Category Archives: Expressive Arts

Expressive Arts – anything theatre, creative writing or digital media production at Massey University

Lahar awareness research will help save lives – Massey University

Leave a reply

Many skiers and snowboarders on Mt Ruapehu do not know how to get to safety if a potentially deadly lahar came rampaging down the mountainside, research from Massey graduate Leleiga Taito shows.

Source: Lahar awareness research will help save lives – Massey University

Many skiers and snowboarders on Mt Ruapehu do not know how to get to safety if a potentially deadly lahar came rampaging down the mountainside, research from Massey graduate Leleiga Taito shows.

It is believed to be the first international research that has documented a disconnect between safety information about lahars (the volcanic flow of ash, snow and rocks) and the key 18-30 year-old age group of young adventure sport enthusiasts.

“Many people didn’t know what a lahar is, or that they may have less than two minutes from the warning siren to escape,” Ms Taito says.

The Upper Hutt woman, who is the first in her family to graduate from university, will be conferred with a Bachelor of Communication honours degree (First Class) at the Michael Fowler Centre on Thursday.

Her research, investigating barriers at Whakapapa ski field that may be stopping young people from following safety instructions, was partly made possible by the awarding of a GNS Science scholarship arranged in partnership with Massey’s School of English and Media Studies and the Joint Centre for Disaster Research. It is hoped Massey students will help to develop further resources based on Ms Taito’s research to address the issue in the future.

There are plans also for Ms Taito’s findings to be used by GNS Science, the Department of Conservation and Ruapehu Alpine Lifts to communicate better with young skiers and snowboarders.

Twice-yearly tests of the Eruption Detection System over the past five years showed up to 50 people per test failed to get out of the valleys.  Those people were asked to fill in a survey, which showed some didn’t know they were in danger zones, or thought they had traversed high enough out of the valleys to be out of danger.

Ms Taito had only ever been on the snow once, joking: “Samoans don’t do snow”. She spent three months working for the ski lift operator while living at Whakapapa village at Mt Ruapehu last winter. Describing herself as a “Samoan population of one”, she conducted in-depth research observing the behaviour of 257 mountain users and interviewing 29 of them about their awareness of lahar risk.

She found the sub-culture of young experienced snowboarders and skiers have their own lingo and use euphemisms that normalise crashing and unsafe behaviour on the mountain. They deal with serious situations such as accidents, hazards and emergencies using humour and friendly teasing.

“Skiing is such a hazardous sport and they become desensitized to the danger factor. They are there to have fun and don’t want to think about anything happening- they call it a buzz kill. Anti-authoritarian framing is the norm for a subculture such as adventure sports enthusiasts,” she says.

The research participants offered a range of safety suggestions, including better locational identification on trail maps and creating a cellphone app that provides safety information.

Ms Taito attended a pre-season briefing with emergency service staff from the mountain to share her insights.  Her recommendations include better signage and using digital technology to inform and remind people they are on an active volcano and what to do when the lahar warning siren sounds.

“Young skiers and snowboarders’ love of speed could also be turned into a positive communication feature,” she says.

Safety communications could tap into their own group values by featuring a great skier speeding down the mountain contrasted with the speed of a lahar to show that nobody can outrun a lahar.”

After five years of study at Massey, Ms Taito is looking forward to visiting family in Australia, going back to the mountain to see her new snow buddies and looking for her first permanent communications’ job.  But first of all there is going to be a big party this week when her large family celebrates her graduation. And she hopes to get her family up to the snow this ski season.

NUTS NZ #10

Leave a reply

Editorial

Welcome to tenth edition of NUTS NZ – the Newsletter for University Theatre Studies New Zealand. The purpose of the newsletter is to help us communicate more effectively as a community of scholars interested in Theatre and Performance. We have an interesting selection of stories and items for you in our second issue for 2016. In this issue, in our “NUTS People” segment, we profile Hilary Halba and Kiri Bell from The University of Otago. We have also included information on the upcoming symposia and conferences for the multidisciplinary research project “The Performance of the Real” at Otago University. We have two academic vacancies that have opened up at Massey University to circulate. We are also pleased to promote Marianne Schultz’s latest publication Performing Indigenous Culture on Stage and Screen. We also thought we would bring to your attention an interesting article by Associate Professor Tracey Moore (The Hartt School at the University of Hartford), entitled ‘Why Theater Majors Are Vital in the Digital Age‘ which was recently published online by the Chronicle of Higher Education. In the article Moore argues that ‘Theater (slow, communal, physical) may be the cure for what ails us in the digital world’. The article raises some important points about the value of University Theatre Majors which might be useful in our own advocacy for university theatre programmes in NZ. We plan to circulate our eleventh edition of NUTS NZ on the 12th of August, and we will need items of news by 29 July (especially an academic and  postgraduate student to  showcase). As always, submissions should be sent to the NUTS NZ editor Jane Marshall:  j.g.marshall@massey.ac.nz

Kind regards,
NUTS NZ editors: Jane Marshall and Rand Hazou.

Newsletter Issue  Information Required by  Date of Circulation
Issue 11 29 July 2016 12 August 2016
 Issue 12 28 October 2016 11 November 2016

NUTS PEOPLE

In each edition of NUTS NZ we profile an academic and a postgraduate student to show case “our people” and their current research/interests. In this issue we have Hilary Halba and Kiri Bell from The University of Otago. As always, NUTS NZ asked each of them to answer the following questions:

  • What is your research about?
  • What theatre/performances have you seen recently?
  • What have you been reading lately?

Hilary Halba

Hilary

Research: My research and background are in acting and actor training, documentary and verbatim theatre, and Maori and bicultural theatre, drama and performance.

Theatre: I haven’t seen any theatre performances recently as I have been performing every night for the last two 2 months in “Winston’s Birthday,” (written by Paul Baker and directed by Lara McGregor). You could say, however, that I have watched that performance every night from the stage.

Reading: Most recently, I have been reading abstracts for the Hui & Symposium I have just co-convened.

Kiri Bell

FullSizeRender

Research: I am researching a range of theatrical techniques in order to stage auto-ethnographical and biographical stories about Māori children adopted into Pākehā families through closed stranger adoption.  Some of the techniques include: Māori performing arts, physical theatre, poetry, shadow play, and song.  I am also researching closed stranger adoption in Aotearoa, in particular with regards to Māori children adopted into Pākehā families and the impact and consequences this form of adoption has had on adoptees.  My research will culminate in a one woman, multi-media bicultural documentary play.

Theatre: Aside from seeing a number of works at Allen Hall Lunchtime Theatre, which is always interesting, entertaining and such good value for money, the other theatre I have seen lately is Paul Baker’s Winston’s Birthday at the Fortune Theatre.  This play was thoroughly entertaining and, as always, Peter King’s set design was fantastic.

Reading: I am reading a number of works at the moment, and yet it seems that I am still not reading enough!  I am reading Maria Haenga-Collins Master’s thesis Belonging and Whakapapa: The Closed Stranger Adoption of Māori Children into Pākehā Families, and I am reading Erica Newman’s Master’s thesis A Right To Be Māori?” Identity Formation of Māori Adoptees.  I am also reading Through The Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre by Dymphna Callery.  I think this book is a must for all theatre practitioners.

Publications

Performing Indigenous Culture on Stage and Screen by Dr Marianne Schultz

Examining corporeal expressions of indigenousness from an historical perspective, this book highlights the development of cultural hybridity in New Zealand via the popular performing arts, contributing new understandings of racial, ethnic, and gender identities through performance. The author offers an insightful and welcome examination of New Zealand performing arts via case studies of drama, music, and dance, performed both domestically and internationally. As these examples show, notions of modern New Zealand were shaped and understood in the creation and reception of popular culture. Highlighting embodied indigenous cultures of the past provides a new interpretation of the development of New Zealand’s cultural history and adds an unexplored dimension in understanding the relationships between Māori and Pākehā throughout the late nineteenth and into the early twentieth centuries.

Conferences

The performance of the Real is a new multidisciplinary research project that is being led by Dr Suzanne Little and Assoc. Prof. Hazel Tucker at Otago University. The project has been successful in receiving funding over five years and a number of symposia and conferences have already been programmed this year including:

The Performance of the Real Postgraduate and Early Career Symposium: 

June 8th – 10th 2016 Keynote speaker: Bree Hadley (Queensland University of Technology) (we are heavily subsiding this symposium to keep costs down for postgraduate students) – we are open to late submission of abstracts

Mediating the Real: 

August 31st – September 2nd 2016 Keynote speakers: Misha Kavka (The University of Auckland); Allen Meek (Massey University) & Agon Hamza (Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts)

Performing Precarity: Refugee Representation, Determination and Discourses

21-23 November

Keynotes:

Professor Nikos Papastergiadis (University of Melbourne, Australia)

Professor Suvendrini Perera (Curtin University, Perth, Australia)

Registration is via the website and there are more details on the site about the theme and who is involved, including her very hardworking steering committee.

Academic Vacancies

Massey University is advertising two theatre studies positions which can be viewed via the Massey website. These include:

Part-Time Lecturer in Theatre Studies (A175-16SF) at Massey’s Albany (Auckland) Campus.

Applications are invited for a part-time (0.4 FTE), fixed-term three year Lectureship in Theatre Studies in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey University.

For more details please visit: http://massey-careers.massey.ac.nz/9310/part-time-lecturer-in-theatre-studies

Senior Tutor in Theatre/Expressive Arts (A176-16SF) at Massey’s Palmerston North Campus.

Applications are invited for a 0.8 FTE, fixed-term senior tutorship in the Theatre/Expressive Arts programme of the School of English and Media Studies at Massey University on the Palmerston North, Manawatu Campus.

For more details please visit:http://massey-careers.massey.ac.nz/9311/senior-tutor-in-theatre-expressive-arts

 

NUTS NZ #9

Leave a reply

Editorial

Welcome to the ninth edition of NUTS NZ – the Newsletter for University Theatre Studies New Zealand. The purpose of the newsletter is to help us communicate more effectively as a community of scholars interested in Theatre and Performance. We have an interesting selection of stories and items for you in this first issue for 2016. In this issue Martyn Roberts has kindly provided us with an outline of his latest project, Dark Matter. We have included a flyer and link to a newspaper article about Head Wound, directed by Angie Farrow, that should be of interest. We have details of the upcoming ADSA Conference “Resilience: Revive, Restore, Reconnect,” as well as details regarding the upcoming Symposium “Empowering Performance.”  There are a few prizes and competition to note too. Unfortunately, we could not  include out “NUTS People” segment  in this edition but it will b featured in the tenth edition.

We plan to circulate our tenth edition of NUTS NZ on the 13 of May , and we will need items of news by 29 April (especially an academic  and  postgraduate student to  showcase). As always, submissions should be sent to the NUTS NZ editor Jane Marshall:  j.g.marshall@massey.ac.nz

Newsletter Issue  Information Required by  Date of Circulation
Issue 10 29 April 2016 13 May 2016
Issue 11 29 July 2016 12 August 2016
 Issue 12 28 October 2016 11 November 2016

Kind regards,

NUTS NZ editors: Jane Marshall and Rand Hazou.

Performances

Dark Matter

MRoberts_2014.02.19_Masters_PRINT-32

 

Martyn Roberts, Lighting Designer and Professional Practice Fellow in Theatre Studies at The University of Otago presented Dark Matter at the Dunedin Fringe Festival in March 2016. This work presented for the first time, since graduating in 2014, a public showing of his MFA Theatre Studies material. Martyn’s MFA focused on his practice as a lighting designer and in particular the development and refinement of his methodology which involves creating states or scenarios that sit at the edge of perception and understanding. This was explored through three workshops and Dark Matter, a final showing where audiences were engaged in an open and ‘meaning-making’ process creating threshold states. ‘Threshold state’ refers to a point of perception that compels the viewer to engage with an image or sound to create meaning before it vanishes. It was Martyn’s intention to create threshold states across the disciplines of light, sound and site specific space. He also used photography to bring a greater understanding to how meaning, perception and recognition occur in these threshold moments. Dark matter, as in use it here, is a metaphor to describe the unseen, intangible or emergent elements of a performance. Martyn sought to use how we experience these elements to examine aspects of his design process. He is interested primarily in visual design work that privileges the partial and the unseen in order to invite audiences to take an increasingly active role in the meaning-making process. This has long been a focus of his practice as a designer. In this project, Martyn worked to develop, refine and articulate his approach through experimenting with the design tool of light, and by corollary, with sound and space.

Head Wound

HeadWound Front

Soldiers who survive war might be considered lucky, but they can suffer lifelong psychological damage. A bold new performance work explores the human horrors of war through one man’s struggle to piece together fragments of memory and identity shattered by a traumatic head injury. This performance installation, presented at Palmerston North’s Te Manawa Museum, is directed by Massey University Associate Professor Angie Farrow in collaboration with puppeteer Leda Farrwo, digital lighting designer Luke Anderson, musician and composer Suzie Hawes, and writer John Downie.

For more information access the Massey News story here, or visit the link to the article “Installation Brings Museum to Life” in the Manawatu Standard.

Conferences

ADSA Conference 2016 Resilience: Revive, Restore, Reconnect. Update

Publication reminder
The deadline for submissions for the e-conference proceedings publication for ADSA’s 2016 Conference is rapidly approaching (12th February). The publication will be in two parts. Part One will feature academic papers that can be written and reviewed ahead of time. This part will be published prior to, and launched at the conference. Part Two will feature research that due to its nature and/or mode of presentation can only be properly represented and/or peer reviewed during the conference itself. If you wish to have your work considered for either part, you MUST prepare a submission by Friday 12th February. For Part One, this submission must be your full paper.Please note that the full papers need to closely resemble the work you will present at the conference (rather than a re-write or an extended version), approximately 3000 words in length, and follow the ADS journal style guide. For Part Two this submission will consist of a more fulsome abstract (up to 1000 words detailing research methodology, questions and influences) and a justification of why the work can only be peer reviewed properly during the conference itself as well as a proposal of how the media-rich content (if applicable) will be captured.

Peer review
All people submitting work for consideration in the publication are reminded that by submitting their work they are also agreeing to act as a peer reviewer for up to 4 other submissions at the discretion of the editors. For Part One, these reviews will be due back to the editors by Friday 4th March. All peer reviewers will be acknowledged as part of the publication. If people who are not submitting their work, wish to volunteer to be a peer reviewer, the editors would welcome your expression of interest via emailing a brief bio to them.

Conference Registration
Registration for the conference is now open.Early Bird discounts are available until Friday 29th April. For more details about the conference or to register please follow this link.

Call For Papers

Empowering Performance: Maori & Indigenous Performance Studies Symposium

Te Ara Poutama, Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Development invites proposals for papers and other presentations on the power of contemporary Indigenous performance. Here we ask participants to stake a position in a conversation about the relationship between performance and power in the development of Māori and Indigenous identities and communities.

Where: Auckland University of Technology
When: 8-9 September 2016

For further information, contact Dr. Valance Smith by emailing: vsmith@aut.ac.nz
or visit #KAHAKA2016

Prizes/Competitions

The Marlis Thiersch Prize

The Marlis Thiersch prize is designed to recognise research excellence in English-language articles anywhere in the world in the broad field of drama, theatre and performance studies.
Eligibility
  • The Award is open to all financial members of ADSA.
  • The publication period is January to December 2015.
  • There cannot be more than one article or chapter by an author nominated in a given year.
  • The winner is announced at the ADSA conference.
  • The value of the prize is $500.
Judges for the award in 2016 are Paul Dwyer (University of Sydney), Emma Willis (University of Auckland), and Christopher Hay (NIDA).
Nominations
Nominations are invited by authors, journal editors and interested scholars, specifying full reference for the work nominated and accompanied by a photocopy of the article or chapter.
Deadline: Friday 1st April 2016.
Please send an electronic/scanned copy of the article or chapter, plus full reference for the work to Christopher Hay, NIDA: chris.hay@nida.edu.au

The Rob Jordon Prize

The Rob Jordan Prize is awarded every two years, for books by ADSA members making ‘a significant contribution to the study of theatre, drama or performance studies’ published in the two years prior to the award of the prize, i.e. 2014 and 2015. Preference will normally be given to monographs. Nominations can be made either by, or on behalf of, the author/s of the book and should include three copies of the book being nominated and a brief statement about the book’s importance.

Please forward nominations to Alison Richards <alison.m.richards@monash.edu>by 31 March 2016.

Create One World Through Art Competition

Creative Activism Pic

Outside your tertiary theatre work, are you in touch with any highschool (Yr 11-13) students studying drama?  If so please spread the word and let them know they can enter a short performance into the Creative Activism & Global Citizenship Competition hosted by Massey University and NZ Centre for Global Studies.  There are great prizes from UNESCO NZ for winning and commended entries.  The competition aligns with NCEA achievement standards so this could be something they could do in class! We invite you to show us how creativity and the arts can contribute to global community-building, and generate creative solutions to pressing planetary issues.

#Create1world – show us how your creativity can connect the world!

If you’re in Year 11, 12 or 13, we invite you to design creative content to promote the idea of global citizenship.  The theme of the competition is “create one world through art” – for young people to say, in your own way, how creativity can help us join together to solve some of the problems we face as a planet.

Competition Details

  1. Think about how creativity can help us better understand and resolve global problems faced by humanity in the 21st Century. Themes might include sustainability, peace, human rights, climate change, refugees, global inequality, international law or the responsibilities of multinational organisations.
  2. Think about what it might mean to be a ‘global citizen’.  There are some research resources (including a report written by young people) on the New Zealand Centre for Global Studies website at http://nzcgs.org.nz/ but you are also encouraged to develop your own ideas about creating global unity through art.
  3. Check out some of the ‘inspiration items’ on the Creative Activism Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/create1world/
  4. Take your ideas and turn them into a creative output in one of the four categories below:
  • Media Studies Category:  ($300 first prize, $200 second prize, $100 third prize) – Produce a short  (1-3 minutes) media product
  • Performance Category: ($300 first prize, $200 second prize, $100 third prize) – Devise and perform a short drama  (1-3 minutes) OR construct and deliver a crafted and controlled oral text (1-3 minutes)
  • Creative Writing Category: ($300 first prize, $200 second prize, $100 third prize) – Produce a piece of crafted and controlled piece of creative writing in the genre of either poetry or short story
  • Music category: ($300 first prize, $200 second prize, $100 third prize) – Compose and record an original song (1-3 minutes long)
  1. Go to the Creative Activism Facebook Page and upload your submission to the page by 17:00pm NZST on Monday May 2, 2016.
  2. Preliminary judging will take place following this date. A selection of submissions will be chosen as finalists and announced on Monday May 16, 2016.  Finalists will be invited to perform/present at a showcase event as part of the Creative Activism and Global Citizenship Conference on July 1, 2016.
  3. Come along and see the finalists at the Creative Activism and Global Citizenship Conference on July 1, 2016, and participate in a global conversation about creative activism with leading international artists. Free conference registration closes on Monday June 13, 5pm.  Register at this link here.
  4. To be held on Friday July 1 at Massey University Wellington campus from 9am to 3pm.  (Highschool teachers please click here to register your school group). Join us for free lunch, free amazing inspirational creative speakers, and be there when the winners, chosen by our panel of celebrity judges, are announced!

Creative Activism for Highschool Students

Leave a reply

Flier_Page_1Inspired by our innovative Expressive Arts curriculum and its focus on ‘performing the change you want to see’, Massey University College of Humanities & Social Sciences and the New Zealand Centre for Global Studies are proud to present #create1world, the first Creative Activism & Global Citizenship initiative in New Zealand.

This conference, competition and think-tank for senior highschool students will be held from 9am to 3pm, on July 1, 2016, at Massey University’s Wellington campus.

If you are in Year 11, 12 or 13, we invite you to first of all to enter our competition.  It aligns with NCEA for Media Studies, English, Drama and Music so we’re sure there will be a category that you can enter.

Then, come along to the conference day on July 1, and be inspired by some of the most exciting artists of our time, and hear about their work using art to cross borders, create peace, solve planetary problems and connect diverse peoples.

The day will kick off with a global linkup showcasing creative artists (celebrity musicians, painters, filmmakers, actors and more) both local and international, who are committed to creating unity and justice through their music, theatre, and media work.

Then we’ll hear from Kiwi students – the finalists in our competition will be invited to present your own creative activism work in the areas of media studies, music, creative writing and drama, and we’ll announce winners and award prizes.

Finally, join a creative brainstorm where your ideas are heard and recorded – you could really make a difference to our future and our world.

See more detail at our website massey.ac.nz/create1world

You can also follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/team1world or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/create1world/

Flier_Page_2We look forward to seeing your creative entries and to welcoming you to the #create1world discussion on July 1.

Te Reo surge in latest Poetry NZ

Leave a reply

The question ‘what is New Zealand poetry?’ is the overriding one for editor Dr Jack Ross, as he sifts through hundreds of submissions for Poetry New Zealand. His answer? We need to hear more Māori voices.

To remedy his observation that Māori poets have been overlooked in New Zealand publishing, he invited Māori poet Robert Sullivan to feature in the 50th issue and be Dr Ross’s second as managing editor of Poetry New Zealand, the country’s longest-running poetry journal. The volume includes an insightful interview with the poet canvassing a range of issues such as biculturalism, poetry and identity.

sullivan-robert-02

Dr Sullivan, who has Irish and Māori (Ngāpuhi) ancestry, shares his views on the ethics and entitlement of non-Māori writers using Te Reo. “I used to think if you’re not Māori you shouldn’t be using Māori terms because you don’t understand the significance, but I’ve changed my mind about that,” he says in the interview. “I think it’s better to promote the use of the language. But bringing it into poetry – well, readers of poetry can be quite pernickety. They’ll look it up, and they’ll actually deepen an understanding of Māori poetics.”

Sullivan, who heads the creative writing programme at the Manukau Institute of Technology and edited a 2014 anthology of 60 Māori poets titled Puna Wai Kōrero: An Anthology of Māori Poetry in English (AUP), says he’s discovered more Māori poets since the book was published. “The story of Māori poetry in English and the story of Pasifika poetry in English is, I think, one that still needs to be told.”

Kapa haka heralds future of Māori poetry

He says the National Kapa Haka competition, Te Matatini, represents hope for the future of poetry in Te Reo Māori. “They might call it dance, but the lyrics are all poetry. And it’s flourishing. It’s got its own spot on Māori television…it’s not just haka that are being performed, there are waiata, love songs, tangi.”

His ten new poems featured in Poetry New Zealand delve into childhood memories of growing up in Auckland, as well as tributes to his parents and grandparents.

In his introductory editorial, Dr Ross makes the case for biculturalism as an underpinning element in defining New Zealand poetry. “For all its faults and omissions and blind spots, the Treaty remains the foundation of our state, and we can’t ignore the principles of biculturalism embodied in it,” he writes.

And while he welcomes the concept of New Zealand “poetries” as a; “rich gamut of cultures and language which now exist in our islands expressing themselves in many languages and forms”, he feels that “no definition of New Zealand poetry which attempts to sideline or depreciate poetry and song in Te Reo can be taken seriously.”

He hopes more Māori poets will submit work in the future, in English and Te Reo Māori.

Poets new and established, near and far

The 286-page volume, published last November by The Printery at Massey University, comprises poetry and prose poems by some 80 poets, including well-known names Elizabeth Smither, Owen Marshall, Peter Bland, Alistair Paterson, Siobhan Harvey and David Eggleton.

New Zealand poets based overseas and newcomers to New Zealand from diverse ethnic backgrounds are all part of the line-up, with a number of contributors either based in, or originating from, Bosnia, Canada, the United States, Scotland, Australia, and Japan.

Massey University writers include award-winning poet and Master of creative writing graduates Sue Wootton and Janet Newman, and award-winning poet and PhD in creative writing graduate Dr Johanna Emeney, as well as creative writing tutors Dr Matthew Harris and Dr Bronwyn Lloyd, and lecturer Dr Bill Angus.

Essays, commentary and reviews on new poetry publications by a host of local literary talents provide incisive explorations of some of the newest voices on the New Zealand poetry scene.

Dr Ross has signalled further changes to the publication, with the next issue to be published early in 2017 by Massey University Press – a new press launched in 2015 and headed by veteran publisher Nicola Legat. To shorten the length of time some contributors have had to wait for a decision, he’s decided to confine submissions to a three-month period: from May 1st to July 31st of each year, beginning in 2016.

Dr Ross – a poet, editor and critic who teaches fiction, poetry, and travel writing in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey’s Auckland campus – in 2014 replaced distinguished poet, anthologist, fiction-writer, critic and retiring editor Alistair Paterson, who oversaw Poetry New Zealand for 21 years.

The journal originated in 1951 when poet Louis Johnson began publishing his annual New Zealand Poetry Yearbook.

Was there a stand out poem for Dr Ross? “It’s hard to single out any one person from so stellar a list of contributors, but I found the two pieces sent me by young poet Emma Shi sounded to me like messages from a strange new country I’d never visited before. She is, I believe, a powerful new talent whom I hope to hear much more from in the future,” he says.

To buy a copy, click here. Read more on Dr Ross’s poetry blog or check the Poetry New Zealand Facebook page here.

Poems

By Emma Shi

skipping dead insects across the ocean

i wake up with fists clenched. the glass shimmers

and crushes under my fingers like wings. he

cites me as the one with broken knuckles. it

is easier, he says, to remember things that way.

 

i start to wear creased butterflies in my hair. then

stuffed in my coat pocket, wrapped in brown paper

like a parcel. on tuesdays, i carve words into

the shore: run, flight, fog. wait, watch as the

sea chases them away, and chase it back

till i’m up to my heart with water.

 

the last butterfly flickers away at high tide. i practise

breathing underwater but the fish gnaw at my skull

like metal. i don’t know what i’m waiting for, i

tell him, and he says, whatever’s left. so i press my skin

against seashells, forget how to breathe again.

 

By Dr Robert Sullivan

Māra kai

Living on the other side of the Museum now

is the adult side. Grafton is where I was a child.

The things I know now I wish I knew then!

This sensory garden does invite the skin and ears.

I can hear the soft rain, cars swishing and thrumming,

the odd bird, splashes and drips, cool spring

on my soles even through my shoes,

the pressed warmth of the back of my left knee

on top of the right one, gentle movements

of the olive leaves, native and exotic bird calls –

some like ref whistles, others on slower patterns,

tyres like Velcro tears, birds like quiet

microwave ovens, muffled roaring vehicles,

circling wheels and spray.

I see the results of rain

by the splash of puddles, and see

the occasional drop from a leaf – that sort of rain –

the occasional cluck. The breeze

is like a big beer fridge.

The sunlight and the starlight know this.

Staging a Cause

Leave a reply

Elspeth Tilley does the little things that many do on the homefront to protect the planet, from recycling and marching against climate change to encouraging her family to walk and take public transport.

On a global scale, though, the Massey University theatre and arts lecturer knows that many are tired of being bombarded with information and statistics about climate change.

On the eve of one of the most important global meetings, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris, which starts on the evening of November 30 (NZ Time), her short, provocative play, Flotsam, has been accepted by the New York-based Climate Change Theatre Action group, as one of the official plays.

“Information about climate change is very depressing and leaves us all churned up, thinking the world’s going to end,” says Tilley.  “The result is that people switch off. Instead, it works to reach people’s hearts and consciousness, and to help them think differently.”

Playwrights like David Geary, a Vancouver-based Maori playwright and Jacqueline Lawton, an award-winning black American playwright, are among 50 writers whose poetry, plays and songs were chosen by the action group to be performed before and during the Paris event.  Not all will be held in Paris, though, and Tilley’s play is being shown in Chicago, Washington, New York and Virginia.  Other productions range from living-room readings to fully produced shows, and from site-specific performances at the foot of glaciers to radio programmes and film adaptations.

Tilley says that climate change is often seen through a policy or scientific lens, and solutions are discussed only in political offices, boardrooms and negotiating halls.

Her play is based on the real-life case about a man from Kiribati – Ioane Teitoita – who was denied status as a climate change refugee and sent home.  In a case which affected Tilley, the issue is battled out between a refugee application officer following the rules, and her teenage daughter, who challenges her mother about the case after following it on Facebook.

In Flotsam, the refugee officer says: “It’s not that simple, love. The law says there must be a well-founded fear of persecution causing serious harm to qualify for refugee status.  Maybe there might be a cyclone causing serious harm, maybe not.  But a cyclone isn’t persecution.  I can’t override the wording of the law, it’s my job to apply the letter of the law.  If it says definite serious harm, then I have to require definite serious harm to prove the application”.

The case of Teitoita, who was sent home, stuck with Massey Associate Professor Tilley, who says: “It’s symbolic of the system’s response. Eventually, we are going to have to welcome climate change refugees. We can’t keep turning a blind eye, treating them like an inconvenient teenager.”

Flotsam premiered here at a Massey University climate change event, Waves, earlier this month and each production overseas features local actors and directors – it’s being shown at the Institute for Excellence in American Contemporary Theatre in New York on Tuesday, chosen by Matthew Clinton Sekellick, an award-winning director. Theatre activism isn’t new to Tilley, who teaches a paper on the expressive arts, so her students have been involved in everything from a multimedia smokefree campaign on campus, to a play about GM corn.

“We emphasise artistic expression as both intrinsically worthwhile and as a means to an end. Art has aesthetic value, but it’s also powerful as a communication tool that can connect people with ideas, provoke new ways of looking at things, and create change.”

At the Waves event, Massey PhD student Sara McBride acted in the world premiere of Geary’s play, Morehu and Titi, about a tuatara and muttonbird heading for Antarctica on a floating island.

McBride, a disaster management communications specialist, has seen the effects of climate change first-hand, after working in the Solomon Islands as a volunteer communications advisor.  “The Reef Islands was one of my areas, where you have 14,000 people living on coral atolls totalling 12 square kilometres.  The area has eroded so much. Locals are losing their island, but they can’t leave, and it’s heartbreaking to watch.”

She says that climate change is now the most pressing issue for those working in disaster management.  “It’s like, how can we fix this, or mitigate it?”

McBride also knows what it is like to live with the threat of disaster hanging above.  Growing up in Washington state, she lived within 15 kilometres of the Hamburg nuclear site as her father was a nuclear chemist.

“We grew up with the threat of the nuclear plant melting down.  We had to do drills regularly and we were told that if the nuclear facility went critical, we had to put a big white sheet up on our window to let the military know we were still alive.

“Working in disaster management has been a natural extension of my childhood.”

Elspeth Waves