Storytellers…

Lynx the signer, Tanya, Tame the orator, Charmaine

From the Raindrop, to the River, to the Sea..

Tame Iti, artist and activist,  is often seen as the wild man of the Urewera Wilderness.  On November 9, in top hat, tails and a scarlet bow tie, he gave a formal lecture in the Halls of Power (actually the Sir Paul Reeves Building at AUT).

It was the Sir Paul Reeves annual lecture, with the title From the Raindrop to the River to the Sea..for Leadership New Zealand, on the nature of mana, and how it both informs and transcends concepts of authority.

His essential point was that true leaders respect the mana of the people about them.  They may disagree with others, but they do not humiliate them.  He gave examples from his own experience of those who used their power to belittle others and trample on their mana, and how they lost all respect in the process- their own leadership and mana was diminished or destroyed.  (A pity our own political leaders too often forget that in Parliament…)

He also talked about how regard for the mana of others enables all to work together, gathering strength as they go, as the title of his talk suggests.  

Tame is an artist, he is an activist, and he is also a thinker whose vision spans both our cultures and whose communication skills are as powerful in a lecture theatre as they are in a piece of political theatre, or on a protest march.

The Leadership New Zealand website has links to a film of the lecture, other pictures of the evening, and Kim Hill’s interview with Tame Iti the following Saturday.:

http://www.leadershipnz.co.nz/blog/latest-news/2016/11/17/sir-paul-reeves-memorial-lecture-2016 

We the Ones

Congratulations to Julie Helean, who won the BNZ Katherine Mansfield literary award earlier this year for a lovely story called “Misjudged”.  

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WmEzhAaO4g

And congratulations again to Julie on her second fine, funny and lively novel, this time with strong political lesbian and Treaty themes.  Written and published in print and as an e-book, We the Ones explores the challenges of the anti-racism and Treaty movements as 1990 and the 150th anniversary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi approaches.  It portrays especially the struggles at the time when Maori and Pakeha tried to work together , and all the issues and differences that raised.  It’s told from the perspective of a Pakeha lesbian feminist Treaty worker  – many of you will identify with the narrator at times, as we did!  It makes some serious points about relationships, women’s struggles, and lesbian identity, with lots of wry grins and laugh-aloud bits too.

If you’ve read Julie’s earlier book, The Open Accounts of an Honesty Box, you’ll expect a lot of humour, some pathos and lots of action – and you certainly won’t be disappointed.     We’ve both enjoyed this book – a really good read- and given our different tastes in fiction this is quite unusual! 

And of course you can get the book from The Women’s Bookshop in Auckland, where it was launched in November with due fun and flair:  https://www.womensbookshop.co.nz/p/nz-fiction-we-the-ones?barcode=9780473366636