Culture 101

A 600-page new book that took 12 years to create is set to reframe the history of Māori art. Toi Te Mana (Auckland University Press) brings together work from Māori artists and museums from around the globe, ranging from Polynesia voyaging waka to contemporary Māori art, from body adornment and carving to street art and moving image.

Dunedin artist Kari Morseth is weaving harakeke history back into the city's daily life. The Rope/Walk community art project is centred around the South Dunedin's Rope Walk Building where Morseth has so far woven 68 metres of harakeke rope by hand with the help of many volunteers.

Jeff Thomson, one of Aotearoa’s senior professional sculptors, is best known for doing absolutely everything that’s possible with corrugated iron. His corrugated iron Holden sits in the Te Papa collection. He and his partner, artist Shona Cameron, live in a corrugated iron shed home/workshop in Helensville, out west of Tāmaki Mākaurau Auckland.

The Pacific Fashion Fusion Show is preparing to run its annual catwalk through downtown Auckland's freshly designated Komititanga. Komititanga is the area that joins the end of Queen Street with the waterfront.

The front of artist Ann Shelton's award-winning new book worm, root, wort.. & bane bears an image of a small silvered glass flask held in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University. The flask is said to contain a witch. The original owner reputedly warned that if you took off the wax seal from the flask, then there would be a 'peck o'trouble'. Shelton's artist book doesn't directly advocate for the seal to be broken, but does suggest it's high time we let a bigger 'genie' out of the bottle. That is, the historical and contemporary treatment of healers, gardeners, foragers and 'wise women' who have connected us to nature. Worm, root, wort & bane takes a wide-ranging look at cultural attitudes towards the witch, plants as well as the suppression of plant-based medicine and belief systems.

Chef Peter Gordon is a deep lover of the arts and joins Culture 101 to share his fast Favourites.

A roundup of the arts scene.

Ngatu, siapo, aute, masi, tapa… just some of the names from across the Pacific for barkcloth which reflect the rich variety of bark used and working processes. .  Tapa is having a moment in the art gallery - both as an extraordinarily vital traditional media in use across the Pacific and also as a discipline being re-energised by a new generation of makers in Aotearoa New Zealand. Artists are carrying forward distinct island cultural traditions, and speaking to their own sense of place in the world.

The Portage Ceramic Awards have long honoured the dynamic world of contemporary ceramics within Aotearoa New Zealand. The 2024 Premier Award winner and three Merit Award winners were announced at a ceremony on Thursday at Te Uru Gallery in Titirangi, where the work of 40 of the finalists is now being shown until February next year. This year's judge is internationally celebrated artist and West Auckland native, Kate Newby.

This week on Regional Wrap we go to Gisborne where exhibition Wimples, crosses, and lepers Women of Influence has just opened at Tairāwhiti Museum. Margaret Hansen has also written a book by the same name about her two aunts Marie and Alice, and her own musings growing up Catholic.

Churches big and small throughout Aotearoa New Zealand are vital spaces of culture and community but there are increasing challenges with heritage restoration and their relevance  in today’s world. Around the country there are parishes operating from halls and community centres while precious traditional places of worship are boarded up.  A recent renovation in Pōneke Wellington offers inspiration. On Friday a small Anglican church in the suburb of Island Bay won the Small Project category at the New Zealand Architecture Awards.

For almost six decades photographer John Miller has been a protest photographer in Aotearoa New Zealand. From his first photographs of an anti-Vietnam War protest on Auckland’s Albert Street as a high school student in 1967, to Hīkoi mō te Tiriti earlier this week, John Miller (Ngāpuhi) has focused much of his work on the faces of dissent.

In April 2024, one of our most treasured artists Dame Robin White travelled from her home in Masterton to Aomori north of Honshu in Japan, to be an artist in residence at the Aomori Contemporary Art Centre.  A focus of her residency was the work of Aomori woodcut master Munakata Shiko who’s known for his community-orientated approach - something which aligns with White’s own as a painter and printmaker.

The sheer diversity and invention of electronic music today in Aotearoa is evident in a list of sounds at the upcoming electronic sonic arts festival Outlier in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Curated by Grace Verweij and Tash van Schaardenburg, some are subgenres, while others, they admit, are made up. On the list: glitch, deconstructed club, emo electronics, ambient, gorge, modular + synthi, hyperpop, maximalist breaks, broken cassettes, mutant classical, ambisonics, techno-naturalism, taonga pūoro, drone, IDM, and noise.

This month Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage released a draft for consultation of Amplify: A Creative and Cultural Strategy for New Zealand. It’s stated as a national strategy that outlines how the government will prioritise support for our creative and cultural sectors to 2030. Submissions are due 15 December.

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage has released Amplify: A Creative and Cultural Strategy for New Zealand. It’s a draft open for public consultation described as ‘action-oriented’ outlining how the government could support the creative sector through till 2030.

Raimona Inia’s focus with partner Nikora Mihinui has long been the perpetuation of their culture, with a strong focus on storytelling. A new series of six books they are producing in both Te Reo Māori and English, He hokinga mahara ki a ratou mā capture the proverbs of the elders of Te Arawa and share their origins. There are, Inia says, a total of just under 300 proverbs featured.

We’re all familiar with the image of the Pacific woman on postcards and in tourism marketing; warm and welcoming, light-skinned, with a slim build and long wavy hair. But what happens for young women when that’s the only image perpetuated for generations?

In the far north, in Doubtless Bay, Te Tai Tokerau, Rowan Panther makes lace with fine strands of muka from the Harakeke flax bushes on her property.  Bobbin lace to be precise, which is traditionally made with cotton. Panther’s material and the forms she makes with lace reflect the Pacific environment she lives in; taking a tradition forward.

It was the door slam heard around the world, shocking audiences. Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play A Doll’s House caused outrage with the central character, Nora Helmer, walking out on her family, leaving behind her children and husband in search of herself and a more fulfilling life.

Actor, writer, comedian, director and social media star Tom Sainsbury is back with his friends and they’re Camping.

As a curator at the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua since 2007, Greg Donson has been there for artists over a period of significant change for the gallery and the city.  Now Senior Curator, he has spearheaded the redeveloped gallery’s opening series of exhibitions, curating new artists' projects and dynamic displays of works from the gallery’s rich collection, speaking to both the gallery and Whanganui’s history.

Feeling the pull towards home, Waiora Bailey-Moore (Tupoho and Puketapu) returned home to Whanganui from Wellington two years ago.

Tech entrepreneur and founder of consulting company The Antipodean, Michelle Excell now proudly and happily calls Whanganui home.

The commissioned Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery: A Whanganui biography by Edmond, published by Massey University Press, is a lively history. It reveals much about the politics and history of a small New Zealand provincial city; as its swings between conservatism and being one of the country’s most progressive. The political tussles the gallery finds itself embroiled in will strike a chord with many in other centres.

Geoff Hipango is the chairperson of Te Ao Hou and grew up here. Under his leadership the marae is gaining a reputation for innovation in thinking of the wellness of people across Māori arts, health, culture and the environment, with activity entwined with the river.

Whanganui reggae fusion group NLC were winners earlier this year of best roots album at the Waiata music awards.  Quincy Jones dies at the age of 91.

The central arts and historic precinct of Drews Avenue in Whanganui has been rejuvenated in recent years. In 2020, the council received funding from Waka Kotahi NZTA as part of the ‘Streets for People’ initiative; to transform Drews Avenue.

Artist and designer Cecelia Kumeroa (Te Ātihaunui-a-Pārāngi) has been the Iwi Arts lead for the cultural design component of the new Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery.  The new extension to the gallery, Te Pātaka o Ta Te Atiwhai Archie John Taiaroa, tells a uniquely Whanganui story. The black granite cladding is etched with an Aramoana patterning and inlaid between the granite with metal ‘tioata’ or shards, sculptural elements which uniquely imitates the effect of light playing on water.

Much loved musician and Whanganui resident Anthonie Tonnon joins Culture 101’s Whanganui show as our Fast Favourites guest.

Culture 101 is in Whanganui for the opening weekend of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery, speaking to innovators, and creative movers and shakers in this international UNESCO city of design.  The gallery has been ‘newly reimagined’ with extension from architects Warren and Mahoney, in a codesign partnership with Whanganui iwi.  A key figure in the gallery’s reopening is Sarjeant Gallery Trust chair Nicola Williams, who has spearheaded an impressive fundraising campaign.

Arts News: Quasi on the move, live performance contributes $17.3 billion and a Yorkshire Pud halloween costume

Collaboration with artists across many disciplines and styles has long marked out the work of Pōneke Wellington musician David Long.  David Long is perhaps still best known as a key musical partner of Don McGlashan in ‘90s band The Mutton Birds, and prior to that as part of experimental outfit Six Volts, who backed up the Front Lawn on their first recordings.  But Long has also created the music for countless films including the Lord of the Rings trilogy, BBC series The Luminaries and recent Loren Taylor feature The Moon is Upside Down. Then there’s his long track record composing for contemporary dance, including writing many pieces for pre-eminent choreographer, the late Douglas Wright.

When asked by the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi to describe the highlight of soon becoming a 2024 arts laureate, and winner of the Toi Kō Iriiri Queer Arts Award, playwright and producer Victor Rodger replied: “It means that I get to stand in front of an audience and thank my mother for essentially being the main reason I get to stand there in the first place.” Which is exactly what Rodger did, sharing the award at the Arts Foundation function late October with his “Mother Laureate”.

It’s the ‘Gumboot Capital of the World’, and proudly lives up to that reputation.

You could describe Iwen Yong as an accidental artist. Malaysian-born, he moved to New Zealand with his family at the age of six. First settling in Wellington, they moved to the Hutt Valley where he attended primary and high school.

Two bananas duct taped to the wall find themselves unexpectedly in the spotlight. In a clown, fruit mash-up of physical theatre, How To Art is hitting the walls of Basement Theatre in Auckland.

To say the artist duo Kemi Whitwell and Niko Leyden have an obsession with backcountry huts is no overstatement.  It’s been the focus of their art and design for more than 12 years. The Waikato-based couple, who dub themselves Kemi & Niko, employ the skills of fine craft modelling, sustainable building and social connection to create miniatures of classic, and public programmes, for people to engage with them.

For more than two decades, award-winning journalist and presenter, Amanda Gillies has been gracing the screens in the living rooms of Kiwi homes.

Extraordinary photographs of youth in late 70’s early ‘80s Newcastle in the UK have in recent years started to come fully into the light, thanks to the photographer’s daughter. Work that offers an interesting counter to debate over the ethics of documentary photography around the work of artists like Ans Westra here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Nicknamed at one time ‘The Demon Snapper’ for her controversial advocacy, working class photographer Tish Murtha powerfully captured the impact of Thatcherism on the north east of England.

Tucked away in the armpit of Cuba Street is Buttercat Tattoo, a collective of six artists dedicated to elevating each other's work and exploring a broad range of tattoo designs and techniques. Artists Rose Hu and Tim Gadia speak to Culture 101 about how they carved out unique careers that satisfy their artistic passions.

This week poet Tusiata Avia once again found herself in the news.

The popular Kāpiti Arts Trail is on over the first two weekends of November, boasting over 300 artists opening up their studios and shared spaces, or exhibiting in 13 galleries from Ōtaki to Paekākāriki. Since 2001 the programme has helped put Kāpiti on the map.   A keen supporter is the district’s mayor Janet Holborow, who joins us for this week's Regional Wrap.

From the Cuba Street bucket fountain to the fake lake at Te Papa and the famous 1958 James Turkington mural at the Parnell Baths, artist duo Bena Jackson and Max Fleury have an interest in our relationship to public water features.

Anyone who thinks controversy around cycle lanes is anything new, should pick up a copy of Michael Toohey’s just published account of the bicycle’s beginnings in Aotearoa New Zealand, The Cycling Pioneers.

Matthew Sunderland is an Aotearoa New Zealand screen actor whose characters often turn up unexpectedly, in unexpected places. Ever since playing gunman David Gray - the man who killed 13 residents in the small township of Aramoana - in acclaimed 2006 film Out of the Blue, Sunderland has been looked to play outliers and, frankly, disturbed individuals.

This weeks Fast Favourites guest is Wellington-based producer, writer, and director Vanessa Stacey is a jack of all creative trades. With more than two decades of experience, her extensive portfolio spans theatre, film, music, and television.

Theatre director Ben Crowder had never really watched Peter Pan. He’d seen a London production as a child, and admits he was mostly confused, and the 1991 film Hook which stars Robyn Williams and Dustin Hoffman.

Each week, Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different part of Aotearoa and this week we’re in the town of Matamata.

For six hours, artist and photographer Elisabeth Denis photographed a model in a durational performance piece. Instead of camera clicks or shutter sounds, these were replaced with the sound of bullets firing from a gun. Sharp, abrasive and uncomfortable.

The year is 2005. Tom Cruise jumps on Oprah Winfrey’s couch, Mariah Carey has made a resurgence, skinny jeans and Thin Lizzy are all the rage and dial-up internet is in full swing.

The latest machine to arrive at arcade Ye Olde Pinball Shoppe in Pōneke Wellington is Pulp Fiction. It’s packed with the classic soundtrack and audio clips, together with table sculptures of your favourite characters and a half eaten hamburger - the iconic Royale with cheese.

It’s one of the most popular shows of the 21st century and now, another iteration is taking place downunder. The Office is set in Australia with the first female boss - Hannah Howard, at a Sydney-based packaging company, played by actor and comedian Felicity Ward.

28-year-old Jacob Geller is an enormously popular Youtube video game essayist and art enthusiast.

Rakiura, with a population of just 450, is the furthest south we have ventured for RNZ Culture 101’s Regional Wrap.

This spring, nine of Akira Kurosawa’s most beloved films are returning to Aotearoa's cinemas, including a brand-new digital restoration of Seven Samurai.

A Slow Burlesque is a work that has been on Freya Finch's mind for almost a decade. Freya's interest in burlesque first started at John Bolton Theatre School. A four-month intensive course in Melbourne, Finch describes it as a boot camp-like experience, performing newly devised work every week. The training has a particular focus on mask, Bouffon, clown and vaudeville styles and it was here, Finch realised their love of the absurd. The new Silo Theatre show, now at The Basement in Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland is a variety show with various exaggerated characters including a has-been diva, a Miss European style MC, a punk Yorkshire poet and even, a rat. All the characters question and explore the experience and the many masks worn by trans people. The theatre is physical, comedic and involves light audience participation as Finch changes and moves through her various costumes while on stage. Freya Finch spoke to Perlina Lau of Culture 101. A Slow Burlesque is at Basement Theatre in Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland until 19 October.

The Cardrona or the Thistle Inn? The Puhoi or Hotel De Brett? The White Hart or the Whangamomona? Which is this country’s most classic pub?

Dame Susan Devoy’s career has been nothing if not lane-changing. And as such, an inspiration for us all.

There’s human intelligence - when we use it. We’re getting to grips with artificial intelligence. And many people are getting fascinated with plant intelligence - the magic work of mycelium for example. But there are other intelligences - what Awhiworld, a group of ‘artists, scientists, hackers and makers’ in Whangārei call  ‘Strange Intelligences’.

It’s the kind of “overnight success” that has taken 10 years but it seems US singer Chappell Roan has broken through the collective pop culture consciousness, marking her territory.

The rural town of Greytown in the Wairarapa in the lower North Island is particularly proud of its heritage and history.

We all make mistakes, but can we accept our errors and take action before things start to unravel beyond our control?  In New Zealand director Christine Jeffs’ powerful new feature film A Mistake, adapted from the novel by Carl Shuker, American actor Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect) plays a gifted surgeon dealing with the aftermath of an emergency surgery that went wrong. The reasons for the death that follow are complex, highlighting human fallibility and the responsibilities of everyone surrounding it.

The fashion designer is celebrating 25 years of the label Crane Brothers and to mark the occasion, the company is teaming up with The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi to launch a Laureate Award for design

“It is a cliche to say literature saves lives,” Behrouz Boochani has written, “but I experienced it with my whole being.” Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish journalist, human rights defender, writer and film producer who came to international attention after his memoir, No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison won the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature and the prize for non-fiction in Australia. He wrote it on Whatsapp while held in an Australian-run detention centre in Papua New Guinea.

Arts news: a cheeky ceramics award winner, Chidgey nets Darwin and Dickens publisher and a new Christchurch artist space

The latest production by Māori theatre company Te Rākau Hua o Te Wao Tapu, Unreel tells the story of a community affected by gambling as the Hīnaki Hotel looks set to launch the very first AI pokie machine.    This year Te Rākau Hua o Te Wao Tapu celebrate 35 years as Aotearoa New Zealand's longest running independent Māori Theatre Company.  Co-founder and celebrated veteran actor Jim Moriarty has worked as its director for all of that time, and joins us on Culture 101.

The 34th season of the World of Wearable Art has kicked off in the capital - an annual spectacle of fashion, art, circus, dance and music.  This year’s theme is Dream Awake, and the competition has 91 finalists from 15 countries.  Joining Culture 101 to discuss the spectacle of WOW is Stuff arts journalist Andre Chumko and theatre maker and writer for Wellingtonista, Emma Maguire.

The beautiful Rangitikei region - running alongside the river of the same name from the Manawatu to Ruapehu - is better known as a place depicted by artists than for its arts scene.  It’s famous as the rural landscape depicted by painter Peter McIntyre in the mid 20th century.  One notable recent initiative however, is bringing contemporary artists to the region. Laura and Richard Morrison own a sizable sheep and beef farm. Laura is an avid art collector and three years ago they set up The Gullies artists residency. So we thought we'd give Laura a call for this week's Regional Wrap.

This week, artist Jefferson Chen, also known as Goodspace, is paying homage to Lim Chhour's legacy and the hardworking vendors by launching his debut album, Let's Talk About Death, with a multi-media installation Vendor.

Artist Ana Iti has been awarded Aotearoa New Zealand’s most prestigious art award, the Walters Prize at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Her sculpture and sound installation ‘A resilient heart like the mānawa’ is on display at the gallery.   Like the UK’s Turner Prize, The Walters Prize 2024 has four finalists in exhibition, chosen by a jury.  Yet, while that same jury awards the final Prize to one winner - and that jury has a solid representation of UK experts with the Turner Prize - the Walters Prize has since its inception been judged by an international curator, often coming to the Aotearoa art scene fresh.

Hawkes Bay theatre maker Kristyl Neho (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahungunu) grew up with more death around her than most people.

The Capital’s Deputy Mayor Laurie Foon has long championed Pōneke Wellington - it’s local businesses, its fashion and, sometimes more controversially, its bike lanes.

Arts News: Parekowhai's controversial giant kangaroo, Te Unua Museum of Southland's cost blowout and extinct animal discovered in rock art.

Has joy ever been such a crucial visible part of art as it is in the work of crochet extraordinaires Lissy and Rudi Robinson-Cole? The married couple are on a mission to bring light, warmth and Te Ao Māori to all of Aotearoa New Zealand with their electrically colourful woollen work.

Maurice and I is an unexpectedly moving, delightful, at times harrowing look at the enduring partnership between architects Sir Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney and the creation and saving of the iconic Christchurch Town Hall.

Each week Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different region in Aotearoa. This week we’re in the port town of Lyttelton near Ōtautahi Christchurch.

So fearless is composer Eve De Castro Robinson that not only did she recently give a seminar entitled ‘Being Fearless’ but, now in her 60s, she recently tried doing stand-up comedy for the first time.  Not typical for a composer, yet Robinson has always been bold in working with others and across artforms. She ascribes to composer John Cage’s view: “Get out of whatever cage you’re in.”

Independent, trailblazing alternative pop artist Theia has released a new musical anthem. Staunchly proud of being a wahine Māori artist, her whakapapa (Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Tīpā) and her language, latest single Baldh3ad focuses on the “plague of colonisation”, with a direct address to the current government.

Kirsty Webeck is one of Australia’s busiest comedians. But her path into comedy was anything but conventional.

With style and cinematic verve, if there was ever an Aotearoa artist to be dubbed disco queen it would be Lisa Reihana. Disco because her latest commissioned work on the rooftop of the National Gallery of Singapore, Glisten moves with sequins and sound.  114,000 shimmer discs dazzle in the warm breeze, complete with a soundscape. They make up patterns inspired by Southeast Asian Songket and Māori Tāniko weaving.

He's reached that stage of getting called a legend of the underground and certainly, Bill Direen is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most singular, long serving and distinctive poets and musicians. His career began in the fertile music and theatre scene of Ōtautahi Christchurch in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.  Forming the group The Bilders (for which he has been sole constant, with a fascinating roster of international players) Direen was to be an influential figure in the early days of Flying Nun.  Direen has gone on to work with numerous collaborators over numerous countries, never confined to one artform or scene; from his current home in Middlemarch Otago, to New York and time spent living in Berlin and Paris.    He joins RNZ’s Culture 101 to discuss some of his recent work, which finds much of its inspiration in the history of  film. He has been crowned a legend of the underground and certainly, Bill Direen is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most singular, long serving and distinctive poets and musicians. His career began in the fertile music and theatre scene of Ōtautahi Christchurch in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.  Forming the group The Bilders (for which he has been sole constant, with a fascinating roster of international players) Direen was to be an influential figure in the early days of Flying Nun.  Direen has gone on to work with numerous collaborators over numerous countries, never confined to one artform or scene; from his current home in Middlemarch Otago, to New York and time spent living in Berlin and Paris.    He joins RNZ’s Culture 101 to discuss some of his recent work, which finds much of its inspiration in the history of  film.

An area of Aotearoa New Zealand arts getting major global reach right now is music and sound for film.  Culture 101 brought together three composers and musicians making inroads in this field to talk about how they make the remarkable work they do: Moniker’s Sam Flynn Scott, Lachlan Anderson and Stephen Gallagher.   The reach doesn’t get much bigger. August saw the debut of the animated feature Saving Bikini Bottom, based on the television series SpongeBob SquarePants. On its premiere weekend it got 12.8 million views and 13.4 million views in its second week, making it the streaming services number one overall title.

A gateway to Te Wai Pounamu and the Marlborough Sounds, Picton has the capacity to surprise travellers with the range of cultural experiences on offer.  It’s the destination for this week’s Culture 101 Regional Wrap.   Barbara Speedy is the Director of The Diversion Gallery, situated on the picturesque waterfront.

What is the secret to designing a great kitchen? Many of us may think we have the answers, but reality can throw up plenty of challenges.

550 migrants or their advocates laid complaints last month. It comes as less than 2000 overseas workers arrive. Meanwhile Immigration New Zealand reports they have revoked the accreditation of 500 employers. For 200 years this has been a land of immigrants, welcoming successive waves of peoples and their cultures.  We, the Outsiders is a documentary theatre piece created and inspired by migrant workers' experiences. After seasons in Ōtepoti Dunedin and Pōneke Wellington earlier this year, it’s heading this month to Auckland and Whāngarei Fringe Festivals before heading to the Melbourne Fringe.

A new show by dance group Company B is giving emerging choreographers a creative platform, and mentoring and training 10 young dancers.

Maori-Samoan RnB artist Jordyn Rapana - also known as Jordyn with a Why is on a roll.

You may have heard the phrase ‘triple threat’ in the arts, but Petmal Petelo is perhaps a quadruple threat. A dancer, actor, stage manager and assistant director she’s been steadily rising in the theatre world.

The Ōtepoti arts scene has long had a gloriously independent fertile, multi-generational, cross art form approach. But is that culture - once famously dubbed the Dunedin Sound - under threat?  Many creatives are concerned. They came of age in the city from the 1980s through to the 2010s, and cite factors like increased rents and noise control provisions as practical threats to space for the city’s arts community.

Each week, Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different part of Aotearoa. This week, we’re in Feilding in Manawatū as the town celebrates 150 years.

Kōanga Festival in Tāmaki Makaurau is celebrating 10 years with a packed three-and-a-half week programme and more than 12 events.

The paintings that Whanganui painter Edith Collier created in England 100 years ago remain to this day, utterly fresh. At that time, there was no one in Aotearoa New Zealand painting with such modernist verve.  “I am certain your fate will bring you back to England as mine did,” wrote our most celebrated artist of the period, Frances Hogkins to Collier, after she had returned home in 1921. Yet, that was not to be. Which may help explain why it’s only in recent decades we have begun recognising Collier as one of the finest of our painters of the first half of the 20th century.

It’s a striking and brutal name for an art collective. The Killing is made up of six friends and former Elam School of Fine Arts students in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. At the time, they say, the choice of the name reflected their mindset - angsty, angry at the institution and full of what they describe as a lot of ‘young adult feelings’.

Mīria George (Te Arawa, Ngāti Awa, Tumutevarovaro, Enuamanu) and Hone Kouka (Ngāti Porou, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Kahungunu) are both acclaimed, experienced writers and directors in theatre and film in their own right.  Collectively as partners in work and life they are the founders and producers of Tawata Productions, providing a platform for Māori and Pasifika artists for stage and screen.

Arts News - Sunday 1 September

What happens when you fund 10 artists a part time wage - a universal basic income - for an entire year, to help facilitate change within their community across an entire region?    Over 2022 and 2023 arts agency Creative Waikato trialled such a project. Whiria Te Tāngata, was given $630,000 from the Manatū Taonga Ministry of Culture and Heritage’s Innovating Aotearoa fund. A documentary exploring a region’s worth of wellbeing by Dan Inglis premieres in Kirikiriroa Hamilton on Monday night and Whiria te Tāngata has also been the subject of a positive Social Impact Report by Australian specialist consultants Huber Social.

Writers, poets, musicians, artists and storytellers have descended on Otautahi Christchurch this week for the Word Festival. More than 100 guests have been taking part in sessions across venues in the city from the 27 August to 1 September.

Every week on RNZ’s Culture 101 we explore the cultural richness of this country by catching up with a local in a place, big or small.   There’s no better demonstration of that richness than the cultural scene over-the-hill, top-of-the-south at Tākaka in Mohua, Golden Bay.