Culture 101

Gore is quite rightly known as our Capital of country music. But there’s always been much more going on culturally in this East Southland town.

Vast exclusion zones operate around the cities of Pripyat, near the ruined Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, and Plymouth, on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, decimated by the island’s volcano. The two cities have been the focus of two long research projects with multiple exhibitions by Pōneke Wellington based Mexican artist Raúl Ortega Ayala. 

The notoriously punishing, elite world of the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet Academy is centre stage in Joika - the first ever film collaboration between New Zealand and Poland. 

Over 100 years ago artist Ahilapalapa Rands’ great-grandfather, the ukulele virtuoso Ernest Ka’ai wrote the song ‘Across the Sea’, the lyrics speaking to the pull that Hawai’i has for Kānaka Maoli (indigenous Hawaiaans) living elsewhere. Born and raised in Aotearoa New Zealand, Rands is of Kānka Maoli, Samoan, Cook Islands and Pākehā descent. She is then truly of the Pacific. In her latest install...

A professional in the comedy scene for more than a decade now, Rhys Mathewson knew he was going to pursue comedy as a career after taking part in Class Comedians in 2006 at the age of 15.  From that point, his star has been steadily on the rise. He won Best Newcomer for his first solo show in 2009 and, just a year later at the age of 19, he became the youngest person to be awarded the Billy T Awar...

Ten years ago acclaimed potter Rick Rudd sold his house -  together with its unique native and sculpture garden - in Castlecliff, Whanganui to establish Quartz Museum of Studio Ceramics in downtown Whanganui. Born from Rudd’s concern that there was nowhere where you could see exhibited the history of New Zealand ceramics, it is Aotearoa’s only museum devoted to the ceramic arts, and the largest ce...

Aotearoa New Zealand is a land of birds. Yet contemporary fiction providing a bird’s eye view has been slow to arrive.  While Catherine Chidgey’s award winning 2022 novel The Axeman’s Carnival looks at human interaction from the perspective of a magpie, Shelley Burne-Field’s new adventure novel for young readers, Brave Kāhu and the Pōrangi Magpie has a whole flock of makipai (magpies). 

In this week’s Regional Wrap we look at the culture of Far North town Kaitaia.

In an article on Stuff in 2019, comedian Guy Williams posed the question, “Where are all the Māori comedians?” Williams noted that, despite our main comedy award being named after Billy T James, he could only name a handful of Māori funnymen and women working at the time.  Now in 2024, comedian and actor Bailey Poching is responding. In a piece for Vice titled 'Here Are All The Māori Comedians' Po...

A psychological thriller, part of TVNZ’s Motherhood Anthology Series has been released in time for Mother’s Day. The film’s title Amah holds three different meanings. The term, used in East Asia, describes a woman employed by a family to cook, clean and look after the children. In the Chinese Hokkien dialect, it’s the name and title given to a paternal grandmother and, in the case of this film, it...

10 albums in 10 years in 10 different genres - that was Troy Kingi’s goal. But after the release of the seventh album - 2023’s ambient instrumental vibe album Timewasters - he’s admitted in a new TVNZ series Desert Hīkoi it was “starting to feel a bit stale.” He had been feeling a creative block. Desert Hīkoi follows Kingi on his creative and spiritual journey with his band to regain his mojo.

The 2024 NZ Children’s Music Awards have been announced with the NZ On Air Best Children’s Music Video awarded to a two minute ode to flatulence.  ‘Let it Out’ by Don McGlashan and Harry Sinclair, featuring Tami Neilson,  is from the pair’s hit claymation TV series Kiri and Lou.

Arts News for 5 May 2024

In early 2021 writer Stuart McKenzie and director Miranda Harcourt’s verbatim play Transmission opened to sell-out houses at Pōneke’s small, dynamic BATS Theatre. Fast forward three years and a sequel Transmission Beta is about to premiere. And it’s a quite different, more complex story.  McKenzie and Dame Miranda joined Mark Amery on RNZ’s Culture 101.

Festival Opera is celebrating 10 years of introducing, training and supporting young people in the opera through the Project Prima Volta community programme in Hawkes Bay. 

Known for its surf and beaches, Mangawhai may not strike you as a hub for arts and culture. But locals are extremely proud of the modern museum which celebrates the town’s rich history, life around the harbour and the fight to save the endangered fairy tern. 

Hamiltonians are getting the last laugh as the first-ever comedy club in the city is opening this month. Coinciding with the Comedy Festival, Last Laugh Comedy Club is the only comedy club in the Waikato region. 

Actor, director and writer John Davies is celebrating 50 years in theatre with a national solo tour. Te Tupua - The Goblin is travelling to 16 regional centres, with Davies playing nine characters in English and te reo Māori. 

The closure of the City Gallery building won't stop it from bringing art to the capital, its boss says.

Arts news for Sunday 28 April 2023

The large wall hung quilts of takatāpui fabric artist and storyteller Maungaronga Te Kawa (Ngāti Porou) leap and sparkle as joyous dance. They are blankets of aroha for a world that needs it.  Yet bright colours and animated cartoon figures belie the sophistication of these works. They test the boundaries of both Toi Māori and contemporary art, bringing social concerns to the fore through quilting...

New Zealand’s local production and screen industry is in crisis. But how did it get to this point?  “It’s been years of international streaming companies operating in New Zealand without any regulation,” says Screen Production and Developers Association (SPADA) President Irene Gardiner.

Each week, Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different region in Aotearoa and this week it’s Taupō with artist, musician, composer, puppeteer and stone carver, Jeffrey Addison. 

Sir Roger Hall remains Aotearoa New Zealand’s most popular playwright. Since 1976 his plays have often been box office gold.  Now 85, and continuing to write plays through retirement, he recently told The Post he’d be happiest to die in front of the keyboard. He talks about his latest play - about an investment art club - to Culture 101. 

This week King Loser, an independent Aotearoa New Zealand documentary won the Taite Music Prize for music journalism. Directors Cushla Dillon and Andrew Moore’s real life tragicomic chronicle of King Loser, a beloved cult rock and roll band trying to make a comeback, is a thing of excellence.  But where do you go to see it? Netflix, Neon, Disney? Think again. TVNZ Plus? Not even. The good news is...