Posts Tagged ‘Ila Couch’

Poi – it’s in the DNA

Ōtepoti business Pōtiki Poi is a mother/daughter duo producing poi sold worldwide. They’ve also co-written a pukapuka about the whakapapa of poi, and most recently opened the Kura Poi Dance Academy.
Kaituhi Ila Couch talks to Georgia and Anna Tiatia Fa-atoese Latu about setting up a successful kaupapa Māori pakihi, and their plans to ensure a taonga from the past will continue to evolve.

Sound and a clear vision of heritage

Sandy Wakefield (Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tahu, Pākehā) has made a career in sound for broadcast television and film, this year coming close to fulfilling her Oscar dream when The Power Of The Dog was nominated for the Best Achievement
in Sound category.
Kaituhi Ila Couch talks to Sandy about her pathway to sound, the early days of working at Māori Television and the importance of kaupapa Māori values
in her mahi as a storyteller.

Review

The long-anticipated book about Rehua is finally available. A labour of love written by Claire Kaahu White working closely with Dr Terry Ryan, the book has 16 chapters and 335 pages. If you were looking at a comprehensive story about Rehua you may be disappointed and the title is a little misleading. As the book covers not only Rehua Marae, but Māori Affairs Trade Training in Christchurch, the different hostels and key moments and people that were influential in the development of both the trade training scheme and Te Whatumanawa Maoritanga O Rehua Marae through the first 50 years.

Reo Māori Mai

There are few upsides to a global pandemic, but one positive has been a surge in interest around taha Māori and reo Māori. As a measure of that interest, Reo Māori Mai founder Ariana Stevens has created an online whānau committed to learning and living te reo Māori.

Review

There is something undeniably special about Kia Kaha: A storybook of Māori who changed the world. The kaupapa of having Māori writers and Māori illustrators come together to tell Māori stories is easy to get behind and when I picture rangatahi sitting down with this pukapuka or parents picking a chapter to read aloud at bedtime, I also imagine the collective mauri of everyone involved in the living and telling of these stories.

Missing Connections: how closed adoptions created generations of ‘ghosts’ within our whakapapa

Dr Erica Newman has been awarded the Marsden Fast Start Grant to further her research into transracial adoption in Aotearoa. Over the next three years she will gather accounts and experiences of Māori adoptees and their descendants and document their efforts to connect to their taha Māori. Crucial to her work is understanding how hapū and iwi currently support adoptees and their uri on their whakapapa journey, and in what ways her own experience as the daughter of a Māori adoptee might assist in the future shaping of those processes.

Indigenising psychotherapy

Verity Armstrong (kāi tahu, kāti māmoe – ōraka aparima) rolls up her sleeve. We are chatting through computer screens, but I lean in instinctively as she turns her arm to show me the detail and design of her tā moko. “Was it painful?” I ask. The irony of her response was not lost on the psychotherapist who makes a living encouraging people to talk: “The actual tattoo felt like it happened in a second. The hardest part was the talking.”

Following in the footsteps of their kuia

Growing up with generations of extended whānau in the Blenheim Māori Women’s Welfare League, Sue Parish and Jazmine MacDonald didn’t give much thought to its future – that is until they became mothers. Seeing an urgent need to bridge the gap between senior members and rangatahi, they launched a succession plan for this important kaupapa.

Life in the USA – A Grim Reality

When things are going wrong in America I hear from people: are you all right, what is really happening over there, when are you coming home? “It is beyond me why you have stayed this long, ” wrote a friend I have known since high school. “He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata,” I write back.

Tonight, people are rioting in Minnesota, the first state I lived in as a 17-year-old exchange student. People are rioting in Georgia, the state I call home. In Minneapolis, a police officer knelt on the neck of a black man until he could no longer breathe. Say his name – George Floyd. In Glynn County, Georgia, an ex-detective and his son have been charged, three months after killing a black man out for a run. Say his name – Ahmaud Arbery. They are not the first or the last, just the latest victims of modern-day lynching. Police kill people of colour in the US. There is no pause for a pandemic. This is the country I have lived in for 18 years and the country I am preparing to leave.

Devoted to Dance

Arawyn has only just turned 10, and Mileena turned 12 the day after we spoke. “She’s going to be a teenager soon,” Arawyn says, sticking out her tongue and making a noise her older sister playfully mimics. The sisters have just returned from a big trip to the United States, an early birthday present for Mileena, who won a coveted spot in one of the largest ballet competitions in the world. Of the 10,000 applicants to the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) Ballet Competition in New York, Mileena was amongst just 1200 selected to attend a week of master classes, mentoring, and the chance to be discovered by directors of the most prestigious dance companies from around the world.