Sunday Morning for Sunday 20 December 2015

7:08 Current affairs

Auckland city missioner Dame Diane Robertson issued a call for help earlier this week as queues for food parcels continued to grow. Dame Diane talks about the need and the response - and what's next for her as she prepares to leave the city mission. Plus: Associate Professor Mark Henrickson from Massey University has been selected to speak at an international forum about how social workers deal with the issues of gender and sexual minorities around the world; RNZ International's Johnny Blades reports on the 750km land border between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea - it has long been problematic but there's an increased blurring of the line as links between the two sides grow; Dan Dawson joins us from the World Darts Championship in London; and Tom Frewen reflects on The Year in Parliament.

8:12 Insight More Pay for Living in Auckland?

Forty years ago the British government formally introduced an extra allowance paid to public sector workers to offset the high costs of living in the country's capital. It is known as the London weighting. Elizabeth Brown asks if it's now time for an Auckland weighting.
Produced by Philippa Tolley.

8:40 Magnus Nilsson - Nordic Cooking

Ever fancied knocking up a proper Viking meal? Well, chef Magnus Nilsson knows exactly what you'll need. His new book is a compendium of Nordic cooking, outlining each culture's food specialty - including dishes from the controversial Faroe Island's annual whale slaughter. He talks to Wallace about how he came to write this enormous tome, The Nordic Cookbook, and the culinary similarities he found between the Scandanavian countries.

9:06 Mediawatch

What's the demand for the growing supply of on-demand video? Also: Nicky Hager's police search ruling; mixed messages on drinking; and a Mediawatch mash-up of 2015. 
Produced and presented by Colin Peacock and Jeremy Rose.

9:40 Peter Bray - Christmas in Bethlehem

New Zealander Peter Bray is the vice-chancellor of Bethlehem University. The Catholic university was founded in 1973 and has been closed 12 times since then by Israeli military orders - the longest of which was for three years. Peter Bray reflects on Christmas in Bethlehem and how the birth of Jesus is marked in a city under occupation. 

10:06 Molly Crabapple - Occupying a New Artistic Space

Molly Crabapple has been called the unofficial artist of the occupy movement - one of her posters from the time is now in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Her distinctive drawings bring to mind the works of Toulouse-Lautrec, Goya, and the pioneering graphic journalist Joe Sacco. Crabapple has documented everything from the decadent nightlife of pre-Global Financial Crisis New York to the despair of Guantanamo Bay and the refugee camps of Lebanon. Her memoir, Drawing Blood, has just been published by HarperCollins.   

10:35 Desiree Burch - Finding the Funny

Desiree Burch is a comedian, actor, writer and storyteller. This year, she won the 2015 Funny Women Stage Award for her stand up comedy, and her solo play Tar Baby won the 2015 Fringe First for new writing at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. She will be bringing her comedy to New Zealand next year for the New Zealand Festival and she speaks to Wallace about finding the funny in politics, race and gender.

11:05  Nick Schofield - Championing the World’s Rivers

Nick Schofield is the CEO of the International Rivers Foundation. From the Avon to the Zambezi, locals are banding together to clean up their rivers after years - sometimes centuries - of neglect. Nick Schofield has seen their efforts first-hand and is, on balance, optimistic about the future of the world’s waterways. 

11:25 The Foxton Everglades 

The Horowhenua town of Foxton was once home to a bustling port with steamers and sailing ships carting away the region’s flax fibre. Rowing races and swimming competitions were regularly held in the Manawatu River which flowed through the town. All that changed in the 1940s with the Whirokino Cut - originally designed as a flood spillway but which ended up diverting the river entirely and cutting off the so-called Foxton Loop from the river. Now a group of environmental organisations is calling for the loop and the river to be reconnected and they have visions of the region’s wetlands being restored to a point where the “Foxton Everglades” become a major tourist attraction. Jeremy Rose visits the economically-depressed town to talk to some of those behind the proposal.

Wildlife Foxton Trust - Foxton Save Our River Trust - NZ Landcare Trust 

11:45 Hope for the Avon

When you think of the Avon-Ōtākaro river in Christchurch, it's likely to be an image of a meandering stream making its way through the city, fish swimming lazily, round stones on the bottom -  boats punting along. The reality is very different, with much of the Avon, outside the CBD area, polluted with stormwater, sewage overflow and illegal dumping. Wallace talks to kaumatua Teoti Jardine and Prof Bryan Jenkins, who are both part of the Avon-Ōtākaro Network Strategic Steering Group.