Culture 101

Between the coloniser and the colonised: Anglo-Indian culture made visible A small Indian minority community with a fascinating history, Anglo-Indians have been settling in Aotearoa New Zealand since the early colonial days and have a unique blended cultural heritage, including food, dialect and origin stories. Yet Anglo-Indians are near to invisible in public life, often silent due to a double di...

About 45 minutes from Queenstown, on the northern shores of Lake Wakatipu and a gateway to hiking trails is Glenorchy. Surrounded by mountain ranges and with Dart River for jet boating and kayaking; the views are breathtaking. At night the stars shine bright and The Milky Way and the Auroras can be seen. In February, Tahuna Glenorchy became the fifth Dark Sky Sanctuary in Aotearoa and the 23rd in...

Ration the Queen's Veges: Turning Te Papa activism into a stage show In 2023, a group spray painted over the English Treaty of Waitangi Exhibition at Te Papa sparking controversy. The redacted words read "No. Her Majesty The Queen of England the alien. ration the Queens veges." Some praised the action while others were outraged. 12 people were arrested and four people were charged. But one member...

On Banks Peninsula in Canterbury fingers of lava have created a landscape of many deep bays and rugged hills. This is the distinctive setting of our next story and one that has made a deep impression on artists. Artist Louise Menzies' latest exhibition Purple Cliffs, Blue Hills is to be found at the restored Stoddart Cottage in Diamond Harbour, birthplace of a leading 19th and 20th century impress...

Six is 80 minutes of high-energy, girl power pop songs and a rewriting of 500 years of history. Or herstory rather. The show title refers to the six wives of Henry the VIII who come together to battle it out in a singing competition; spilling secrets about their shared ex-husband to decide which Queen takes the lead. The hit musical is currently on at The Civic as part of the Auckland Arts Festiva...

Have you ever considered how green that TV show or movie you're watching is? Non-profit organisation, Greenlit is now working alongside Aotearoa productions leading the screen industry towards a greener and more sustainable future. The organisation and method is also grounded in te ao Maori principles; Raupī, (to protect), Raupā, (to work with care), and Rauora (to conserve well-being). Since star...

This weekend marks the beginning of Pride Christchurch, with events across the month. In a week's time Poneke Wellington joins in the festivities. As part of Pride, Sunday 2 March saw the third birthday celebrations for a unique organisation, Moana Va. It was founded to uplift and empower Pacific Rainbow+ communities in Canterbury and beyond. Joining Culture 101's Mark Amery to discuss his Pride j...

Kohukohu, a village on the Hokianga Harbour was according to Te Tai Tokerau tradition so named by legendary Polynesian explorer Kupe. Angry at food from a hangi being insufficiently cooked, Kupe swore at those responsible. Kohukohu can be translated as swearword. Here to this day you will find at least six marae, and the first stone bridge in the country - the oldest bridge we have. This was also...

A new report by AUT's Te Ipukarea Research Institute shows 12-year-olds who participate in arts and culture through extra-curricular and free-time activities experience better wellbeing, peer relationships, a stronger sense of identity and higher engagement in a school environment. Free-time activities could include reading, arts and crafts or listening to music, while extra-curricular refers to o...

Aotearoa Queer indigenous arts collective FAFSWAG is in Melbourne showcasing their latest work at the Asia Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts. The three-week festival lights up the city bringing together creatives from across the region. The new piece Sauniga is still in early development but will give the artists a chance to gauge feedback. The Tamaki Makaurau-based arts collective was establis...

Next weekend is one of Aoteaora New Zealand's cornerstone summer festivals - Auckland's Pasifika, celebrated across eight Island stages at Western Springs in Auckland. As it heads towards dark, however, another festival takes over. It celebrates one of the Pacific's most distinctive performance traditions: Siva Afi or Samoan fire knife dancing. Now in its sixth year, the Siva Afi Festival is runni...

From political reporter, Europe correspondent for Newshub, to hosting a morning and drive show, broadcaster Lloyd Burr has done it all. In what has been a tumultuous few years for the media industry in Aotearoa, Burr says it's about enjoying and appreciating everyday. Currently he's the Explainer Editor at Stuff delving into various issues including politics, science and technology. Lloyd Burr joi...

Picture this: it's 2030, in the seaside suburb of Sumner in Otautahi Christchurch. That's only five years' time, but the sea is already to quote novelist and science writer Jane Shearer, tearing off mouthfuls of the land. Sirens regularly warn of flooding. Saltwater plays havoc with the gardening. Power can be intermittent, and the council is letting infrastructure fall apart. Subject to energy qu...

The Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts has kicked off in Melbourne returning after a five-year hiatus. For the next three weeks, the city will be celebrating diverse and dynamic creatives and innovators from across the region including Singapore, Taiwan and Japan. This year, there are three streams; performance, nightlife and knowledge which will feature 33 performances, 18 of which are wor...

Each week, Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different part of Aotearoa for our Regional Week. This week, we're heading north of Auckland Tamaki Makaurau to the Matakana region. A 45-minute drive from Auckland, it's a foodie haven with its farmers market, local artisinal producers, vineyards and boutique shops and galleries. It's surrounded by rolling hills and valleys with stunning beaches near...

Nadia Freeman's show The Girmit takes us back to the time between 1879 and 1916 when more than 60,000 people were transferred from India to Fiji by the British to work on sugar-cane plantations as indentured labourers. They came to be known as Girmitiyas and today make up over 32 percent of the Fijian population. 15,000 of their descendants live in New Zealand, Nadia Freeman is one of those descen...

David Cronenberg's 1979 body horror The Brood teases in its trailer that it's "a film so terrifying that it will devastate you totally". What possesses us to love horror films so? Curator of Screams may have the answer. They are a collaboration between two contemporary art and horror film lovers, Dowse Art Museum senior curator Chelsea Nichols and City Gallery Wellington senior curator Aaron Liste...

The Hamilton Arts Festival has kicked off for another year. Music, theatre, dance, comedy and artistic experiences fill the Hamilton Gardens with more than 800 peformers this year, across 9 days. Most shows will take place in the gardens with a few sprinkled around the CBD including the Meteor and Riverlea Theatre. It's also the first time a literary festival will be held within the festival - cal...

Tina, the debut feature film of Miki Magasiva is a love letter to both Samoan culture and how choral music, across cultures, can assist people in change. The way art can enable acceptance of the richness of our difference. But Tina is also centrally about how Pasifika women are leaders in taking culture forward. The title translates in English as mother, or female elder. And in the lead role Anape...

How can we live better, closer and more affordably together? New Zealand young architecture studio Space Craft are one of the winners of a recent competition to design the housing of the future for New South Wales. The state called for designs of cost effective but beautiful apartments that could be repeated at scale. The state has - like New Zealand - a major housing shortage. New South Wales nee...

Tackling the Tamaki Makaurau performing arts scene and keeping it alive is part of Daniel Clarke's new role as Director of Performing Arts at Tātaki Auckland Unlimited. Clarke leads a team which oversees the Aotea Centre, Aotea Square, The Civic, Bruce Mason Centre and the Auckland Town Hall with the aim of putting a stronger focus on live entertainment, on behalf of the Auckland Council. Clarke m...

The large town of Ashburton is to be found on the Canterbury Plains, halfway between Christchurch and Timaru. It is home to the increasingly celebrated Ashburton Art Gallery and Heritage Centre, whose director Shirin Khosraviani joined Culture 101 for our Regional Wrap. The gallery's new building opened 10 years ago and has now welcomed the local museum inside. In current museum exhibition, Bridgi...

A familiar fixture in Ponsonby in Tāmaki Makaurau, Two Hands tattoo studio is celebrating 20 years. Tattoo artist Stefan Sinclair founded the studio in 2005 and specialises in single-needle fine-line tattooing, a style that became extremely popular in California in the 70s. His work has taken him all over the world including London, Berlin and Melbourne. He's now largely based from LA - but return...

Two characters both named Antonio in two different Shakespeare plays - the Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night - are often considered to be gay. Antonio in Much Ado About Nothing is also suspected. A new queer punk pirate musical Antonio! playfully suggests Shakespeare wasn't just reusing this character name, but was inspired by a real life gay pirate searching for love. In the musical, a swashbu...

A new multi-sensory sound performance is debuting at Silo Park in Tāmaki Makaurau. Artist and composer Flo Wilson is drawing inspriations from contemporary organ music and medieval choral traditions in her performance and installation. The six silos will be transformed with six singers and six loudspeakers giving audiences a sense of being inside an organ. The art work is part of the Second Festiv...