In this four-part series, Kadambari Raghukumar talks to folks with jokes -  people from overseas who’ve ended up as stand-up comics out of chance - their comedy, an outcome of coming to New Zealand.

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Javier Murcia's got his hands full rather literally. The sculptor is a master at casting in clay and bronze, the intricacies and subtleties of the human form. In this episode, he chats with Kadambari Raghukumar about his explorations in form and beyond.

Hearing Javier Murcia talk about his process as he breaks down each step of making from clay, a human figure, sounds like a class in anatomy. It's close.

In this episode of Here Now, Kadambari Raghukumar chats to the sculptor in his studio at Avalon Studios, Lower Hutt, about everything from Spain to Wellington, traversing his personal and artistic journey.

Between recording his 5 hour long full-render sessions for his online sculpting workshops, to casting hundreds of his signature figurative pieces, Javier Murcia has been up against time, and that’s nothing new. A scan around his studio and it’s easy to see how prolific he has been. Javier’s best known for figurative sculpture, a testimony to his acute understanding the human body and movement – from the poses to the proportion.

Murcia was born in Spain and moved to New Zealand to explore work in the film industry, ending up at Weta Studios for several years in an "amazing bubble" as he calls it.

Working with the human form though, goes back to an interest from his childhood, growing up surrounded by books on anatomy, thanks to a physiotherapist father. While it could seem figurative sculpting is more relatable the more realistic it is to the real human form, but that’s not the case Javier says – whether, distorted or keeping with reality, it’s a language unique to the maker.

Part of Javier's more recent exploration is a newer collection that plays with with enamel, sand, epoxy resin, and a diametric move away from his work with human form. He calls it MaTI – or Matter and Time - they're large, intriguing, circular pieces of illuminated and textured work - outcomes of his curiosity to see where, if pushed, his skills and artistic language can take him.

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Reggae artist Protoje who graced The Bowl stage at WOMAD Aotearoa this year, speaks to Kadambari Raghukumar in this episode on all things from patties to performances. 

The world’s awash with so many mixed messages about Jamaica but what makes the intrigue endure is this incessant stream of positivity, upfulness and the calibre of music that the country puts out.

One of Jamaica's reigning reggae icons Protoje performed at The Bowl stage at this year's WOMAD Aotearoa and Kadambari Raghukumar got to chat with him, pre-show. The conversation goes from chatting about his parents, politics, patties of course, to the idea of why most people nowadays may associate Jamaican music just dancehall.

"People here today they're gonna see me a reggae music artist from Jamaica, their perception of what Jamaican music is going to be also that and other stuff. I think it's just visibility. It's about doing the work, being on the ground, playing the shows, being active and spreading that energy globally. it's action, you know? I can do it by going out there and playing music and letting people see the type of songs we have to offer, which we do on a global scale."

Protoje along with other artists like Kabaka Pyramid, Lila Ike are all part of a group of artists emerging out of Jamaica responsible for spearheading what's been a roots reggae revival of sorts, focussed on conscious music.

"I think we all have some message and if we listen to each other, I'm sure we can decipher the message that all of us have. I just feel that I've been fortunate to have a platform and to share the thoughts that come up in my head on lonely nights and people get to hear it."

Born Oje Ken Ollivierre and raised in St Elizabath, Jamaica, both of Protoje’s parents were reggae and calypso singers - Lorna Bennett and Mike Ollivierre - but there's no sense of pressure when it comes to him carrying forward a legacy he said.

"I don't look at it like that. It's all a good cycle. I'm My parents live within me, I just do the music that I do. I'm privileged to work with my mum. She's my manager. So she gets a second time to live through music and she's excited."

Protoje's even keel attitude is hard to ignore, unaffected and unperturbed by the high energies of a festival like WOMAD.

"It's life sometimes. Your emotions up and down. For me, especially if I have a show. I'm chill, I'm easy. I save my energy for stage because it's real energy. You're giving your energy to people. So I try to just keep it balanced, as low key as possible."

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This year's WOMAD Aotearoa saw reggae icon Queen Omega draw crowds - she spoke to Kadambari Raghukumar about how it began for her.

One of the hottest female reggae artists on the scene right now, born Jenelle Osbourne,Queen Omega, chats to Kadambari Raghukumar in this Here Now episode at WOMAD Aotearoa.

While the carnival in Trinidad And Tobago may have been and gone earlier in March, she came flying that Trinny flag high at the festival in Taranaki.

Born in San Fernando, Queen Omega's rise to reggae fame has been a slow burn of sorts. She's been performing all her life but for people who haven't quite followed her journey or aren't reggae fanatics as such, it could seem like that viral reel, the Little Lion Sound dub plate with the Dr Dre tune, made the world sit up and notice her.

"For me, it really did a great thing because a lot of people who don't listen to reggae get to know who Queen Omega is. I was grateful because it feels good to know that after all that years that I'm now getting some traction."

But beyond that one dub plate, Queen Omega, Queenie, she's also called fondly, has taken on this role of blazing a trail for female artists in reggae, performing alongside greats like Buju Banton, Don Carlos - people she grew up listening to.

"I give thanks for the pioneers before because if it wasn't for Bob Marley and all the legendary singers before, I grew up listening to Skatellites, Don Carlos, I grew up to listen to Burning Spear all the foundation artists. If it wasn't for them, I would not get the inspiration to do reggae.

"It's just brick upon brick, and I'm also leaving my legacy behind. Because when a lot of women see me now, then they would know we could do it.We don't have to show skin. We could perform."

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Making that settling-in process a little easier, the small and welcoming Happiness House has been making an big impact on several lives in Queenstown.

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Here Now looks back at some the conversations we had with women this past year on the series across all sorts of topics - Colombian stereotypes, medicine, comedy and academics.

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Over 7000 people have been killed since January this year in the conflict that's ongoing in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kadambari Raghukumar talks about the impact of the war with Congolese with family members in the east of the country.

Congoloese diaspora in Auckland gathered at a rally last month to bring attention to ongoing conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where since January this year alone, nearly 7000 people have been killed.

About the size of Western Europe, Democratic Republic of Congo – the DRC - has almost 72 % of the world’s coltan resources and a wealth of other mineral resources from gold to zinc.

Vying for control over the east’s vast mineral reserves are more than 100 armed groups.

Precious untapped minerals in Congolese soil have globalized impact of the conflict. Several multinational corporations are vested in the resources while Congolese minerals are an inextricable part of our own everyday lives from phones, batteries, electric cars.

For the past 30 years, DRC has been racked by multiple conflicts that have been called the First and Second Congo Wars that took seed in 1996 contested between ethnic and militant groups on the frontiers with Rwanda and Uganda, and the protracted Kivu conflict in the east, that’s now intensified.

Amongst all the armed groups fighting in the region, the most prominent is the M23 – whom the UN as well as the US and several other countries allege are backed by Rwanda – is violently taking control of the resource-rich territory, Kivu. It's a region nearly five times the size of Rwanda.

M23 are mostly led by ethnic Tutsis, who say they needed to take up arms to protect the rights of the minority group in the east of DRC.

Rwanda rejects allegations that it supports the group with arms and funding.

In this episode of Here Now, Kadambari Raghukumar talks to Congolese in Auckland on how the ongoing conflict in their homeland is affecting them.

The conversation features Redoland Tsounga, Eddy Mokonzi and Nyota.

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Artist Nadia Freeman's performance, The Girmit, explores a slightly unconventional approach to telling the story of how Indians came to be taken to Fiji in the 1800s.

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What does culture-centred communication look like in a suburb of Palmerston North trying to shift narratives around it's reputation? Professor Mohan Dutta and Venessa Pokaia join Kadambari Raghukumar in this second part to the conversation on CARE's work.

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Exploring cultural communication around sex and health, Fullbright scholar at Massey University Prof Angela Cooke-Jackson talks to Kadambari Raghukumar about her experiences as an academic working with Black and indigenous communities.

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