Category: Past Events

Te Anamata o Te Tiriti me Tākuta Carwyn Jones: 29 o Paengawhāwhā i Te Whare Pukapuka o Te Awe

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He aha? Te Tiriti: ki hea ināianei?
Āhea? Rāpare 29 o Paengawhāwhā, 12:30-1:20pm
Ki hea? Te Whare Pukapuka o Te Awe (29B Tiriti o Brandon)

I runga anō i ngā tohutohu a Māmari Stephens i roto i tana tuhinga “He rangi tā Matawhāiti, he rangi tā Matawhānui”, kāore e tawhiti atu te whakanuitanga 200 tau o waitohutanga o Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Engari ka pēhea ianei te āhua o Aotearoa hei ngā 20 tau e tū mai nei? Ā, ka whakawā pēhea nei ngā tumu kōrero i te tau 2040 i ngā whanaketanga o ngā tekau tau ruarua ka hipa?

Ko tētahi tangata e taea ana pea e ia te whakautu i ēnei pātai ko Tākuta Carwyn Jones (Ngāti Kahungunu). He Ahorangi Tāpiri a Tākuta Jones i Te Kauhanganui Tātai Ture i Te Whare Wānanga o Te Herenga Waka, ā, ko ia hoki te kaituhi o New Treaty, New Tradition – Reconciling New Zealand and Māori Law and co-editor of Indigenous Peoples and the State: International Perspectives on the Treaty of Watangi. Ko ia hoki te perēhitini-ngātahi o Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa, me te ētita-ngātahi o te Māori Law Review me AlterNative – an International Journal of Indigenous Peoples.

E whai wāhi ana hoki a Tākuta Jones ki tētahi atu kaupapa whakahirahira. E rua marama ki muri ka hono atu ia ki te ohu Adaptive Governance me te Policy i te BioHeritage Challenge, Ngā Koiora Tuku Iho, hei kaihautū-ngātahi me Tākuta Maria Bargh. He tūranga whakahirahira tēnei: ki te whakatau me pēhea e taea ai e ngā panonitanga ki te kāwanatanga me te ture i Aotearoa te āwhina ki te whakaora i te taiao o te motu – i mua o te hokinga kore ki muri.

Ki te rapu i ētahi atu kōrero, pānuitia tā mātou uiui ki a Tākuta Carwyn Jones i raro!

E kōrero ana te pae tukutuku a te Adaptive Governance me te Policy (AGP) mō tētahi mataaho āheinga e whakaratoa ana e te whanaketanga o tētahi Rautaki Koiora ā-motu, tae atu hoki ki te WAI 262.  Ka taea e koe te whakamārama i te hiranga nui o WAI 262 me te Rautaki Koiora?

E whakarato ana te Rautaki Koiora i tētahi anga whakahaere matua mō te whanake i ngā mahere koiora ā-takiwā, ā-rohe hoki puta noa i ngā tau 30 e tū mai nei i Aotearoa.  E whakarato ana hoki i tētahi moemoeā whaitake me te whakarite i tētahi māramatanga whānui o te wāhi hei whāinga mā tātou hei iwi, ki te tiaki me te hiki i te koioratanga.

Ko te pūrongo WAI 262, Ko Aotearoa Tēnei, me te urutau a te kāwanatanga whānui e whanake mai ana, e whakatau haere ana hoki i ēnei momo take (me ētahi atu), me te arotahi atu ki te whakaurunga a te Māori me te tūranga o te mātauranga Māori.  Ka whakauru hāngai tonu te Rautaki Koiora me Wai 262 ki ngā pātai o te kāwanatanga taiao me te kaupapa here e pā ana ki te tuku ihotanga koiora o Aotearoa.

Me pēhea a Te Mana o te Taiao – te Rautaki Koiora o Aotearoa e whai whakaaro ai ki te pūrongo WAI 262 a Te Rōpū Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi?

Ko tētahi o ngā āhuatanga matua o te pūrongo WAI 262 ko te miramira i ngā hapori Māori tae atu ki ngā iwi, hapū me ngā whānau, me tā rātou mahi ki te whakatakoto i ō rātou wawata mō te whakahaere i te hononga a te tangata ki te taiao, me te whai i ngā tikanga pūataata e haepapa ai ngā kāwanatanga ā-rohe, kāwanatanga matua hoki ki te whakauru atu ki aua wawata.  E āta mohimohi ana te pūrongo ki te kī ko tā te whāinga ā-Tiriti me rapu ki te whakamana i ngā hapori Māori i te tuatahi ki te whakatau take ka pāpā atu ki ō rātou taonga (tae atu ki ngā āhuatanga o te taiao), ā, i ngā wāhi e hiahiatia ana ētahi tauira whakahoa, me whakauru te Māori ki ngā whakataunga take, kaua ko te tū hei kaitohutohu anake i te kaiwhakatau.  Ko tētahi o ngā putanga whaikī o Te Mana o te Taiao, ko te whakatinanatanga e ngā hoa Tiriti, whānau, hapū me ngā iwi ngā tūranga matua hei kaitiaki.

Ko tētahi atu mahi o nāianei a te AGP ko te whanake-ngātahi i ngā tikanga ā-ture e “whai reo ai te taiao”.  He aha ētahi whai wāhitanga?

Ko ētahi o ngā momo tauira ka whai wāhi pea i konei ko ngā mea pēnei i te whakamana i te whakatangata ā-ture ake o ngā āhuatanga horanuku, pērā i tērā i kitea ake mō Te Urewera (he papa ā-motu i mua) me Te Awa Tupua ( ko te awa o Whanganui i mua).

He whai tikanga nui te whakaaro o ngā tauira kāwanatanga rerekē.  He tauira āu e hoahoa-ngātahitia ana e koe i tēnei wā, ā, kua whakamātauria?

He whānui tonu ngā āhuatanga e whai wāhi atu ana ki ngā tauira kāwanatanga rerekē.  E tūhuratia ana e mātou ngā whakaaro mai i Te Ao Māori mō te whakarite i ngā hononga ki te tangata, ina koa, a te tangata ki te taiao.  E whai ana mātou ki te arotake i ētahi o ngā tauira o nāianei mō te kāwanatanga-ngātahi kua whanaketia mā te tukanga whakatau take Tiriti me ētahi atu horopaki, ā, kua whakaritea e mātou tētahi pūrongo o ngā taputapu pūtea kua hoahoatia hei tautoko i te koioratanga me te whakapoapoa i ētahi tauira rerekē o te kāwanatanga.

He aha ō matapae mō te whakatinanatanga o ēnei tauira kāwanatanga i te anamata?

Me āta aro te whakatinanatanga ki te horopaki ā-takiwā, te taiao ā-takiwā, me ngā hononga ā-takiwā.  Ko tētahi āhuatanga ka whaitake nui pea i roto i te whakatinanatanga ko te whakamana i ngā hapori ā-takiwā ki te whakatinana i tā rātou tūranga hei kaitiaki.

I a tātou e titiro ana ki ētahi tauira kāwanatanga rerekē me ngā tikanga ā-ture mō Aotearoa, tērā anō ētahi tauira o tāwāhi e pīata mai ana, e whai take ana?

Ehara i te mea kei Aotearoa anake ēnei take, nō reira he nui ngā mahi puta noa i te ao e whakauru atu ana ki tēnei tūmomo wāhi ōrite.  I Aotearoa nei, kua waia tātou ki te whakapūnga o ngā whakaritenga mana tūmatawhānui, engari i ngā pūnaha kotahitanga  pēnei i Amerika, Kanata, ā, tae atu pea ki Ahitereiria, e hāneanea ana ki a rātou te whakaaro o ngā ao rerekē o te mana whakahare me te horahora i ngā whakataunga take.  Nā tēnei ka hua mai pea ētahi wāhi mō ngā tauira kanorau, kāwanatanga ā-takiwā hoki.

Ki ōu whakaako ka pēhea te whai o ēnei tauira me ēnei kaupapa here i ngā raru nui pēnei i te urutā KOWHEORI-19 o te wā nei?

Ka urutau pai pea ki te kanorau o ngā matea ka hua mai i tēnei momo raru nui.  I te mea hoki ki te whakamanahia ngā hapori ā-takiwā, ka whai rātou i ngā mahi e hāngai ana ki ō rātou āhuatanga ake, te tiaki i ngā tāngata – arā i kitea tēnei i ngā wāhi arowhai ā-hapori i whakaritea e ētahi rōpū Māori, ā-iwi hoki, ā, i whakahaeretia i te wā e taumaha ana te urutā i Aotearoa.

The Future of Te Tiriti with Dr Carwyn Jones: 29 April at Te Awe Library

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What? Te Tiriti: Where to Now?
When? Thursday 29 April, 12:30-1:20pm
Where? Te Awe Library (29B Brandon Street)

As Māmari Stephens points out in her essay “He rangi tā Matawhāiti, he rangi tā Matawhānui”, the 200th anniversary of the signing of te Tiriti o Waitangi isn’t far off. But what will Aotearoa look like 20 years from now? And how will historians in 2040 judge the developments of the past few decades?

One person who may be able to answer these questions is Dr Carwyn Jones (Ngāti Kahungunu). Dr Jones is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law at Victoria University and the author of New Treaty, New Tradition – Reconciling New Zealand and Māori Law and co-editor of Indigenous Peoples and the State: International Perspectives on the Treaty of Watangi. He’s also co-president of Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa – The Māori Law Society and co-Editor of the Māori Law Review and AlterNative – an International Journal of Indigenous Peoples.

Dr Jones is involved in another significant project as well. Just over two months ago he joined the Adaptive Governance and Policy team at the BioHeritage Challenge, Ngā Koiora Tuku Iho as co-lead with Dr Maria Bargh. The role is a significant one: to work out how changes to governance and law in New Zealand can help save the country’s environment – before it’s too late.

To find out more, read our interview with Dr Carwyn Jones below!

The Adaptive Governance and Policy (AGP) website mentions a window of opportunity provided by the development of the national Biodiversity Strategy, as well as WAI 262. Could you explain the importance of WAI 262 and the Biodiversity Strategy?

The Biodiversity Strategy provides a key organising framework for developing local and regional biodiversity plans across the next 30 years in Aotearoa. It provides an important vision and ensures that there is a common understanding of where we as a country need to get to in order to protect and enhance biodiversity.

The WAI 262 report, Ko Aotearoa Tēnei, and the whole of government response that is developing, also addresses similar kinds of issues (amongst many others), with a particular focus on Māori participation and the role of mātauranga Māori. The Biodiversity Strategy and WAI 262 both engage directly with questions of environmental governance and policy relating to New Zealand biological heritage.

How could Te Mana o te Taiao – Aotearoa NZ Biodiversity Strategy take the Waitangi Tribunal’s WAI 262 report into account?

One of the central features of the WAI 262 report is the emphasis on Māori communities, including iwi, hapū, and whanau, being able to proactively set out their aspirations for managing the relationship between people and the environment and having transparent mechanisms to ensure that central and local government are accountable for engaging with those aspirations. The report is careful to note that a Tiriti-consistent approach should first seek to empower Māori communities to make decisions that affect their taonga (including aspects of the natural environment) and that where partnership models are required, these must involve Māori participation in decision-making, not merely acting in an advisory capacity to the decision-maker. One of the stated outcomes of Te Mana o te Taiao is that Treaty partners, whānau, hapū, and iwi are exercising their full roles as kaitiaki.

Another current AGP activity is the co-development of legal mechanisms that “give voice to nature”. What would this include?

Some of the kinds of models that might be included here could be things like the recognition of legal personality of landscape features as we have seen with Te Urewera (formerly a national park) and Te Awa Tupua (formerly the Whanganui river).

The idea of alternative governance models is also really interesting. Are there any you’re co-designing at the moment, and have they been scenario tested yet?

There are a whole range of things that contribute to alternative governance models. We’re exploring ideas from Te Ao Māori about organising relationships between people and, particularly, between people and the environment. We’re aiming to evaluate some of the existing models of co-governance that have been developed through the Treaty settlement process and other contexts, and we commissioned a report on financial instruments that are designed to support biodiversity and incentivise different modes of governance.

How do you see these governance models being implemented in the future?

The implementation needs to be sensitive to local context, the local environment, and local relationships. One aspect that is likely to be important in implementation is to empower local communities to exercise their role as kaitiaki.

When looking at different governance models and legal mechanisms for Aotearoa, are there overseas examples that have stood out as potentially useful?

Of course, these issues are not unique to Aotearoa and so there is a lot of work going on around the world that is engaging in this same kind of space. New Zealand tends to have quite a centralised understanding of the organisation of public power, whereas in federal systems such as the USA, Canada, and to some extent even Australia, there is more comfort with the idea of different spheres of authority and diffuse decision-making. That can sometimes create space for diverse and localised governance models.

How do you think these models and policies would approach crises like the current COVID-19 pandemic?

Likely to respond well to the diversity of need that this kind of crisis creates. Generally, if local communities are empowered, they will take steps, appropriate to their local circumstances, to keep people safe – as we saw with some of the community checkpoints that a number of Māori and iwi-based groups established and managed through the height of the pandemic in Aotearoa.

“Reality ….. up for grabs” Our exclusive interview with author David Keenan

Neil

We think we’re walking into the future. We fool ourselves! But every last damn one of us is walking straight into the past.

David Keenan, in This Is Memorial Device

We are very excited to welcome (in an electronic sense) multi-award-winning Scottish author David Keenan for a wide-ranging online interview, exclusive to Wellington City Libraries.

David is one of the most innovative, exciting and dynamic authors writing in English at the moment, with huge ambitions for his work way beyond the conventional parameters of fiction. His fiction output is truly extraordinary — vibrant, visceral, genre-breaking and immersive. It could easily be said he’s a pioneering visionary when it comes to what fiction is and can be — and his many past lives are just as interesting.

A self-confessed music evangelist, David was a long-time writer for the legendary and hugely influential Wire magazine. He also ran — along with his wife —  the now sadly closed Volcanic Tongue record emporium which also served as a distribution company and record label. Volcanic Tongue was so legendary in alternative music circles that the British Library recently harvested its entire online output of over two million words for posterity.

We wish to extend to David our deepest and most sincere thanks for sharing his time with us, and for such a fabulous interview — which you can now view below.

Enjoy!

Books by David

This is Memorial Device : an hallucinated oral history of the post-punk scene in Airdrie, Coatbridge and environs 1978-1986
“David Keenan’s debut novel is a love letter to the small towns of Lanarkshire in the west of Scotland in the late 1970s and early 80s as they were temporarily transformed by the endless possibilities that came out of the freefall from punk rock.” (Catalogue)

For the good times
“Sammy and his three friends live in the Ardoyne, an impoverished, predominantly Catholic area of North Belfast that has become the epicentre of a country intent on cannibalising itself. They love sharp clothes, a good drink, and the songs of Perry Como – whose commitment to clean living holds up a dissonant mirror to their own attempts to rise above their circumstances. They dream of a Free State, and their methods for achieving this are uncompromising, even as they fully indulge in the spoils of war. Keen to make a difference, the boys find themselves in the incongruous position of running a comic-book shop taken over by the IRA.” (Catalogue)

England’s hidden reverse : a secret history of the esoteric underground : Coil, Current 93, Nurse With Wound
“An obsessively researched biography of the three seminal music groups Coil, Current 93, and Nurse With Wound that also illuminates the history of the English underground scene.” (Catalogue)

As well as:

  • Xstabeth
  • The Towers The Fields The Transmitters
  • To run wild in it: A handbook of Autonomic Tarot with Sophie Hollington
  • Monument Maker (Forthcoming in June)

Books mentioned

Below are just a few of the many books David mentions in the interview:

Cities of the red night / Burroughs, William S.
“While young men wage war against an evil empire of zealous mutants, the population of this modern inferno is afflicted with the epidemic of a radioactive virus. An opium-infused apocalyptic vision from the legendary author of Naked Lunch is the first of the trilogy with The Places of the Dead Roads and his final novel, The Western Plains.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The man in the high castle / Dick, Philip K
“The United States has lost World War II and subsequently been divided between the Germans in the east and the Japanese in the west. In this world, we meet  Frank Frink, a dealer of counterfeit Americana, Nobusuke Tagomi, the Japanese trade minister in San Francisco, and Juliana Frink, Frank’s ex-wife, who may be more important than she realizes. These seemingly disparate characters gradually realize their connections to one another other just as they realize that something is not quite right about their world. ” (Catalogue) Also available as an eBook. 

Kidnapped / Stevenson, Robert Louis
“On a stormy night off the coast of Scotland, young David Balfour faces his most terrifying test yet. He’s been double-crossed by his wicked uncle, tricked into a sea voyage, and sold into slavery. When the dashing Alan Breck Stewart comes aboard, he finds a brave friend at least, and the pair fight back against their treacherous, blackhearted shipmates. But then the ship hits a reef, it’s every man for himself, and David must battle against the raging sea itself” (Catalogue) Also available as an Audiobook.

Shakedown / Dicks, Terrance
“A classic novel starring the seventh Doctor and the Sontarans, back in print For thousands of years the Sontarans and the Rutans have fought a brutal war across the galaxy. Now the Sontarans have a secret plan to destroy the Rutan race — a secret plan the Doctor is racing against time to uncover. Only one Rutan spy knows the Sontarans’ plan. As he is chased through the galaxy in a desperate bid for his life, he reaches the planet Sentarion — where Professor Bernice Summerfield’s research into the history of the Sontaran-Rutan war is turning into an explosive reality.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

I, robot / Asimov, Isaac
” In these stories Isaac Asimov creates the Three Laws of Robotics and ushers in the Robot Age. Earth is ruled by master-machines but the Three Laws of Robotics have been designed to ensure humans maintain the upper hand: 1) A robot may not injure a human being or allow a human being to come to harm. 2) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. But what happens when a rogue robot’s idea of what is good for society contravenes the Three Laws?” (Adapted from Catalogue) Also available as an eBook.

Desolation angels / Kerouac, Jack
“ Originally published in 1965, this autobiographical novel covers a key year in Jack Kerouac’s life–the period that led up to the publication of On the Road in September of 1957. After spending two months in the summer of 1956 as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington, Kerouac’s fictional self Jack Duluoz comes down from the isolated mountains to the wild excitement of the bars, jazz clubs, and parties of San Francisco, before traveling on to Mexico City, New York, Tangiers, Paris, and London. Duluoz attempts to extricate himself from the world but fails, for one must “live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.” Desolation Angels is quintessential Kerouac.” (Catalogue)

Arthur Rimbaud : complete works / Rimbaud, Arthur
” The complete works of the French poet I1854-1891)  whose works  pre figured surrealism and whose influence on modern culture remains huge. Rimbaud produced the vast bulk of his works in adolescence famously quitting writing literature at age 20. A restless explorer who lived life to the full in all senses of the word both personally and physically. He is credited as being the precursor to modernist literature, who works remain vibrant and vital. ” ( Adapted from Catalogue).

The hero with a thousand faces / Campbell, Joseph
“In these pages, Campbell outlines the Hero’s Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world’s mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction. As part of the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, this third edition features expanded illustrations, a comprehensive bibliography, and more accessible sidebars. As relevant today as when it was first published — and continues to inspire all those interested in the inherent human need to tell stories.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Four Writers writing about Newtown….Now exclusively online

Neil

We recently had the great pleasure  of staging an event with Rachel Kerr author of Victory Park, Carl Shuker author of A Mistake, Michalia Arathimos author of Aukati and poet  Jackson Nieuwland reading their poem from their collection I am a human being in conversation with Mary McCallum at our  Newtown library.

These four esteemed authors all shared their experiences  about setting their works in Newtown. Each writer having a distinctly different take on  Newtown, with very different voices and all with very different things to say.

If you missed the live event we recorded it live and it’s now available for everyone. Enjoy!

The authors involved were…

Rachel Kerr has exploded onto the New Zealand literary scene with her debut novel Victory Park. About a single mother living on a block of flats in a fictionalised Newtown. Her life is humdrum until the mysterious Bridget moves into the flats, bringing with her unexpected friendship, glamour and wild dreams.

Carl Shuker’s A Mistake. When an operation what goes wrong, in a hospital based on Wellington Regional Hospital in Newtown a young woman dies, who is culpable and who is to blame. The moral and ethical repercussions of this tragic event are explored in this masterful work which was shortlisted for the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize 2020.

Michalia Arathimos’s Aukati begins with two people arriving at a marae to protest fracking at a nearby farm. Family, political protest and culture intersect in this thoughtful, elegant, moving, and economically written novel. Michalia Arathimos describes herself as a Greek-New Zealander she currently is the Writer in Residence at Randell Cottage and will hold the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship in 2021.

Poet Jackson Nieuwland has been a busy person not only releasing their first beautiful, complex and surreal collection of poetry I am a Human Being, but also opening Food Court Books in Newtown and is also in the process of launching their own publishing house. This promises to be an unmissable event and all are very welcome.


Victory Park / Kerr, Rachel
“Kara lives in Victory Park council flats with her young son, just making a living by minding other people’s kids – her nightly smoke on the fire escape the only time she can drop her guard and imagine something better. But the truth is life is threadbare and unpromising until the mysterious Bridget moves in to the flats. The wife of a disgraced Ponzi schemer she brings with her glamour and wild dreams and an unexpected friendship. Drawn in, Kara forgets for a moment who she’s there to protect.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

A mistake / Shuker, R. Carl
“Elizabeth Taylor is a surgeon at a city hospital, a gifted, driven and rare woman excelling in a male-dominated culture. One day, while operating on a young woman in a critical condition, something goes gravely wrong. A Mistake is a compelling story of human fallibility, and the dangerous hunger for black and white answers in a world of exponential complication and nuance.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The method actors : a novel / Shuker, R. Carl
“The disappearance of a young military historian leads his sister to Japan, where, among the hedonistic expatriate set of which he was a part, she uncovers evidence that her brother may have discovered evidence of war crimes committed by the Japanese during World War II. A first novel. Original. The Method Actors traces the disappearance of a young, gifted military historian named Michael Edwards from his desk in Tokyo and his sister Meredith’s return to the city in search of him. Michael’s research into international war crimes trials will take his sister through four hundred years of history, myth and propaganda, love and infidelity, religious transport and hallucination.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The lazy boys : a novel / Shuker, R. Carl
“Carl Shuker’s protagonist, Richard Sauer, heads off to college for no reason other than to escape the stultifying normalcy of his middle-class family in Timaru, New Zealand. He may appear ordinary in his aimlessness, mangling his way through his first year in college, but his bonging and banging, his anger and rage, take a brutal turn at an out-of-control dorm party which lands Richey in front of the disciplinary committee with a sexual harassment charge. Dropping out of school before he’s thrown out, Richey and his housemates Matt, Nick, and Ursula begin a freefall that forces Richey to face his most destructive desires.” ( Adapted from Catalogue)

Overdrive cover Anti Lebanon, Carl Shuker (ebook)
“It is Arab Spring and the fate of the Christians of the Middle East is uncertain. The many Christians of Lebanon are walking a knife-edge, their very survival in their ancestral refuge in doubt, as the Lebanese government becomes Hezbollah-dominated, while Syria convulses with warring religious factions. Anti Lebanon is a cross-genre political thriller and horror story embedded within these recent events, featuring a multiethnic Christian family living out the lingering after-effects of Lebanon’s civil war as it struggles to deal with its phantoms, its ghosts, and its vampires. (Adapted fromOverdrive description)

Aukati / Arathimos, Michalia
“Alexia is a law student escaping the Greek family that stifles her, and Isaiah is a young Maori returning home to find the family he’s lost. Cut loose from their own cultures, they have volunteered to help Isaiah’s Taranaki iwi get rid of the fracking that’s devastating their land and water. The deeper Alexia and Isaiah go into the fight, the closer they get to understanding the different worlds they inhabit. But when a protest march becomes violent a boundary is crossed, and they need to decide where they stand and fast. It’s clear the police have been tipped off, and the activists gathered at the marae suspect they’re being watched or, worse, there is an informant in the group. Can Alexia and Isaiah be trusted? And more – can they trust themselves?” (Catalogue)

I am a human being / Nieuwland, Jackson
“Poet Jackson Nieuwland  first published collection is a beautiful, complex and surreal body  of work. The poems within are very intimate and display vulnerability, and fragility . Working with the concept that no single  word can adequately defines us. The multiplicity of who we are and what we have the potential to become is explored in a sequence of  poems such as I am an egg, I am a tree, I am a beaver, I am a bear, I am a bottomless pit etc. The works within are delicately accompanied by Steph Maree’s line drawings.” ( Adapted from Catalogue)

Monsters in the Garden Event…. Now exclusively online

Neil

Back at the tail end of 2020 we had the very special privilege of hosting an event to celebrate the recent publication of Monsters in the Garden: An Anthology of Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy.

In attendance were four of the most accomplished writers in New Zealand who all contributed works to the anthology: Elizabeth Knox, Tina Makereti, Dylan Horrocks and Craig Gamble.

The ensuing discussions were entertaining, informative, lively and a real insight into the inner workings of these fabulous authors as well as the current status of speculative fiction in Aotearoa.

If you missed the live event or want to re-experience this fascinating conversation you can watch below.

And keep your eyes peeled on our various social media channels for future events coming in 2021. Enjoy!


Monsters in the Garden : An Anthology of Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy / Knox, Elizabeth
“Casting its net widely, this anthology of Aotearoa-New Zealand science fiction and fantasy ranges from the satirical novels of the 19th-century utopians – one of which includes the first description of atmospheric aerobreaking in world literature – to the bleeding edge of now. Spaceships and worried sheep. Dragons and AI. The shopping mall that swallowed the Earth. The deviant, the fishy and the rum, all bioengineered for your reading pleasure. Featuring stories by some of the country’s best known writers as well as work from exciting new talent, Monsters in the Garden invites you for a walk on the wild side. We promise you’ll get back safely. Unchanged? Well, that’s another question.” (Publisher’s description)

Dreamhunter / Knox, Elizabeth
“Set in 1906, Dreamhunter describes a world very similar to ours, except for a special place, known simply as the Place, where only a select group of people can go. these people are called Dreamhunters and they harvest dreams which are then transmitted to the general public for the purposes of entertainment, therapy – or terror and political coercion. Fifteen-year-old cousins Laura Hame and Rose Tiebold both come from famous dreamhunting families, but only Laura proves to be blessed with the gift and once inside the Place she finds out what happened to her missing dreamhunter father .” (Adapted from Catalogue) Also available as an eBook.

The imaginary lives of James Pōneke / Makereti, Tina
“‘The hour is late. The candle is low. Tomorrow I will see whether it is my friends or a ship homewards I meet. But first I must finish my story for you. My future, my descendant, my mokopuna. Listen.’ So begins the tale of James Poneke – orphaned son of a chief; ardent student of English; wide-eyed survivor. All the world’s a stage, especially when you’re a living exhibit. But anything can happen to a young New Zealander on the savage streets of Victorian London. When James meets the man with laughing dark eyes and the woman who dresses as a man, he begins to discover who people really are beneath their many guises.” (Adapted from Catalogue) Also available as an eBook.

Sam Zabel and the magic pen / Horrocks, Dylan
“A burned-out superhero comic artist goes on an adventure that spans time and space–with two female companions. Cartoonist Sam Zabel hasn’t drawn a comic in years. Stuck in a nightmare of creative block and despair, Sam spends his days writing superhero stories for a large American comics publisher and staring at a blank piece of paper, unable to draw a single line. Then one day he finds a mysterious old comic book set on Mars and is suddenly thrown headlong into a wild, fantastic journey through centuries of comics, stories, and imaginary worlds. (Adapted from Catalogue)

Our Festive Panoply of  Poets….Ruby Solly

Neil

As a special seasonal treat we’ve joined with author and music critic Simon Sweetman to curate and present to you a festive panoply of poets reading their works for Wellingtonians — one a day until Christmas.

Our final fabulous poet is Ruby Solly, who will be reading from her forthcoming collection Tōku Pāpā.


Ruby’s first solo collection of poetry, Tōku Pāpā is due to be released in February 2021.

About Ruby

“Ruby Solly (Kāi Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe) is a writer, musician and taonga pūoro practitioner living in Pōneke. She has been published in journals such as Landfall, Starling and Sport, among others. In 2020 she released her debut album, Pōneke, which looks at the soundscapes of Wellington’s past, present and future through the use of taonga pūoro, cello, and environmental sounds. She is currently completing a PhD in public health, focusing on the use of taonga pūoro in hauora Māori. Tōku Pāpā, due to be published in Februrary 2021, [will be] her first book.”

From VUP

More from Ruby

Covid colab : a NZ lockdown music collaboration.
“Created during Alert Levels 4 and 3, Covid Colab is a gender-balanced, seven-track LP teeming with local talent. It features 37 Pōneke-based musicians.” (Description by Museums Wellington)

You can find Ruby’s debut album Pōneke on Bandcamp

During lockdown, Ruby was kind enough to speak to us about her work and her process. Have a listen to Ruby, speaking to our librarians Louise and Paul, below: