Nga mihi nui ki a Moana Maniapoto, wahine toa, te manutioriori ataahua… Moana Maniapoto’s evening at the tiny Coromandel Club was an absolute delight. She described her show, My Name is Moana, as being about our waterways- and indeed, we were drawn into a passion for protecting our waterways – and our land, and our […]
Tanya’s year of studying Te Reo Maori
December 19, 2016 by 2 Comments
Nga mihi matakuikui ki a koutou, I have just emerged from a year-long immersion course in Te Ara Reo Maori at the Lincoln Road campus of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, exhausted and elated, appreciative of my new understandings, skills and inspiration. I’ve been immersed in, but also “on the edge of”another way of seeing the […]
Charmaine’s year of unexpected activities…
December 19, 2016 by 1 Comment
Some of my time-consuming activities this year have arisen in the course of local community commitments; others have been projects which have emerged through meeting interesting people further afield. Here are some examples of both… Earthsong Centre Trust constitution and new reporting requirements At meetings of the Earthsong Centre Trust, which I chaired 2015-16, it became […]
A new voice in Grandpa Herald
October 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
We are enjoying the frank, provocative columns by Rachel Stewart, recently recruited by Grandpa Herald from the Taranaki Daily News. She has just won the 2016 Opinion Writer of the Year Canon Media award. Her powerful statements about male predators, and farmers who abuse the environment, have made this Whanganui Dairy Farmer and falconer somewhat […]
Inside and Outside the “Dark Forest”
September 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Gurmon Sup (translated into English as “Dark Forest“) was an extraordinary installation at Te Uru Gallery in Titrangi by Jae Kang, an Auckland-based Korean artist and passionate tomato grower. She used recycled irrigation materials to create sinuous snakes and coils, piles of black polyethylene tubes, pipes and fixings invading rooms, hanging down the handsome golden spiral staircase […]
New Voices
September 19, 2016 by 2 Comments
All four sessions we went to at the exciting annual Going West (Books + Writers Festival) in the Titirangi Hall last Sunday morning were stimulating. Barbara Brookes talked about the writing of her recently published A History of New Zealand Women, a wonderfully inclusive and thoughtful work, turning many common ideas about our nation’s story (especially regarding women’s […]
Turning the University Inside Out?
September 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
We were delighted recently to be invited to the inaugural Cumberland lecture at the University of Auckland on Thursday 15 September – especially as it was on this provocative topic, and to be given by an outstanding woman – Professor Wendy Larner, Provost at Victoria University, Wellington, . 1n 1946 Dr Kenneth Cumberland moved from Christchurch […]
Joan Macdonald
August 18, 2016 by 3 Comments
For the last month we have known that a dear friend, Joan Macdonald, was dying. We saw her on the morning of Friday 12 August. She was sleeping deeply; we talked quietly to her, saying our goodbyes, and spent some time with her daughter Beth before we left. Joan died that night, peacefully. On Friday […]
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