Tui Emma Gillies is a Tongan-Kiwi artist who specialises in tapa art. Her work mixes contemporary with traditional and can be challenging, confronting and controversial, but always with respect to the roots of the medium and the ancestors who practised it before her.  Tui has exhibited in NZ, Tonga, Australia, UK and presented about my art overseas including Austria, Hawaii, Spain, Tonga and Australia. She works a lot alongside her mother Sulieti Fieme’a Burrows as a mother-daughter tapa duo.  Tui is on the line with us now to tell us about how the Covid19 alert level changes has forced changes on her exhibition opening at the Tautai Gallery scheduled for Auckland tomorrow evening

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Otahuhu College will this year be celebrating its 90th year with a school reunion next month.  Otahuhu College has had reunions in 1956, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2006.

Someone who’s attended all of those reunions apart from the first one in 1956 is John Boscawen who is on the line now to tell us about how and why he wants this one to be the most successful yet.  Otahuhu college former pupil and now stalwart John Boscawen thank you very much for your time.  All the best with the reunion.  

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Michel Mulipola is a Sāmoan comic book artist, professional wrestler and professional gamer born and raised in Māngere.  He has illustrated work for WWE comics, Marvel trading cards and NZ School Journals. 

His latest work is the first ever Sāmoan language comic, O Le Aiga Samoa, which is now available on his website - www.bloodysamoan.com .  To share with us his unique life story we have Zoom Michel Mulipola, talofa lava Michel and thank you for making time for us.

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Dr Liyun Wendy Choo recently completed her doctoral studies at the University of Auckland. 

She holds a Master of Education (Curriculum and Teaching) and a Master of International Studies, both of which proved to be fundamental to her PhD work on citizenship in Myanmar. 

Her PhD seeks to understand young Myanmar citizens’ citizenship and investigates how Myanmar citizenship is produced. 

It takes a broad view of education and examines the educative process of citizens beyond formal schooling.

Wendy was a history teacher in Singapore for 8 years and spent two years in the Singapore Ministry of Education focusing on in-service teacher professional development. She also worked as an English teacher to government officials in Lao PDR for six months prior to her studies in New Zealand and really enjoyed the experience of working in Southeast Asia, a region that she studied and taught as part of history education in Singapore.

 She has been working with a Yangon-based NGO Teach for ASEAN since 2017 to develop training programmes for the youth volunteers and the English curriculum for T4A's beneficiaries.

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Fine summer weather is forecast for almost all of New Zealand today and this weekend.  And that usually means a trip to cool off in the waters whether in the sea, rivers and lakes.   

To remind us of how a fun trip could easily turn to tragedy we have on the line the Senior Communications & Media Advisor for Water Safety New Zealand, Ben Christie .

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Joyana Finch graduated from the University of Auckland as the first Pacific woman in history with a degree in Mechatronic Engineering.

Initially employed in sheet metal manufacturing, her work focused on design for assembly for products serving the IT, electrical distribution and earthquake resilience markets.

Wishing to pursue a more mixed professional domain, she moved across to industrial automation serving the Logistics and Aviation industries. She has contributed engineering solutions both on site and remotely for client projects across Australasia, America, Europe and the UK.

Her role as a High Level Controls Team Lead at Daifuku Oceania involves overseeing and recruiting a team of multidisciplinary engineers delivering projects for logistics giants.

Outside engineering, Joyana grew up in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. She performed as a dancer in the local dance troupe, Orama and competed in pacific beauty pageants including Miss Teen Cook Islands, Miss Cook Islands and Miss South Pacific (now known as Miss Pacific Islands). 

Now a full time mum at home (part time engineer) with two beautiful daughters, Joyana is focusing any spare time towards a series of STEM children books as well as a few lingering engineering product ideas.

Joyana is very passionate about normalizing tech topics to our next pasefika generations, so that they may become not only savvy consumers… but developers and contributors of the future.

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The Brendan Foot Supersite Round the Bays event will have runners, walkers, strollers and wheelchairs filling the road around the bays of Wellington this Sunday.

Five course options means there’s a course for every level of fitness from 6.5kilometres, 10 kilometres and the half marathon.

Event Director of Sports Wellington is John Grieve who’s on the line with us now to tell us more about the Brendan Foot Supersite Round the Bays event.

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Poly X Toonz is an online platform that aims to keep culture alive through Art and Design

Abraham Mohetaue is a Niuean artist who set up the page with the main objective to showcase elements of his culture and have fun or hopefully motivate or inspire those who would like to bring their imaginations to life.

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Josiah Pasikale​ is of Tokelauan, Fijian and Chinese heritage who is a marketing business owner who was one of the finalists for this year’s Mr Gay New Zealand title.  A title that is bestowed on someone who shows leadership and advocacy within the LGBTQIA+ community.  

The Wellingtonian struggled with his sexuality for a decade and found himself hiding parts of his identity. He even tried conversion therapy when he felt his faith, sexuality and mental health hit a “crisis point”.

It didn’t change him in the way his therapist and pastors thought it would. Instead, it made him realise that “God doesn't want to change this” and at 27, he became open about his sexuality.

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Projects that support our elderly and seniors from diverse ethnic backgrounds are getting funding from the Office of Seniors.

Over the past three years, Community Connects grants of up to $15,000 have been allocated to help communities plan or implement initiatives to make their community or city more age friendly. 

To tell us more about this funding we have on the line Diane Turner who is the Director of the Office of Seniors.

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