Merata Mita: How my mother decolonised the screen This is a superb film- profoundly moving, powerful and a worthy tribute to one of Aotearoa’s most remarkable women. We remember Merata’s film Mauri (the first feature film written and directed by a Maori woman), and some of her documentaries about the emergence of Maori sovereignty, Bastion […]
…then the Wit and Wisdom of Writers…
May 20, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Kate Haworth is a great lecturer- warm, funny, thoroughly at ease with her content and abe to express ideas powerfully – with humour, and with diagrams, pictures and props. On the first night of Auckland Writers’ Festival Week she presented her ideas about the need for us to move , world-wide, towards Doughnut Economics. She […]
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 […]
Friday 15 March 2019: a day to remember with pain
March 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment
You will all have heard about the terrorist attack on Muslim people praying in two Christchurch mosques last Friday, 15 March. Our hearts go out to the families who have lost dear ones, and to all Muslim people in Aotearoa, whose hopes for a safe country to live in have been so cruelly shattered. E […]
Friday 15 March 2019: a way to look forward with hope?
March 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment
On this same day, before the evil erupted in Christchurch, tens of thousands of young people in Aotearoa left their schools to demonstrate their deep concern about climate change and the future of our planet. We went to Aotea Square in Auckland to support them. It was inspirational- thousands of young people of all cultures […]
A Capital Visit
February 19, 2019 by 1 Comment
Charmaine’s cousin Audrey had her 90th birthday at the end of January , and we took a trip to Wellington/Whanganui-a-Tara for her party. We have quite a few lesbian friends in Wellington whom we hadn’t seen for some time, so we stayed four nights, and caught up with several of them. Our AirBnB purpose-built cottage […]
Waitangi Day on Awhitu
February 19, 2019 by 1 Comment
For almost thirty years we’ve spent Waitangi Day on the Awhitu Peninsula, mostly at Tahuna Pa, near Waiuku, for a celebration of Ngaati Te Ata young people’s achievements, and sports and music. This year was very different. We were invited to the opening and blessing of an ancient path at the Manukau Heads at 5am […]
Friday 8 February
February 19, 2019 by 1 Comment
34 years ago today Tanya came to dinner for the first time at Charmaine’s little cottage in Clarence Street, Ponsonby. And that, as many of you know, was the beginning of our relationship. We still share strong political beliefs and values in common, and mostly enjoy each other’s very different strengths. So we happily weave […]
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