exhibition on loan from Te Papa at the Auckland Art Gallery– ” a collective of Pacific and Māori fashion designers, artists, and performers, the Pacific Sisters electrified 1990s Auckland, bringing the ground-breaking style of an urban, New Zealand–born Pacific generation to the mainstream. Through pioneering, daring shows, the […]
Earthsong Eco Neighbourhood
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