On Election Day I worked at the Waiohiki Arts Village with my nephew Lawrence Kingi-Miki, Nathan Rose, Gerard Gunn, and Tipu Tareha. We were digging out pathways in preparation for a new layout to improve access for disabled people visiting …
If you believe that rugby is played in heaven then New Zealand is currently Paradise: a football fanzone in Godzone. But for the last twenty minutes of the Rugby World Cup Final it was potentially hell. New Zealanders sat at …
It was Saturday morning. My usual weekday routine is to get up around 6.00am and go for a swim. Saturdays are for sleeping in and a slow start, with the weekender editions of the Dom Post, NZ Herald and Hawke’s …
It has been a quarter of a year since I wrote to you last. Arohamai. It’s a sign though that I’m otherwise flat out. This is a short but significant posting. I want to salute three pou, men who have …
In the wake of the quake D goes swimming in the Ahuriri pond and reflects on the local signs of nature’s great seismic shifts and the reality that in Aotearoa we do indeed live on the edge. He reckons that along with the people of Canterbury its time to pick each other up at a community level and to forgo the badmouthing of the poor and less engaged that has seemed to dominate the national discourse in recent years. After a bit of blarney about the upcoming Hui & Huilli he canvasses the Report of the Welfare Working Group and sees signals of a big shake up coming for the generally vulnerable. After describing the intent of the whanau ora policy congratulates Te Puni Kokiri for delivering a sort of social Civil Defence kit and supporting whanau to plan for the future. D visits issues of youth offending and gang policies and, in light of the fact that we might all need each other’s help, calls time for a bit of reflection: time to crouch and get ready; touch one another to let each know the other’s there and to give reassurance; pause to reflect on what we’re going to do and how we’ll do it; and engage with each other with goodwill and intensity such as we’ve never done before.
D bids welcome to 2011, gives his cut on the annual furnace of Waitangi, confesses to a struggle with the booze and signs up for FebFast. He tells of a trip to the deep white South for the unveiling of pou memorialising the late Elespie and Ian Prior, and visits O’Reilly family haunts in mid-Canterbury. Dives into the Foreshore and Seabed legislation and crosses swords with local lobbyist Bill Sutton who has a differing viewpoint on the Hawke’s Bay coastline. Reports on a successful retreat with Black Power and Mongrel Mob fathers and sons convened by NYNZ headhunter John Wareham resulting in the “Otatara Accord”. And gets excited about the upcoming Maori Motown 2 at Waiohiki. Hey, new year or not it’s business as usual.
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