Southland Disability Enterprises is a place where people with disabilities find work and friendship - but it depends, in part, on a scheme that pays its workers less than minimum wage.

Southland Disability Enterprises is a place where people with disabilities find work and friendship - but it depends, in part, on a scheme that pays its workers less than minimum wage. 

Now the Government wants to change that.

"We're a family, we're people helping people, we're an organisation providing employment for people with disabilities .. we're a Southland institution," says Ian Beker has been the head Southland Disability Enterprises for 25 years.

The company employs more than 100 people, about 80 of whom have intellectual, physical and neurological disabilities.

But Mr Beker is concerned that proposed changes to the minimum wage exemption permit could threaten the viability of the business and, with it, the future employment of his workers. If he had to pay minimum wage, he says he would need to automate his recycling facility rather than employ disabled workers to sort the recycling by hand.

"We could survive, but we wouldn't have 80 disabled employees on our payroll."

Employment at Southland Disability Enterprises was not just about the wages, Mr Beker said, it also offered friendship and a quality of life to workers.

What can enable people to continue to be employed doing what they're doing now but be paid at a minimum wage?

WAGE DEBATE

About 800 workers around the country are earning less than minimum wage, having been granted an exemption by the Labour Inspectorate under a permit scheme for employees with disabilities.

But the Ministry of Social Development is currently looking at measures to replace the permit.

Sacha O'Dea, the general manager of ageing, disability and international policy, said the scheme treated disabled people differently from other New Zealanders. "It's not in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities."

Ms O"Dea said she understood the concerns of companies like Southland Disability Enterprises and the Ministry was keen to work with them to find a solution that worked for everyone.

"What can enable people to continue to be employed doing what they're doing now but be paid at a minimum wage?"

FACES OF THE WORKFORCE…

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Frankenstein's lover, pan-sexuality, torture devices and animal rights provide unexpected inspiration and stories behind the work of emerging designers at Dunedin iD Fashion Week 2016.

The new and undiscovered voices emerging in fashion are proving powerful as young designers look to tackle issues, themes and ideas directly related to the changing world around them.

These designers are entering an industry that demands unique creative vision, along with a great level of commitment and determination to push past self-doubt and sometimes, rejection.

But opportunities like Dunedin iD Fashion Week's International Emerging Designer Awards provide talented students and graduates from fashion institutions around the world with a chance to kick-start their careers on an international stage.

This year, 38 designers were selected from more than 100 applicants, and the pressure was on.

Individuals put their collections before an esteemed panel of judges which included; Kate Sylvester, Tanya Carlson, Stefan Siegel, Patti Huntington and London-based Emilia Wickstead, before showing their collections on the iD runway.

There was a vast array of aesthetics and approaches to design and each designer had a story to tell.

KingKang Chen, 25, Auckland

"My collection is all about freaks. I love them! I was inspired by the Dada movement for my collection, so I've used the Dada manifesto and taken photos of my friend and printed them onto my garments. In China people really love slogans, and some people love brand names like Gucci because they want to show their class in society. I use slogans in the opposite way because I don't belong to any specific class, so I try to make people feel really independent. I came from Tianjin, a big city near Beijing, but from a small village so there was no real fashion there."

Yousef Akbar, 30, born in Saudi Arabia based in Sydney

"To me fashion is a form of expression, it's about whatever gets me thinking and whatever gets me emotional. Throughout my research I looked at torture devices, especially devices that have been used during Victorian times. I've noticed that all these devices had screws and nuts and bolts that are tightened up to inflict pain on the victim. What's interesting is that this little tool is also commonly known for mending and fixing things, so I wanted to use that throughout the collection. I've taken a dress that is dissected with lots of panels and  the idea is that it looks like its broken, but It's been mended with screws. You can see the scars, you can see what this woman's been through, but she actually emerges through that as a stronger person. "

Yan Zhou, 24 Australian-born Chinese…

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The popular narcotic drink, kava, doesn't always mix with modern-day activities like driving - and its increased consumption by followers of teetotal religions is cause for conflict.

By Daniela Maoate-Cox

Clap once, down a coconut shell of muddy water, then clap three times and pass on the shell while your tongue slowly numbs...

Kava is a popular drink consumed in Pacific countries such as Fiji, Tonga, and Vanuatu, with variations on the ceremony surrounding its consumption.

But, in recent times, the narcotic's popularity outside the islands has grown and, with it, questions about how kava drinking mixes with contemporary life - in particular, driving.

Dr Apo Aporosa is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Waikato and a former police officer of Fijian ancestry. He is investigating the effects of kava on driving ability.

"I regularly drink kava and drive. There's only been one or two occasions where I've questioned whether or not I should be driving," he says. "It's a big unknown."

Kava is a narcotic that results in the user feeling relaxed. It is made from the root of the piper methysticum plant, which is dried, ground into a powder and mixed with water in a tanoa, or wooden bowl.

The police are reporting increasing numbers of 'kava-intoxicated' drivers, Dr Aporosa says - and he has heard anecdotally from people who say they have reversed into a gate or travelled at a slow speed after drinking it.

"The other issue about that,  hopefully I don't sound like I'm sitting here making excuses for kava," he says, " is  we spend a lot of hours drinking kava."

Dr Aporosa and his mates might participate in three to four sessions a week on consecutive nights until about 2am, he says.

"Then some of those people are getting up and going to work at six. So let's take kava out of the equation. You're really tired and then you're driving, so I think some of it is tied into ."

Between 20,000 and 25,000 people are estimated to be drinking kava throughout New Zealand every Friday and Saturday night. It's not known exactly how many drive off afterwards, but Dr Aporosa says research suggests about 70 percent of users use motor vehicles after drinking sessions.

"There is a standard set by the pharmacological industry that says you should not consume any more than 300 milligrams of kava per day - that's kavalactone, the active ingredient inside kava - but on an average Friday night I'd probably consume 20,000 milligrams," Dr Aporosa says.

Kava has a different effect to alcohol, and Dr Aporosa says he's not overly concerned about driving after drinking it…

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Reading music in braille is a daunting challenge especially when you're a member of a choir.

Reading music in braille is a daunting challenge.

Not only is there the problem of keeping in time - but the score itself is a bulky tome to handle, especially when you're a member of a choir.

But Ken Joblin has handled the challenge well.

He is the bass section leader in the choir of the Cathedral of the  Blessed Sacrament, Christchurch (aka CBS Choir). With the support of his fellow singers, he joined the choir on its  seventh international tour -  performing in the cathedrals and major churches of Los Angeles, Chelmsford, Westminster, Dublin, Kilkenny, Killarney, Galway, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, York, Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham.

That meant taking a break from his job as the Tertiary Chaplaincy Coordinator for the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch, but it fulfilled a dream of visiting and singing in Westminster Cathedral, the Mother Church for Roman Catholics in England and Wales.

As the host and producer of a regular show on Plains FM radio in Christchurch, Ken took the opportunity to record his experiences along the way - the highs and lows of everyday travel, individual joys like a personalised tour of the Cathedral and the chance to test its great organ, and of course the choral performances that were the milestones of his pilgrimage.

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Digging up secrets of New Zealand's first commercial shipyard.

By David Steemson

It is said to be the site of New Zealand's first large-scale manufacturing plant.

And for two weeks this summer 15 archaeologists were down on their hands and knees there, trying to unearth more about the former ship building yards at Horeke, in the upper reaches of  the Hokianga Harbour.

The archaeological 'dig' was led by PhD student, New Zealander Matt Carter and was funded  to the tune of $8,000 by La Trobe, the Australian university where he's studying maritime archaeology.

The shipyard was built in 1826 - 190 years ago - by three Sydney merchants, Raine, Ramsay and Browne, to take advantage of the huge Kauri forests in Northland. The first ship was the 40-tonne schooner 'Enterprise' launched in 1827. That was quickly followed by the 140-tonne brigantine 'New Zealander' in 1828, and the 400-tonne 'Sir George Murray' in 1830.

At its height the yard employed up to 50 English boat builders and an unknown number of local Māori. No Pākehā women lived anywhere near there, and most of the yard's building supplies and a lot of its food came from Sydney, a week's sail away in a good wind. But after the Australian merchant owners were bankrupted, the shipyard closed in 1831.

Today Horeke is little more than a few houses lining the waterfront, there's a B&B, a school, and the old Horeke Hotel, which claims to have been serving beer for 190 years.

Matt Carter enlisted the help of 15 or so colleagues to come and dig at Horeke. That's what archaeologists do, it seems - they help out a mate. For bed and board at the Horeke Pub, they spent days in the beating summer sun carefully scraping away carefully measured layers of soil... finding and collating  shards of china, home-made musket balls shattered glass from bottles and windows, snapped clay smoking pipes, lots of bones, and one broken copper-alloy keel bolt.

"This is my smoking gun", says Matt proudly as he gets the  bolt out of his 'special' box  and cradles it.

"You can tell the top's been hammered so I can just see the boat builder whacking it into place, and being disgusted when he breaks it. This bolt would be quite rare and valuable at the time."

Before any digging started Matt Carter surveyed the entire site with a laser theodolite which located the positions of   all possible artefacts. And before any of the finds can now be removed, their positions have to be marked with little flags and then photographed in situ. Eventually all soil dug out is also carefully sifted  for undiscovered treasures…

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For thirty years Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust has been helping artists of Pacific heritage to navigate the tricky waters of the art world. To celebrate, they are holding a large-scale exhibition and throwing themselves a party.

"It all started with Fatu" ~ Lily Aitui Laita

Artist and educator Lily Aitui Laita is adamant - Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust began with one man, artist Fatu Feu'u.

It was 1985 when Feu'u first exhibited a collection of his own paintings under the name 'Tautai'. At the time, there was little understanding of the idea of contemporary art made by artists of Pacific heritage although individual artists like sculptor Johnny Penisula had been exhibiting their work since the early 1970s.

Thirty years later, Tautai is celebrating with a retrospective group exhibition of the the way sailed so far.

Tautai evolved from an exhibition into a gallery space on Auckland's Karangahape Road run by young artists like Lily Aitu Laita.

"It was a venue; a way to gather, to meet, to socialise. People like... Jim Vivieaere, John Pule, Michael Tuffery and Lyle Penisula. The gallery didn't last... but we made it... a place where people could come together, where people could find Pacific island work."

From very nearly the beginning, a network developed, supporting emerging Pacific artists and helping them to navigate, or tautai, the western art world; not always a comfortable or welcoming place.

"What I think happened with early artists... was a kind of shock" says Leafa Wilson, the curator for TAUTAI / NAVIGATE. "Not really knowing how they were meant to behave. And more artists are  aware they don't actually have to fit into anything. Art is the domain of all."

Amiria Puia-Taylor is a young artist and art administrator who uses public art projects to discuss social issues and is an example of the Tautai process. Thanks in part to receiving a Tautai-administered internship at the Auckland War Memorial Museum in 2014, she feels able to navigate her way through the various worlds she inhabits.

I can go in with no shoes, I can go in with my painter clothes (on) and I feel it's OK. I can pick and choose how I want to reflect and behave. If I feel it's a hard-out Western environment, I have this natural way of being more brown. I want to show it off, I want to be heard and I also want to educate. And in a completely brown situation, I feel at home; I can put my hair down and I'm cool.

Having benefited from the thirty years of hard work, experience and support of those who have come before her, Amiria  is also very certain about the worth of Tautai.

There should be more waka like Tautai…

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The country's clown doctors are using laughter to engage with older patients and now they're keen to spread the word.

By Katy Gosset

It's been seven years since clown doctors arrived in Christchurch hospitals, bringing their brand of health-giving humour to patients young and old.

Now, they're spreading the message. The Clown Doctors New Zealand Charitable Trust will launch into 11 rest homes across the North Island from March 2016.

It's the hat that does it - they say.

"Doctor Betty" (Louise Kerr) doesn't feel completely in character until certain key accessories are in place.

"Not 'til I've got a hat on I think... must be an anchor."

And "Doctor Poppy" (Lisa Wingfield) agrees.

"It touches your head and it's a real tooonnk."

Clown Doctor Poppy (aka Lisa Wingfield)

And the red nose helps too...

But it's also a mental shift.

Doctor Poppy said, once she arrived for a clown doctor stint, she was aware of a change in consciousness and in the way she held herself.

"It's the way I'm going to walk when I step out the door. It's just this little sort of bubbling - kind of like 'OK, here we go...'"

She also starts looking at everyday objects in a new way, including parts of her or her partner's costume. A cardie might become a puppet, a wall or a superhero's cape.

"Just animating and endowing things in your environment with a different perspective."

The serious business of clowning

The pair work for the Clown Doctors New Zealand Charitable Trust - an organisation that aims to bring humour, and with it health, to patients at no cost to the hospitals.

While its presence in children's wards around New Zealand has been well documented, less known is its work with older patients, including those at Christchurch's Princess Margaret Hospital.

The trust was co-founded in 2009 by Thomas Petschner and Rita Noetzel. Professor Petschner grew up in Europe and worked as a performer and director before pursuing a career in integrated diagnostics and, later, complementary medicine. His interests came together when he created a specialist academic qualification for clown doctors and founded the International Institute for Medical Clowning, at Steinbeis University in Berlin.

"It's not rocket science, really. It's a necessity for clowns working in this environment to know more than just telling a joke."

Professor Petschner sees humour as mental hygiene, and he said there was plenty of scientific research indicating the physical, mental and social benefits of laughter in a hospital environment. …

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