King’s Birthday Monday with Anna Thomas for Monday 3 June 2019

 

News and current affairs 

 

Bob McKerrow: A life of adventure

Dunedin-born Bob McKerrow is a mountaineer, polar adventurer, humanitarian, writer and poet. He has climbed 12 peaks, 8 of them first ascents. He did two major dog sled trips with legendary polar explorer Will Steger in the Arctic, including one to the North Pole. He has wintered over in Antarctica, lived in Afghanistan and is a world leader in disaster recovery. He's spent 36 years working for the International Red Cross in conflict situations and in times of major natural disasters. Bob is the author of three books on mountaineering and mountaineers and will be speaking at the NZ Mountain Film and Book Festival in Wanaka on the 2nd of June.

 

Anjum Rahman: Taking on Islamophobia

Anjum Rahman arrived in New Zealand in 1972 at the age of five from Canada, though she was born in the Ganges Plains in India. She is a political and human rights activist who is now a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Mrs Rahman is a founding member of Shama, the Hamilton Ethnic Women Centre, she helped found the Islamic Women's Council of New Zealand, in 1990. She is a Human Rights Commission facilitator and a board member or trustee of many organisations all with human rights at the centre. She's become a prominent commentator on issues of racism and religious diversity.. but it's been a tough road to feeling accepted as a New Zealander.

 

 

Dame Fran Walsh: The steel and the emotion                             

She has for decades been known as Sir Peter Jackson's partner in life and on all his films since 'Meet the Feebles' in 1989. Together with fellow screenwriter Philippa Boyens, she has three Oscars for her work on the final episode of 'The Lord of the Rings', and a further 24 award nominations, a whopping 30 wins from the Australian Film Institute, the BAFTAs, the Grammys, the Golden Globes, and the Writers Guild of America. Dame Fran Walsh has been the co-screenwriter of 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy, 'King Kong', 'The Lovely Bones', the three-film adaptation of 'The Hobbit', and most recently 'Mortal Engines'.  Add to that, Heavenly Creatures, and the documentary 'West of Memphis'. Dame Fran has eschewed the limelight, carefully guarding her privacy, but we were fortunate to talk to her at Park Road Post, in the heart of Wellywood, the suburb of Miramar.     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dame Areta Koopu: Peacemaker

Dame Areta Koopu. comes from the East Coast, near Gisborne, from a hapu with a strong connection to the land they have farmed for generations. Her life's work led her to head the Maori Women's Welfare League in the 1990's, to the Waitangi Tribunal where she was a member for more than a decade, she was a Human Rights Commissioner, a marriage guidance counsellor, a mediator, a peacemaker and a wife and mother.

 

 

Te Rautaki Manaaki Mana: Tikanga in the ED

Several DHBs across the country either have in place or are rolling out training to improve their engagement with Māori in the Emergency Department.   The Australasian College of Emergency Medicine is getting in right at the start of ED training with a new policy: Te Rautaki Manaaki Mana: Excellence in Emergency Care for Māori. An emphasis on understanding basic tikanga, language, pronunciation will mean the emergency departments will start to feel like somewhere Māori patients, whānau and staff feel they are the same as everyone else. The President-elect  of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine Dr John Bonning and Dr Inia Tomas, co- chair of Counties-Manukau Manaaki Mana Excellence in Emergency Care for Māori explain why it's important.

 

Professor Mark Costello: When is a species not a species

Mark Costello is an Auckland University marine ecologist, who co-leads the most comprehensive global stocktake of the marine life of the world's oceans which has enabled scientists to name all but half a million of all marine species. Professor Costello says the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network shows the UN's recent report on biodiversity is based on a vastly exaggerated estimation of how many species there are on the planet. He will be one of the lead authors on a chapter on oceans and biodiversity in the next tranche of the IPCC's report on global warming.

 

 

Sarah McMullan: Doc Edge Film Festival

Film Reviewer Sarah McMullan has checked out Doc Edge 2019: a festival of documentaries and will be talking about her top picks, including THE MENS ROOM, an all male Norwegian choir that prides itself on its beer-drinking ability and beards, who is asked to open for Black Sabbath - but that's not the only surprise they get.  A NZ film that picked up two festival awards for its tale of six strangers walking the 800km Camino de Santiago (Camino Skies) Is 2019 the year of the asshole? ASSHOLE: A THEORY attempts to answer that question, while HALF THE PICTURE asks why are there so few women directing film and TV? What's going on and how do we change it? And ROLL RED ROLL is the true story of the Stubenville rape case - and how concerned journalists pulled the story together and pushed for prosecution. 

 

 

Sir Wira Gardiner: Following the Maori Battalion

The 28th Māori Battalion B Company was made up of men from iwi of the central North Island and Bay of Plenty districts. One of the biggest conflicts they fought in was the battle of Monte Cassino and the men who served in the company went on to have a huge impact on Aoteaora in the second half of the 20th century.  In April, Sir Wira Gardiner published his history of the company  - Ake Ake Kia Kaha E! and then commenced a hikoi across Italy to all the battle fields the 28 Maori Battalion traversed over 18 months with the last remaining veteran of B Company Robert  Gillies, known as Papa Bom.

 

Alicia Olatuja: Taking on the Divas

Alicia Olatuja is a mezzo-soprano who covers songs by artists as diverse as Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell and Tracy Chapman.  And she's just as much at home singing gospel and opera. You might not know her name yet, but you may have seen her perform. Alicia made her international debut in 2013, during President Barack Obama's second inauguration ceremony with a soaring featured solo during the Battle Hymn of the Republic with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.  She released her debut album in February, Intuition: Songs From The Minds Of Women and she performs at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington on Wednesday night as part of the Wellington Jazz Festival.

 

Dame Susan Bagshaw: Doing it for the kids

Dr Susan Bagshaw has been recognised in this Queens' Birthday honours list for her tireless work to provide youth health services. One half of the Brilliant Bagshaws, She chairs the Korowai Youth Well-Being Trust which runs the Youth One Stop Shop 298 Youth Health in Christchurch. She founded the 198 youth one stop shop in the central city in 1995 where she worked as a primary care youth health specialist until its closure in 2010. She has been involved in advising what's now known as the Network of Youth One Stop Shops nationwide. Dr Bagshaw is now developing a Christchurch Youth Hub - Te Hurihanga o Rangatahi, a collaboration of health and social services and transitional housing for youth in central Christchurch.