Culture 101

The sheer diversity and invention of electronic music today in Aotearoa is evident in a list of sounds at the upcoming electronic sonic arts festival Outlier in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Curated by Grace Verweij and Tash van Schaardenburg, some are subgenres, while others, they admit, are made up.

On the list: glitch, deconstructed club, emo electronics, ambient, gorge, modular + synthi, hyperpop, maximalist breaks, broken cassettes, mutant classical, ambisonics, techno-naturalism, taonga pūoro, drone, IDM, and noise.

This month Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage released a draft for consultation of Amplify: A Creative and Cultural Strategy for New Zealand. It’s stated as a national strategy that outlines how the government will prioritise support for our creative and cultural sectors to 2030. Submissions are due 15 December.

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage has released Amplify: A Creative and Cultural Strategy for New Zealand. It’s a draft open for public consultation described as ‘action-oriented’ outlining how the government could support the creative sector through till 2030.

Raimona Inia’s focus with partner Nikora Mihinui has long been the perpetuation of their culture, with a strong focus on storytelling. A new series of six books they are producing in both Te Reo Māori and English, He hokinga mahara ki a ratou mā capture the proverbs of the elders of Te Arawa and share their origins. There are, Inia says, a total of just under 300 proverbs featured.

We’re all familiar with the image of the Pacific woman on postcards and in tourism marketing; warm and welcoming, light-skinned, with a slim build and long wavy hair. But what happens for young women when that’s the only image perpetuated for generations?

In the far north, in Doubtless Bay, Te Tai Tokerau, Rowan Panther makes lace with fine strands of muka from the Harakeke flax bushes on her property. 

Bobbin lace to be precise, which is traditionally made with cotton. Panther’s material and the forms she makes with lace reflect the Pacific environment she lives in; taking a tradition forward.

It was the door slam heard around the world, shocking audiences. Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play A Doll’s House caused outrage with the central character, Nora Helmer, walking out on her family, leaving behind her children and husband in search of herself and a more fulfilling life.

Actor, writer, comedian, director and social media star Tom Sainsbury is back with his friends and they’re Camping.

As a curator at the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua since 2007, Greg Donson has been there for artists over a period of significant change for the gallery and the city. 

Now Senior Curator, he has spearheaded the redeveloped gallery’s opening series of exhibitions, curating new artists' projects and dynamic displays of works from the gallery’s rich collection, speaking to both the gallery and Whanganui’s history.

Feeling the pull towards home, Waiora Bailey-Moore (Tupoho and Puketapu) returned home to Whanganui from Wellington two years ago.