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• • The First Announcement of CubaDupa 2020

    • 25 Nov 2019
    • Cubadupa
    • CubaDupa Returns to the Streets with a Beautiful Disruption Wellington’s favourite neighbourhood comes alive with colour, art, music, parades, dance, food, and thousands of creative people the weekend of 28-29 March 2020   WELLINGTON, NZ — All of New Zealand is invited to celebrate the country’s most vibrant and creative street festival, CubaDupa, disrupting the heart of Wellington on 28 and 29 March 2020. The multi-arts programme returns to the streets in a big and beautiful way—with a dozen stages, over 100 food stalls, special creative zones, 100,000 friends and neighbours, and one beautiful disruption after the other. “Our iconoclastic Te Aro neighbourhood will be filled with sights and sounds, parades and drum beats, street installations and public art”, says Festival Director Gerry Paul, who has programmed the most ambitious CubaDupa ever. “And at the heart of it all, ready to transcend the ordinary, are over 1500 artists and performers from the region and around the world”. Music is the very core of CubaDupa, and there will be no shortage of aural disruption in 2020. The festival will present a diverse free live music programme showcasing almost every genre. VNZMA winner Troy Kingi brings his irresistible galactic funk, alongside rising Hip Hop star JessB. Contemporary Canadian folk group The East Pointers join the party with their high-energy take on the Celtic tradition. Making the trip from across the ditch are Bullhorn, an epic 10-piece brass ensemble fronted by the extraordinary rapper Roman MC. Local groove masters Dr Reknaw and emerging New Zealand rockers H4lf Cast add their grooves to the weekend celebration. Musicians, sound experiences, and immersive electronic wizardry become a cornerstone of the 2020 CubaDupa with the festival’s most ambitious project ever, Cubasonic. The mass musical interruption—conceived by New Zealand’s leading composer John Psathas—involves nearly 500 musicians lining the street, twelve conductors above the crowd, a custom-made overhead sound system, and a locally-invented Tesla coil synthesiser known as Chime Red. Defying words, Cubasonic will be presented once each day—uniting the entire festival site with a ten-minute musicalhappening unlike anything ever attempted in New Zealand. The project is a true partnership of creative community, generously supported by Creative New Zealand and involving Orchestra Wellington, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Royal New Zealand Air Force Band, The Nudge, Boat and a mass of Batucada drummers. “CubaDupa is one of Wellington’s primary lightning rods, generating and releasing a massive, positive energy charge into the city every year,” says Psathas. “Festivals offer unique opportunities for ambitious ideas. At their best they give us experiences we never forget, experiences that exceed our expectations both in the witnessing of art and in the moments of massed connection that sneak up and take us by surprise. Cubasonic, played throughout the heart of Cuba Street, will be vast, epic, and monumental.” The 2020 musical acts will be presented across twelve stages, including the brand new Radio Active Upper Cuba SoundSphere, Wellington Airport Swan Lane, the Garage Project Wild Workshop stage, and a Glover Park zone designed in partnership with Massey University’s College of Creative Arts. “Festival audiences can experience an abundance of music, dance, street theatre and art activations taking place throughout our Te Aro precinct” says Paul. “After finding your groove with JessB or Bullhorn, join The Ping Pong Party People in a wildly creative table tennis championship, visit Shabby Salon for a drop-dead gorgeous makeover, then jump into the Weddings-and-Funerals installation.” Another new element making its debut at the 2020 CubaDupa is the Mammoth Circus Tent in the Wilson Carpark on Ghuznee St. The bold and colourful venue will host energetic performances and workshops for all ages by day, and transform into a saucy cabaret show by night. “It’s part of our desire to grow the festival in new ways, add interesting platforms, and showcase even more artistry and performers from all around the world” says Paul. “Families will experience circus shows by fabulous acts like COLOSSAL Productions, 3 Speed Crunch Box or Seven Deadly Stunts during the day, and then the older crowd can enjoy comedy and more provocative cabaret after dark”. A theme running through much of the 2020 CubaDupa programme is Intergalactic Madness—alien visitors, strange messages, and wondrous disruptions from other worlds. Big Nazo will invade from Rhode Island, with generous support from the Embassy of the United States of America, for their debut visit to New Zealand. The outlandish collective of visual artists, puppet performers and costumed musicians will bring their alien creatures to the streets and stages of CubaDupa. Closer to home, Alien Junk Monsters add their psychedelic recycled trash costumes—and a few new otherworldly offspring. And for the first time ever CubaDupa will play host to BodyPalooza, a new national body paint competition featuring over 30 artists and models painted as alien visitors. “There’s an eclectic and eye-opening experience for everyone at CubaDupa, because it’s a fearless celebration of who we are as a diverse and creative city, and what we have in this iconic neighbourhood”, says Eric Holowacz, CEO of Creative Capital Arts Trust. “Whether you are into new bands, raucous parades, or the search for extraterrestrial life, CubaDupa has it. I love it, because the weekend is always a highlight of the summertime, and an immersion in culture, creativity, and community.” For culinary disruptions that satisfy any appetite, the Moore Wilson’s Street Feast returns to CubaDupa, with over 100 food stalls and a diverse range of local vendors and culinary experiences. “CubaDupa is going to be the highlight of our upcoming tour in New Zealand”, says Koady Chaisson, of Canadian contemporary indie folk music trio The East Pointers. “We love playing in New Zealand, as there are a lot of similarities to our home in Prince Edward Island, but we don’t have anything like CubaDupa. We’ve heard such amazing things about this festival – this is going to take things in NZ to the next level. We can’t wait to get to Wellington and help light it up” The 2020 festival will take place on 28 and 29 March throughout the Cuba Street Precinct in the Te Aro neighbourhood of Wellington. To learn more about artists, programming, and opportunities at the 2020 CubaDupa, visit www.cubadupa.co.nz.   CubaDupa is presented by the non-profit Creative Capital Arts Trust, and receives essential support from WellingtonNZ, Wellington Regional Amenities Fund, Wellington City Council, Wellington Airport, Cato Brand Partners, and generous sponsors such as ANZ, Kāpura/Wellington Hospitality Group, Creative New Zealand, ZM, The Wellington Company, Massey University College of Creative Arts, LightHouse Cinemas, Wellington Community Trust, Havana Coffee Works, Rogue & Vagabond, Fortune Favours, Garage Project, Orchestra Wellington, NZSO, Royal New Zealand Air Force Band, Victoria University, Embassy of the United States of America, Australian High Commission, Embassy of Ireland | New Zealand, Wellington Night Market, Wilson Parking and KPMG.     FOR MEDIA ENQUIRIES Name: Cheree Ridder Email: Chereeridder@gmail.com Phone: 027 577 3520 Other contacts: Creative Capital Arts Trust Toi Poneke Arts Centre 65 Abel Smith Street, Level 2 Te Aro, Wellington CubaDupa 2020 Teaser Video: https://youtu.be/V-kF32KIyYQ Web – www.cubadupa.co.nz Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cubadupa/ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cubadupa/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/cubadupa
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    Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  

• • Weekly Wrap Up (Term 3, Week 8)

    • 11 Sep 2020
    • Wellington High School
    • Important Dates Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori: September 14th – 20th Monday 21st – Friday 25th September: Mental Health Awareness Week Course choices for 2021 for current Years 9—12 to be entered in the portal: Sunday 20th September  Friday 25th September: End of Term 3 Important Information Year 9 Choices for Year 10 in 2021 The Year 10 Course Choice Booklet for 2021 is now available on our website: http://www.whs.school.nz/course-choice-booklet/ Your student is invited to explore the options available. They will receive a copy of the planning sheet in rōpū and the planning sheet is also included as the last page in the booklet online. Choices can be made online in the Student Portal from Monday 14th September. It would be appreciated if students can have their options entered by Sunday 20th September (note: this is earlier than reported in the email home). Senior Course Choices for 2021 The second part of senior course choice selection for 2021 is now underway. Students now need to re-confirm their subjects on the portal by Friday 18th September.  Please note there have been considerable movements with the lines to eliminate as many clashes as possible. It is unlikely there will be significant changes to the lines from now, so students are strongly advised to choose non-clashing subjects if possible. However, students who still have a problematic clash should indicate this on the updated lines sheet (which will be given out at rōpū) and give this to their rōpū teacher. Concerning online content  Netsafe has received several reports about a concerning video that was shared on social media. It has now been removed from Facebook. The video has been shared on other social media sites, such as Tik Tok and Instagram, and the platforms are actively removing this video.  Regardless of whether students have seen the video or heard about it second-hand, young people may experience emotional distress given the nature of this content. As a school, our best advice is to make sure that your students are supported and have avenues to talk about how this content may be affecting them.  If students do come across copies of the video being shared, we’d strongly encourage them to report it to the social media site or website that it’s on, and to report it to Netsafe. Netsafe has several helpful resources: Helping students exposed to upsetting content Online Safety Parent Toolkit is a wider framework for helping parents navigate online safety with their young people. If students would like further support they can contact Youthline on free text 234 or call 0800 376 633 Achievements Debating Finalists! A huge congratulations to our Junior Prem and Prem B teams who have made it through to their regional finals for debating! The Junior Prem team of Sky Gobbi, Liv Calder, Tom Bonert, and Fergus Martin-Edgar, won their semi-final debate last Tuesday against Samuel Marsden. The Senior Prem B team of Julia Randerson,  Alex Buyck, Corwin Heath-Cameron, and Rata Petherick won their semi-final debate this week against Scots. It is a very impressive result for Wellington High School debate teams to make it into two finals! We are very proud of both teams and wish them all the best for their finals.  Also — a special congratulations to Julia Randerson who qualified for Wellington Black (one of the two Wellington regional teams) a couple of months ago. Her team made it to the national semi-finals for debating after winning four of their preliminary debates! Katherine Mansfield Short Story success! Congratulations to Nadezhda Macey for winning the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award 2020 with her story ‘Matahiwi’, and to Cadence Chung for her Highly Commended story ‘The End of the World’. Wellington High School was the only school to have two students short-listed — a great achievement. Both pieces of writing received glowing praise and you can enjoy all the short-listed stories online at: https://www.katherinemansfield.com/creative-corner/km-short-story-competition. Nadezhda received a $500 cash prize and the eleven short-listed students were presented with certificates by guest judge Tina Makereti at the annual award ceremony at the National Library on Tuesday night. [Image right: Nadezhda and Cadence are pictured with Tina Makereti, Principal Dominic Killalea and Head of English Faculty, Caitlin Reilly.] What’s happening? Mural workshop with Sheyne Tuffery This week a group of art students joined Sheyne in developing a design for a mural for the level 2 linkwell. This is a WCC funded project that Sheyne has been working on for some months. Sheyne’s mural work can be seen on Wallace Street and Hopper Street. We look forward to seeing the final results — BSJ WHS Tramping Club heads to Atiwhakatu Hut Last weekend, 18 students tramped to Atiwhakatu hut. We walked from Holdsworth station car park along the river to Atiwhakatu hut and back. Students cooked their own meals and lit the fire for a cosy night. A little rain failed to dampen our spirits; there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear! — AEJ/PAB From the Greenhouse! From the school garden greenhouse this week orchids for WHS reception. Grown with care by the senior horticulture students. He Kākano news Our He Kākano students have enjoyed an outdoor education week. We visited the learning centre at the Botanical Gardens to learn about how produce grows from a seed to a fruit and vegetable. There were opportunities to pick our own carrots too! A visit to Toi Art at Te Papa had us in a colour room with some interesting group photos. Sports Underwater Hockey Congratulations go to Carlos Relph and Henry Murdoch from our Senior Open team for their selection to the U18 Central Zone B team, and to Milly Woodbury from our Senior Girls team for her selection to the U18 Central Zone A team. We wish them good luck at nationals. Well done to them, and something to aim for in future years for our junior players Junior Girls’ Football Our Junior Girls’ Football played their last game this week, this is the first team we have had in this grade for a number of years and we are looking forward to having a team in this grade for years to come. Huge thanks to Bea Gladding and Jennifer Argyle for really driving this team and making it fun for all the girls. Winter Tournament Our Girls’ Football 1st XI finished their Round robin the Regional Premier 2 competition in 3rd place with Semi Finals, and possibly Finals, to come. At the Winter Tournament, the girls place 12th which is their best finish to date. A special thanks to Isobel Smith, Heidi Coleman, Ella Blakely, Gala Baumfield, Emma Allen, Kayla Landers and Isla McInnes who all competed in their final tournament for the school. Also, thanks to Will Dewhirst who has done a great job coaching. Our Boys’ Football 1st XI finished their last game of the Round Robin D1 competition, finishing unbeaten after 7 games. So, we have finished 1st with 17 points (5 wins and 2 draw). We are heading now into Semi Finals on Saturday 12 September. Our Boys’ Hockey 1st XI are currently in 2nd place in the P3 division and are hoping to compete at the final in week 10. The boys competed hard at Winter Tournament week and finished it off with a win over Newlands. Big thank you to Will Pinckney, Jess Johnson and Kether Gati for looking after the team. Netball: Last year our Senior A netball team won their grade and this year they have done it again! Well done, too, to our Senior B team who won their grade too. Great things are coming from these young strong wāhine…and our Year 13s finishing on a high. Senior A – Isobel Smith, Tilly Coup, Rebecca Te Kahika, Senior B – Lily Parkin-Foon, Mai Cooper, Emily Rosemergy
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    Wellington High School, Taranaki Street, Mount Cook, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  

• • Weekly Wrap Up (Term 3, Week 8)

    • 11 Sep 2020
    • Wellington High School
    • Important Dates Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori: September 14th – 20th Monday 21st – Friday 25th September: Mental Health Awareness Week Course choices for 2021 for current Years 9—12 to be entered in the portal: Sunday 20th September  Friday 25th September: End of Term 3 Important Information Year 9 Choices for Year 10 in 2021 The Year 10 Course Choice Booklet for 2021 is now available on our website: http://www.whs.school.nz/course-choice-booklet/ Your student is invited to explore the options available. They will receive a copy of the planning sheet in rōpū and the planning sheet is also included as the last page in the booklet online. Choices can be made online in the Student Portal from Monday 14th September. It would be appreciated if students can have their options entered by Sunday 20th September (note: this is earlier than reported in the email home). Senior Course Choices for 2021 The second part of senior course choice selection for 2021 is now underway. Students now need to re-confirm their subjects on the portal by Friday 18th September.  Please note there have been considerable movements with the lines to eliminate as many clashes as possible. It is unlikely there will be significant changes to the lines from now, so students are strongly advised to choose non-clashing subjects if possible. However, students who still have a problematic clash should indicate this on the updated lines sheet (which will be given out at rōpū) and give this to their rōpū teacher. Concerning online content  Netsafe has received several reports about a concerning video that was shared on social media. It has now been removed from Facebook. The video has been shared on other social media sites, such as Tik Tok and Instagram, and the platforms are actively removing this video.  Regardless of whether students have seen the video or heard about it second-hand, young people may experience emotional distress given the nature of this content. As a school, our best advice is to make sure that your students are supported and have avenues to talk about how this content may be affecting them.  If students do come across copies of the video being shared, we’d strongly encourage them to report it to the social media site or website that it’s on, and to report it to Netsafe. Netsafe has several helpful resources: Helping students exposed to upsetting content Online Safety Parent Toolkit is a wider framework for helping parents navigate online safety with their young people. If students would like further support they can contact Youthline on free text 234 or call 0800 376 633 Achievements Debating Finalists! A huge congratulations to our Junior Prem and Prem B teams who have made it through to their regional finals for debating! The Junior Prem team of Sky Gobbi, Liv Calder, Tom Bonert, and Fergus Martin-Edgar, won their semi-final debate last Tuesday against Samuel Marsden. The Senior Prem B team of Julia Randerson,  Alex Buyck, Corwin Heath-Cameron, and Rata Petherick won their semi-final debate this week against Scots. It is a very impressive result for Wellington High School debate teams to make it into two finals! We are very proud of both teams and wish them all the best for their finals.  Also — a special congratulations to Julia Randerson who qualified for Wellington Black (one of the two Wellington regional teams) a couple of months ago. Her team made it to the national semi-finals for debating after winning four of their preliminary debates! Katherine Mansfield Short Story success! Congratulations to Nadezhda Macey for winning the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award 2020 with her story ‘Matahiwi’, and to Cadence Chung for her Highly Commended story ‘The End of the World’. Wellington High School was the only school to have two students short-listed — a great achievement. Both pieces of writing received glowing praise and you can enjoy all the short-listed stories online at: https://www.katherinemansfield.com/creative-corner/km-short-story-competition. Nadezhda received a $500 cash prize and the eleven short-listed students were presented with certificates by guest judge Tina Makereti at the annual award ceremony at the National Library on Tuesday night. [Image right: Nadezhda and Cadence are pictured with Tina Makereti, Principal Dominic Killalea and Head of English Faculty, Caitlin Reilly.] What’s happening? Mural workshop with Sheyne Tuffery This week a group of art students joined Sheyne in developing a design for a mural for the level 2 linkwell. This is a WCC funded project that Sheyne has been working on for some months. Sheyne’s mural work can be seen on Wallace Street and Hopper Street. We look forward to seeing the final results — BSJ WHS Tramping Club heads to Atiwhakatu Hut Last weekend, 18 students tramped to Atiwhakatu hut. We walked from Holdsworth station car park along the river to Atiwhakatu hut and back. Students cooked their own meals and lit the fire for a cosy night. A little rain failed to dampen our spirits; there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear! — AEJ/PAB From the Greenhouse! From the school garden greenhouse this week orchids for WHS reception. Grown with care by the senior horticulture students. He Kākano news Our He Kākano students have enjoyed an outdoor education week. We visited the learning centre at the Botanical Gardens to learn about how produce grows from a seed to a fruit and vegetable. There were opportunities to pick our own carrots too! A visit to Toi Art at Te Papa had us in a colour room with some interesting group photos. Sports Underwater Hockey Congratulations go to Carlos Relph and Henry Murdoch from our Senior Open team for their selection to the U18 Central Zone B team, and to Milly Woodbury from our Senior Girls team for her selection to the U18 Central Zone A team. We wish them good luck at nationals. Well done to them, and something to aim for in future years for our junior players Junior Girls’ Football Our Junior Girls’ Football played their last game this week, this is the first team we have had in this grade for a number of years and we are looking forward to having a team in this grade for years to come. Huge thanks to Bea Gladding and Jennifer Argyle for really driving this team and making it fun for all the girls.   Skateboard success Congratulations to Gala Baumfield who top scored across all competitions with 85/100 to win the Senior Girls’ section at the regional Skateboard Champs this week.     Winter Tournament Our Girls’ Football 1st XI finished their Round robin the Regional Premier 2 competition in 3rd place with Semi Finals, and possibly Finals, to come. At the Winter Tournament, the girls place 12th which is their best finish to date. A special thanks to Isobel Smith, Heidi Coleman, Ella Blakely, Gala Baumfield, Emma Allen, Kayla Landers and Isla McInnes who all competed in their final tournament for the school. Also, thanks to Will Dewhirst who has done a great job coaching. Our Boys’ Football 1st XI finished their last game of the Round Robin D1 competition, finishing unbeaten after 7 games. So, we have finished 1st with 17 points (5 wins and 2 draw). We are heading now into Semi Finals on Saturday 12 September. Our Boys’ Hockey 1st XI are currently in 2nd place in the P3 division and are hoping to compete at the final in week 10. The boys competed hard at Winter Tournament week and finished it off with a win over Newlands. Big thank you to Will Pinckney, Jess Johnson and Kether Gati for looking after the team. Netball: Last year our Senior A netball team won their grade and this year they have done it again! Well done, too, to our Senior B team who won their grade too. Great things are coming from these young strong wāhine…and our Year 13s finishing on a high. Senior A – Isobel Smith, Tilly Coup, Rebecca Te Kahika, Senior B – Lily Parkin-Foon, Mai Cooper, Emily Rosemergy The post Weekly Wrap Up (Term 3, Week 8) first appeared on Wellington High School.
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    Wellington High School, Taranaki Street, Mount Cook, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  
• • 

    Weekly Bulletin: Staying connected as a church - 13 November 2022

    • 11 Nov 2022
    • St John's in the City
    • Kia ora St John’s whānau, This Sunday we have a Baptism, celebrate Communion and a special guest preacher (see below), and we will consider how much we rate human wisdom in relation to God’s power! <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > If you want to read the Bible readings before Sunday, they are: Isaiah 12: 2-6 and 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 Children start at 10am with their peer group in the St John’s Centre and join in Communion later. The Youth Group will stay in the whole service this Sunday, to hear Dr Gray Manicom. If you can’t gather in the city, and you want to join the worship service via Zoom, here are the details to access the live-stream: Zoom Meeting ID: 370 260 759Passcode: worship The link to join the Zoom worship service is below. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/370260759?pwd=b2ZkajZ5d28rTy9EN1VKZDJUM3N4dz09   If using your phone: dial 04 886 0026 (Meeting ID: 370 260 759#, Passcode: 1560107#) This is the link to the printable Service Sheet  <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/c2g9klv741oqk46/13th%20November%202022%20Order%20of%20Service.pdf?dl=0" class="sqs-block-button-element--medium sqs-button-element--primary sqs-block-button-element" > Printable Service Sheet <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/j/370260759?pwd=b2ZkajZ5d28rTy9EN1VKZDJUM3N4dz09" class="sqs-block-button-element--medium sqs-button-element--primary sqs-block-button-element" > Link to Zoom Service If worshipping via Zoom, please be prepared for Communion at home with your bread and cup. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > VISITING MATHEMATICIAN We are delighted to be hosting Dr Gray Manicom for a visit at St John’s in the City this weekend (12th & 13th November)There will be three opportunities to hear him: on Saturday at 3pm (for students), in the Sunday morning service, and an informal presentation after the service. Dr Gray Manicom is a mathematician with interests in dynamical systems. His PhD is in the study of memory effects in heteroclinic networks. He is a research fellow in the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland, modelling and investigating the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic on a network. He loves cricket, movies and talking about ideas. Please help us share the Saturday event for students… <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > ‘Uses of Mathematics today: How Mathematics helps solve the world’s problems’Can 42 actually be the answer to the ultimate question? Can an equation take over the world? Can mathematics unlock lockdowns and quarantine pandemics? The next few decades of human development will depend on big data, AI, genetic editing, quantum computing, space travel and other fields that are, in essence, entirely dependent on mathematics. Quantum particles are too small, space too far, data too plentiful and AI too unpredictable to experiment on these things in traditional ways. Scientists in these fields typically no longer rely on experimental data to tell them what is true or not, instead, they rely on the language of mathematics' ability to describe the world. But is this trust justified? What are the differences between science and mathematics? And where does God fit in? Saturday 12th November, at 3pm in the St John’s Centre at St John’s in the City On Sunday after the morning service the talk in the St John’s Centre is: ‘Mathematics, Creativity and the Creator’All mathematics is created by people, and imagination is still the main tool for mathematical progress. However, just like with inspiring art, sometimes it seems to go beyond something created, beyond the imagination of the human creator, to suggest there was something fantastic and real waiting to be discovered the entire time. Join me as I reveal the secret life of the mathematician, and how my quest through the realm of mathematics has led me closer to the ultimate Creator.   OTHER THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT... THE MESSENGER The most recent St John’s Messenger newsletter reviews some recent events, and looks ahead to what is next. <a href="https://www.stjohnsinthecity.org.nz/news/october-messenger" class="sqs-block-button-element--medium sqs-button-element--primary sqs-block-button-element" > The Messenger Newsletter   RAISING THE STANDARD OF GIVING Last week, we highlighted the slides from the AGM about the church finances. <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/s9vqtz7wnuqaegp/AGM%20Finances%2030th%20October%202022%20slides.pdf?dl=0" class="sqs-block-button-element--medium sqs-button-element--primary sqs-block-button-element" > Slides from the AGM These show that we are continuing to navigate a difficult financial environment with multiple pressures. Even though St John’s achieved an “accounting surplus” for 2021/22, a large deficit of $400,000 is budgeted for 2022/23. This arises because of:• The need to inflation protect the Trust Fund – high inflation and low returns means very limited real returns are expected this year• Insurance costs are $176,000 (plus GST) for the year – a $20,000 increase on last year and a 50% increase over the last 3 years• Repairs and maintenance – painting the manse, washing the buildings on the St John’s site, and the repair of the Church reception roof have added to costs this year• Higher salaries arising from market demand and the intention to fill the youth and children’s ministry vacancies• A significant decline in annual congregational giving of about $60,000 compared with 2018.Some of these challenges, such as insurance, will require a regional or national approach, as other Churches are facing similar cost challenges. And some of these challenges are ours. Giving should be a joy that reflects our faith and enables our worship, ministry, mission and outreach. Jesus talked about money a lot. At least a third of his teaching was about money and property related matters – the incidents of the rich young ruler and the widow’s mite are forthright in their implications. Jesus did this because he knew that many of those he spoke to considered money more important than the Kingdom of God. Let’s prayerfully re-examine our giving as an important expression of our faith and rise to the challenge of an additional $20,000 a year over the next three years. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " >   ONE CONFERENCE We are excited to have over 240 participants registered for the One Conference here at St John's in the City November 17-19. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > You have the opportunity to attend any of the four main sessions of the conference for just $5 per session. For information on the main sessions go to: https://www.oneconference.org.nz/keynote-speakersYou do not need to preregister to attend, simply come with $5 cash before the session and pay it at the hospitality desk in the St Johns Centre.   WHĀNAU NIGHT 5pm-6.30pm, Sunday 20 November, BYO Picnic. The theme for the evening will be a youth-led Code Breaker night.We started off the year with a picnic in the park, and we are going to finish off with a picnic in the hall. We invite you to bring your own meal to our final celebration.This will be our LAST whānau night of 2022. And in order to continue whānau nights in 2023, we are looking for a committed leader to help orchestrate and organise teams, as Gordon Fitch is stepping down from this role. Please get in touch if you can to help organise whānau nights. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " >   DCM Foodbank Appeal …Saturday 19th of November. St John's have been asked to collect from 9am -1pm at Chaffers St New World, with two collectors per hour. You might consider doing this for the sake of those in our city who need help. Please contact Carolyn Goudswaard, if you are able to help. Annual General Meeting …Monday 28th November. Their AGM is in the St John’s Centre. Refreshments will be served from 5:30pm with a meeting start time of 6pm. DCM’s Manahautū, Stephen Turnock, will offer a reflection.   SCOTS COLLEGE ADVENT SERVICE At St John’s in the City 4pm Sunday 27th November 2022.   COMBINED ADVENT SERVICE With St Mary of the Angels and St Peter’s.At St Mary of the Angels 7pm Sunday 27th November 2022 <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " >   FELLOWSHIP GROUP The Fellowship Group meets for the traditional Advent Service on Tuesday 29th November at 11am in the St John’s Church. Please note this is the fifth Tuesday of the month.The usual shared lunch will be enhanced by strawberries and ice-cream. And a koha will be invited in support of the work of Christian World Service.   The grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.Allister
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    St John's, Willis Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  

• • Ngā Kōrero - Latest Stories from DCM

    • 8 Dec 2023
    • Downtown Community Ministry
    • Ngā Kōrero - Latest Stories from DCM Lives and smiles transformed at the DCM Dental Service communities where whānau are housed, connected, valued and thriving About Us Contact Lives and smiles transformed at the DCM Dental Service DCM’s emergency dental service has been operating since March 2016 – and is the only dental service of its kind outside of hospital emergency departments in New Zealand. Over 800 individuals have had their lives and smiles transformed thanks to the expertise of DCM’s volunteer dentists, led by Dr. Sophie McKenna, our lead dentist. Volunteer dentist Dr. Sophie McKenna leads DCM’s Dental Service. (Source: 1News.) Sophie’s father was a dentist, and she worked with him as a dental assistant during the school holidays. By the age of 17, she had decided that dentistry was a good path for her. Marrying Andrew, a fellow dentist, and working in different practices in the Wellington area, the two were able to share work and parenting responsibilities. Sophie first heard about DCM at a New Zealand Dental Association branch meeting, putting her name forward as a volunteer. “DCM was a surprise to me,” says Sophie. “I didn’t expect to receive so much pleasure from helping the whānau with their dental care. “When I first began volunteering, our son was dealing with significant health challenges, and I was at a low point. To come into DCM and see good people working hard to improve themselves from their very low points, with the support of DCM staff, was humbling and put my own woes into perspective.” Sophie explains that many of the people coming to DCM’s Dental Service need fillings, periodontal work, and extractions. “They often come to us with broken and missing teeth. When you are experiencing homelessness, living from crisis to crisis, oral health care may fall lower on the priority list, especially due to the expense. “But the big key to DCM’s success is not that treatment is free – but that DCM makes marginalised people feel so welcome when they come here. They don’t feel judged – and that includes when they sit in our dental chair.” Sophie treats Ngata during an emergency dental session at DCM. (Source: 1News.) “I’ll say, ‘what’s the most important thing that I can help you with today?’ And they look astonished,” says Sophie. “They are normally told to lie back, open up, and then a health professional gives them a carefully worded lecture about what isn’t being done, how disastrous things are. “And that’s not we’re here for. We’re here to make them feel better.” We know that poor oral health has been linked to gingivitis, oral infection, heart disease and strokes. But additionally, aesthetic issues can affect your ability to eat and speak – with a huge cost to your self-esteem. DCM Manahautū (Director) Stephen Turnock says that most of the people DCM works with have missing or decayed teeth, and the feelings of shame around this can take a toll. “When someone is continually looking at the ground, and not wanting to smile or feeling whakamā, then that creates more barriers.” This is why in 2023, we have begun creating dental impressions (diagnostic models or moulds) on-site at DCM and fitting whānau with partial plates – often of upper teeth. Sophie has been joined in this initiative by her husband, Andrew, who is no longer able to practice dentistry on his own due to an injury. Still wanting to support DCM, Andrew is able to assist Sophie in various ways. Sophie shares how life-changing their work has already been. Toko before and after. Toko was someone with missing incisors – the most visible teeth in the upper mouth. Sophie and Andrew created a mould and fitted him with replacement teeth. “Toko was exceptionally happy with the partial plate, and his ‘after’ smile filled the room!” says Sophie. Another person whose smile has been transformed is Lisa. Lisa has experienced homelessness, including rough sleeping, before she was housed through DCM’s Aro Mai Housing First service. From there, she was able to focus on her wellbeing, including her oral healthcare. Lisa before and after. Sophie had to encourage Lisa to do a ‘before’ photo while smiling so we could compare the results. “Now she can’t stop smiling!” Sophie says. When DCM first met Simon, he had little to smile about. DCM Outreach workers Ngaire and Hazel approached him on the street in Kilbirnie, where he says he was at his lowest ebb. “DCM saved my life, literally” Simon explains. “If there’s a God, it was great timing on all fronts.” Simon also survived the Loafers Lodge fire. On the tragic night, he knocked on people’s doors, urging them to evacuate, while managing to escape with his phone and wallet, and the clothes on his back. After a move into transitional housing, Simon was able to concentrate on other pressing matters, including agonising dental pain. He popped into DCM one day, and met Ali Janes, who coordinates our dental clinic. Ali got Simon in to see Sophie and Andrew, who extracted the problem teeth. “You could really see the difference it had made for him, which was awesome,” says Ali. “He left pain free and basically floated out of here!” Simon was left with very few teeth, but Sophie and Andrew supported him through the life-changing process of getting a full denture. “I’m still learning to smile properly, which is something I haven’t done for a long time,” Simon explains. “But – I can almost look in the mirror again. “When I needed DCM the most, you guys have always been there. Now I’m trying to pay it forward.” Simon popped into DCM to show us his new smile. DCM’s new initiative creating replacement teeth for whānau has been supported by a $5,000 community grant from the New Zealand Dental Association. “My vision for DCM’s Dental Service is that we are able to expand our services a little,” says Sophie. “Ideally, we would like to offer more opportunities to replace teeth that have previously been extracted, as we’ve been doing with the grant this year. “Currently, relief of pain is great, but what can we do to support our lovely people and lift them up even more? It is obvious from the beaming smiles of Toko, Lisa and others that restoring their smile boosts their sense of worth. Society inadvertently judges those with missing teeth. “When someone’s smile is restored and they feel and look good, they project a confidence and positivity that is difficult to measure. It is infused in their posture, their willingness to engage with others – and we see that their approach to issues that challenge them is altered for the better. “It’s a no-brainer to try to help with this more.” We mihi to Sophie and Andrew McKenna for their passion and professional expertise as they help to transform the lives and smiles of our whānau. Can you help support DCM’s Dental Service this Christmas? DCM is grateful to all those dentists who, like Sophie and Andrew, give their time to allow us to provide emergency dental care to the most marginalised people in Wellington. We would also like to thank the NZDA for their community grant, the St. John’s in the City Carter Fund for a grant toward a new dental chair for our service, and the Bowen Hospital Trust for their on-going support. But DCM’s Dental Service is primarily funded by YOU, the people of Wellington. If you would like to support the most marginalised people in our city – like Toko, Lisa, and Simon this Christmas – please click below and consider donating toward our appeal. Or, if you know a dentist or dental assistant who would like to learn more about working at the DCM Dental Service, we would love to hear from them! Support DCM's Dental Service Copyright © 2023 DCM. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: DCM PO Box 6133 Marion Sq Wellington, Wellington 6011 New Zealand Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
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    Loafers Lodge, 160, Adelaide Road, Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  

• • September Update from DCM - Together We Can End Homelessness

    • 29 Sep 2019
    • Downtown Community Ministry
    • 96 September Update from DCM - Together We Can End Homelessness p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; 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} } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnImageCardLeftImageContent,.mcnImageCardRightImageContent{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-bottom:0 !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcpreview-image-uploader{ display:none !important; width:100% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h1{ font-size:30px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h2{ font-size:26px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h3{ font-size:20px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h4{ font-size:18px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .headerContainer .mcnTextContent,.headerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent,.bodyContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .footerContainer .mcnTextContent,.footerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } September Update from DCM - Together We Can End Homelessness Happy birthday to us! 50 years...50 photos - this month we celebrated DCM’s 50th birthday with a special photographic exhibition entitled “Together we can end homelessness”.   The exhibition featured 50 different images, reflecting the part that many individuals, groups and businesses play in supporting our work. This is why our by-line is “TOGETHER we can end homelessness”. We experience Wellington as a caring place, a place where people want to be part of the solution to homelessness and welcome an opportunity to become involved in any way they can. The exhibition included images representing the contributions of: our medical supports - dentists, dental assistants, eye doctor, audiologist and physiotherapist who share their time and their skills here at DCM the local faith communities who have been part of our work for 50 years, in all sorts of different ways the food businesses which make it possible for us to provide kai and hospitality while we build relationships with people – like Pandoro, Kaibosh, Mojo Coffee the many groups involved in delivering our annual DCM Bookfair the volunteers who support our work at Te Hāpai, such as the barber who offers haircuts and John who runs our weekly poetry sessions  chefs and others who support our seasonal kai events writers, journalists, designers, printers, businesses which donate time, expertise and product those who support our work financially and in other ways and our taumai themselves – their commitment to picking up the paddle and doing what it takes to become well, and then going on to support others on a journey to housing and wellbeing. In our 50th birthday year, we want to lift up the many Wellingtonians who are part of the solution to homelessness. We also wanted to prompt those who visited the exhibition to think about ways in which they may be able to become involved. Thank you to all of you who made it along to Photospace to enjoy the exhibition. And a special thank you to the creative forces who made it possible. Though the exhibition has come to an end you can see all 50 photos on our website. <!-- --> Here’s another way for you to be part of the solution to homelessness DCM has joined a collaboration of organisations dedicated to ending homelessness in Wellington under a new government-funded Housing First initiative. We move people from homelessness into housing then provide wrap around support and regular home visits to ensure they sustain their tenancy.  One of the new kaimahi who have joined our team to take on this important mahi is Peni Fiti, who will be focused on procuring suitable houses for people who have been homeless for a long period of time. Do you own any rental properties or know any landlords who would like to learn more about becoming part of the solution to homelessness? If so, do talk to Peni. There are so many reasons to get in touch. Our Housing First team can offer landlords a “no hassles” service – guaranteed rent, no fees, maintenance sorted and your property managed for you. Even better, you will be providing a whare for a person who is experiencing homelessness. Peni would love to hear from you or any of your networks and contacts who own rental properties. Because together, we can end homelessness in Wellington. <!-- --> DCM welcomes spring Day to day life goes on at DCM as we prepare for what is traditionally a busy time of year. This month, DCM kaimahi joined together with taumai at our Seasonal Kai celebration for spring (kōanga). Our Seasonal Kai events are an important way for us to come together as a community, and enjoy some kai. DCM sits on the site of Te Aro Pā and just as the original inhabitants of the pā did, we mark the changing of the seasons by coming together this way. Our taumai also enjoyed the chance to give back and some took part in preparing the kai. As we often find at DCM, our taumai possess great knowledge and talents which were fully on display at the Seasonal Kai celebration! <!-- --> Please help us get the message out there! Forward this email on to everyone you can think of who may be interested in how to respond to homelessness, and just generally people who are passionate about Wellington. <!-- --> Read More Success Stories Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi With your basket and my basket, the people will thrive <!-- --> Copyright © 2019 DCM. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: DCMPO Box 6133Marion SqWellington, Wellington 6011 New ZealandAdd us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
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• • February update from DCM - together we can end homelessness

    • 28 Feb 2020
    • Downtown Community Ministry
    • 96 February update from DCM - together we can end homelessness p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; 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line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .headerContainer .mcnTextContent,.headerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent,.bodyContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .footerContainer .mcnTextContent,.footerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } Reception at Government House A highlight this month was the opportunity for us to visit Government House where The Rt. Hon. Dame Patsy Reddy hosted a reception to celebrate DCM’s 50th birthday. This also provided an opportunity to recommit to our vision of ending homelessness, and to reflect on what we all need to do to better support this vision going forward. We share some key sound bytes from the speeches delivered by Dame Patsy and by DCM Director Stephanie McIntyre at Government House. Dame Patsy with DCM Kaihautū Neavin Broughton. “I was interested to learn that DCM is located on a site once occupied by Te Ati Awa. "One of my predecessors, Sir Paul Reeves, was descended from those people who lived in Aro Pā, and he talked about the pain experienced by his tipuna when they lost their homes there in the early days of settlement in Wellington. "So I think Sir Paul would be pleased that an organisation dedicated to finding homes for the homeless is now in that very locality, particularly given that a large proportion of DCM’s taumai are Māori. "We all know that shelter is a basic human right, and that individuals can’t address other issues or explore their aspirations if they don’t have a roof over their heads. "It must be particularly challenging for DCM and its partners to be working at a time when there just aren’t enough houses for Wellington’s population, let alone the range of accommodation options to suit the needs of the people who walk in DCM’s door.” - Dame Patsy Reddy Morris Wong, President of the Wellington Branch of the New Zealand Dental Association with the former President, Gavin Cho, at the reception at Government House; both are volunteers at DCM's emergency Dental Service. "Over the last year, DCM has grown to the point where we now have the human resources to support people in to houses, and to provide the wrap-around support and intensive case management they need. The irony is, however, that we haven’t got the bricks and mortar. "Last year we were able to support 85 people from homelessness into houses, but this year, in the midst of a very significant housing crisis, we are really struggling to access homes for our taumai. This is something we need to do together, and this is why my key message to you all tonight is this. "If you or anyone you know has a rental property or is thinking about investing in a rental property, please speak to us. We can offer landlords a 'no hassles' service – guaranteed rent, no fees, maintenance sorted and funded – and you will be providing a whare for a person who is experiencing homelessness." - Stephanie McIntyre, Director, DCM <!-- --> Meet Junior This year, we are introducing you to some of our kaimahi, the amazing team of people who support taumai to access and sustain housing. Junior Leota joined us in October 2019. He is working with the Aro Mai Housing First team, getting people with long histories of homelessness in to a permanent home, and supporting them to get to a good place in all aspects of their lives. What have you most enjoyed about your time at DCM so far? I’ve enjoyed seeing a lot of our taumai come out of their current position, homeless or at risk of homelessness, into a more stable one. Seeing the happy look on their faces from a good end result is priceless. What have you learned about homelessness since you started at DCM? It can be a long road for someone to move out of homelessness. Patience is important. Be sensitive and compassionate toward their situation. Sometimes you just want people to snap out of bad habits, but there may be a lifetime of trauma behind it. DCM is keeping me humble! When people ask you how they can be part of the solution to homelessness, what do you suggest? I would suggest bringing people who are homeless to a service like this – like DCM. Find places that can provide the right level of support for them. Find the people who really care, and introduce them to us. What is your favourite…? Food? Cream donuts.  Waiata? Whakataka Te Hau.  Sport? Volleyball.  Film? Enter the Dragon. (I love Bruce Lee.) What’s on your bucket list? Get a lot healthier and eat better. Less donuts! At DCM we often share “moments” from our interactions with taumai. What’s a special “moment” you enjoying sharing with others? I have enjoyed the best moment – finding permanent housing for people who have been homeless for a long, long time. Our latest taumai to be housed was teary-eyed when he got to view his place. We saw a burden lifted off his shoulders – he no longer has to worry about where to go or where to sleep. And his kids can come and stay with him now. Getting a roof over your head is truly life-changing. <!-- --> Foodbank shortage As Junior has noted, it is very special to see people who have been homeless for a long time move into a permanent home. But with this comes new challenges – adjusting to the realities of their new living situation, paying rent, electricity and other bills. Often there is very little left for food. DCM’s foodbank is busy year-round, but as our mahi has expanded, we are visiting more and more people in their new homes, supporting them to sustain their tenancy and to thrive in all aspects of their lives. Being able to offer food support from time to time is an important part of this, and our foodbank is busier than ever. We are now very short of many items, and we seek your support to re-stock the shelves. Some of the things we most need at present are:   Tinned fish Instant noodles Soups and ready meals Spaghetti Spreads Please drop food items in our food bin at New World Chaffers any time, or bring them directly in to DCM at 2 Lukes Lane, Te Aro, weekdays. <!-- --> Please help us get the message out there! Forward this email on to everyone you can think of who may be interested in how to respond to homelessness, and just generally people who are passionate about Wellington. <!-- --> Read More Success Stories Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi With your basket and my basket, the people will thrive <!-- --> Copyright © 2020 DCM. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: DCMPO Box 6133Marion SqWellington, Wellington 6011 New ZealandAdd us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
    • Accepted from DCM alerts archive 67 months ago by tonytw1
    • Tagged as:
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• • 

    Plimmerton Farm: getting greenfields right

    • 28 Jun 2020
    • Talk Wellington
    • If we’re hellbent on doing more residential development in greenfields, what does “decent” look like in Plimmerton, hilly land near an existing suburb – like most of our region’s greenfields? This post is basically a guide for anyone who cares about Plimmerton, good urban development, or healthy wetlands, streams and coast, but is time-poor and can’t face going through the truckloads of documents they’ve stuck up without any specific meta-guidance (some FAQ are here). Hopefully this will help you pop in a submission! PCC’s “information” pages they suggest you use for submitting. Every one of these is a large PDF document, 90% written in technical language… aargh! The background: what where and how For those who don’t know, Plimmerton Farm’s a big proposed subdivision of hilly farmland draining into the significant Taupō Wetland and to Plimmerton Beach, just over the train line and highway from Plimmerton village (original Ngāti Toa name: Taupō). It’s going through a Streamlined Planning Process, a pre-COVID government scheme for accelerating development. The key step is the requisite change of the land’s zoning in the Porirua District Plan (“rural” zone to “residential” and other “urban” zones) that sets out what kind of stuff can then be built, where. It’s mostly streamlined because there’s just one shot for the public to have input on the plan change. One shot. Why submit? I was born and raised in Plimmerton, live here now, and intend to for the rest of my days. I’d love to see it grow, well. I would love Plimmerton to get more wallets, more hearts and minds, more faces (more diverse ones too!). But not with more traffic, and pointless damage to our environment. Right now, the proposal has some serious flaws which need sorting. I say Sorting because the changes won’t make it crazy innovative, just good enough for a development in the spot it is, being kicked off in 2020. Time matters too: there’a a bunch of good things happening imminently (and some bad Porirua trends that need to be reversed). I cover these in Get it right, below. It’s worth submitting because given the situation, a 1990s-grade development just won’t cut it. So what about Plimmerton Farm needs to change? It boils down to two themes: dial down the driveability and dial up the liveabilitymake Local the logical and easy choice for daily needs I’ll outline what needs to change in each. NOTE: There’s a third – don’t stuff the wetlands and streams. This is really important as Taupō Wetland is regionally significant, and all our streams and harbours have suffered from frankly shameful mismanagement of sediment from earthworks-heavy subdivisions like Aotea and Duck Creek, and from the earthworks-a-rama of Transmission Gully. Friends of Taupo Swamp have an excellent submission guide for you – add in some of their suggested bits to your submission. I: Dial down the driveability, dial up the liveability There aren’t many truly black-and-white things in life, but there’s one for towns: If a street is nice to drive in, it’ll be a crappy place to do anything else in (walk / eat / hang out / have a conversation / play / scoot or cycle / shop / have a pint). If it’s nice to do anything else in, it’ll be a crappy place to drive in. Mostly this is because of the nature of the automobile: big solid things that smash into our soft bodies if someone makes a mistake (75% odds of death if that’s at 50km/hour, 10% odds of death if at 30km/hour) big objects that need lots of space for manoeuvering and especially parking – which offstreet can be crazy expensive and push up the cost of a home, and onstreet hoover up valuable public space. big solid things driven by us real humans (for a while at least) who respond to the environment but also get distracted, and generally aren’t good at wielding these big solid things safely. The transport setup proposed for Plimmerton Farm makes for a much too driveable and poorly liveable place. 1. Narrow down all the roads. The current proposal’s roading setup has roads and streets that are too big, and there’s too much of them. Right sized roads for a liveable community The cross-sections for the roads include on-street parking and really wide lane widths. This is really gobsmacking for a consortium that talked a big talk about good practice. For all the reasons that Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are good, this is bad. (And it’s especially nuts when you realise that the excessively wide “arterial” roads (11 metres!) will need earthworked platforms built for them where they’re drawn running up the sharp ridges and across the tops of gullies. Expensive, damaging for the environment, and … what were they thinking?) So recommended changes: NARROW DOWN THE ROADS. Seriously. Design all the living-area streets and roads, and the centre, to be self-explaining for an operating traffic speed of 30km or less – that’s the speed where mistakes are rarely fatal. What does that look like? The designers will know and if they don’t they should be fired. Narrower crossing distances; chicanes (great way to incorporate green infrastructure and trees and seating!); narrowed sight-lines (trees! sculpture!) so no-one driving feels inclined to zoom. Reduced trafficked lanes (rori iti on the larger roads!), with properly wide and friendly footpaths. Threshold treatments, humps, modal filters, all the things we know very well are the natural ways to slow us down when driving, and make streets nicer for people. The beauty of all this “restriction” on driving is how much it frees us up for making everything else appealing. Streets become hospitable for kids to walk, scoot, bike to school safely, using the road not the footpath. Older people and those with impairments can walk and wheelchair safely. Teens coming home from town of an evening can scoot or bike home, safely. Popping down to the shops or for a coffee or to the train becomes a pleasure to do on foot, or on a scooter or bike. And you’re moving in a legitimate way – seeing and being seen, not stuck off in the bush on a “recreational” track like what they’ve described. The ordinary streets and roads are walkable, bikeable, scootable, mobility-scootable, and perfectly driveable, equally safe and useable in all weathers and anytime of day or night. Used to be a big, fast road. Now, kids bike to school and old people can chill out on it. (Mark Kerrison) (And in case you’re worried about firetrucks / rubbish trucks / buses, recall that on even Wellington City’s far more winding, narrower hilly streets everyone gets their rubbish collected and fires fought just fine. On public transport, smaller buses, like those that community transport operators use, are the way of the future for less densely-populated areas like this). Don’t build the through and loop roads. You don’t need signs like this when the only people who bother to drive in are those who live there, or who are visiting friends, because you just have to drive out again the way you came. When it’s the place you live, you’re invested in not being a dick far more than if you’re just out for a drive – or worse, out for a bit of a boyrace hoon on a massive loop route through a whole place. So just don’t build those big connector roads that enable people to drive easily from one residential area to the next, especially the ones up in the hilltops (section C) that just say “come for a hoon!” Instead, connect the living spaces heavily with bikeable, walkable, scootable, disability-friendly streets and lanes, and as much as possible, only one way in and out for cars from each living area. II: Make local logical and easy Plimmerton is a true village, with a great little centre (including a train station!) but Plimmerton Farm is ultimately a damn big area. The way to go is to enable people to get the basics of life – like school, groceries, a coffee – with a little local trip on foot, bike or scooter – it’s more of a bother to get in the car. Right now though, it needs two changes: 1. Provide for a second centre “Bumping into” spaces are known to be crucial to a feeling of neighbourhood, and in the (initial) absence of third places (worship places, community hall, sports club, cafe/pub, a supermarket is a vital social centre. Yet the north end of Plimmerton Farm is currently a deadzone for anything except residential. What things will probably look like under current layout. Like in Edwards Scissorhands without the interest of a castle. There’s no provision for a place to do your household groceries, so people will drive to Mana New World – more car trips – and less opportunity to bump into people who live nearby. (There’ll be no school in Plimmerton Farm for a while, because Ministry of Education isn’t allowed by the Education Act to build a school somewhere until there’s a certain population density of kids to fill it. A shitty Catch-22 for developments which is hopefully going to be fixed … sometime. Just another reason to make walking, biking and scooting really kid-friendly, as extra dropoff traffic for kids going to St Theresa’s, Plimmerton School, Paremata and Pukerua Bay schools will be a nightmare.) So they should provide for an additional centre in the north, including a groceries place of some kind. 2. Intensify within walking distance of Plimmerton proper. We should intensify properly, with lots of medium and even some high density (6 storeys of nicely laid-out density done well!) in the area that’s within a 5-minute walk of Plimmerton Village. The more people can live and work with access to all its many amenities, and its rail station (10 min to Porirua, 30 min to Wellington), the better. But there’s not enough density provided for there. Plimmerton Railway station: buzzing in 1916 and has only got bigger. (Photo: Pātaka Porirua Museum) So they should add another zone – E – of higher density in that 5-minute walking catchment of Plimmerton Village. What could it look like? A good example is 3333 Main, Vancouver . Submission tips On the site they ask you to fill in a Word or PDF form, saying which specific bit of the gazillion proposals you are talking about and the specific changes you want. This is a BS way to treat the vast majority of people submitting: normal non-professionals, just regular people who care about good development and liveable places. So just don’t worry about that. In those question 6 column boxes just put “Transport” and “Layout”. It’s the professional planners’ job to figure out specifically how to change a planning document. Just be specific enough that they know what you want to see. The text above is worth copying and pasting – it’ll be enough. And don’t forget the Friends of Taupo Swamp and Catchment advice is essential – definitely go read and use. That’s all you really need – just go submit! But if you’re keen to know more reasons why they should be doing this better, here’s some… Get it right, now Once this plan change is through, traditional developers like Gillies like to whack in all the infrastructure – hello, massive earthworks. And yet the place will take decades to fill with actual people – those hearts and minds and wallets. (Note even before COVID, Porirua’s growth rate was 0.1% per year. Yep, one tenth of one percent.) And extra pressure’s on to do this better because all these things are features of the next one to three years: the One Network Road Classification (sets the design specs for roads of different types) is being updated right now to be more people-friendly in the specs for roads in residential and centre areas, so designs like Plimmerton Farm’s will soon be Officially Bad Practice Sales and riding of e-bikes and e-scooters are going through the roof, continuing through and beyond COVID – this shows no signs of slowing, and prices are dropping. E-power flattens the hills of Plimmerton Farm and makes wheely active travel a breeze for the middle-class people who’ll be living here, if the streets and roads are hospitablePlimmerton Railway Station (on the most popular Wellington train line) is being upgraded to be a terminus station – i.e. better servicesThe Wellington Regional Growth Framework is setting a bunch of directions for councils on how to grow well, including well-known but often well-ignored issues like intensifying around public transport hubs Councils will soon be required to do to a bunch of a bunch of international good practice including get rid of many minimum parking requirements (in the news lately), and to upzone (enable intensification) of landuse in the walking catchment of public transport hubs. (5 min walk = approx 400 metres, 10 min = 800m).Bad trends we need to stop: Porirua’s really high car-dependency (we own cars a lot and drive a lot) is continuing, due to car-dependent urban form [PDF]– despite nice words in council’s strategic intentions.People living outside Wellington City are mostly to blame for our region’s 14% increase in emissions from transport in just 10 years. OK go submit now – and share with anyone who you think might care!
    • Accepted from Talk Wellington posts 65 months ago by feedreader
    • Tagged as:
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    • transmission-gully
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    Transmission Gully Motorway, Kenepuru, Porirua, Porirua City, Wellington, 5022, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  

• • In the census, did the homeless count?

    • 27 Mar 2018
    • Downtown Community Ministry
    • 96 In the census, did the homeless count? p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; font-size:inherit !important; 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line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ #templatePreheader{ display:block !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ #templatePreheader .mcnTextContent,#templatePreheader .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ #templateHeader .mcnTextContent,#templateHeader .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ #templateBody .mcnTextContent,#templateBody .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ #templateFooter .mcnTextContent,#templateFooter .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } With the 2018 census pushed online there’s been much discussion about reaching those without computer access. Lee-Anne Duncan visits Wellington’s DCM. In the census, did the homeless count? View this email in your browser   Ngā mihi mahana, In this month's census, DCM was determined to ensure that our taumai were counted. We wanted to share this story from The Spinoff with you at the end of this tax year, and invite you to make a donation to the on-going work of DCM in Wellington. Remember that for every dollar you donate, you can claim one-third back as a tax deduction.  In the census, did the homeless count? With the 2018 census pushed online there’s been much discussion about reaching those without computer access, who still need someone to knock on their door. But what about those without even a door to knock upon? Lee-Anne Duncan visited DCM. The southerly marks a sharp turn from a stunner summer to chilly autumn. At the start of each season, DCM marks the change with “Seasonal Kai”, a lunch they put on for their “taumai” – which is what DCM calls the people it supports, Wellington’s vulnerably housed or homeless. Some 30 taumai – meaning “to settle” – have come to the lunch. About half are Māori and there’s only one woman, a fair representation of DCM’s clientele. They’re very welcome. With the food waiting, a karakia is given and everyone is asked to consider what the change to the colder months means for those sleeping rough, those without a home. It’s happenstance the quarterly kai has fallen on that day, one of three in early March that hi-vis-clad Statistics New Zealand’s field officers are at DCM to guide taumai through filling out the census forms. But it likely means a few more have turned up and will agree to add their details to the national count – something DCM encourages those assembled to do. “This is a really important time for taumai to have a voice and tell the government we need to build more houses and feed more support and resources back to you. Filling out the census helps you add your voice,” the group is told. Situated on the site of Wellington’s Te Aro Pā, DCM’s kaupapa follows what would have happened at the pā all those years ago. “This is where people came for food, for shelter, for community, to have a voice, to speak, to be heard, to be lifted up, to be counted,” says DCM’s Michelle Scott. “So for us, supporting our people to be included in the census reinforces the kaupapa of this place. “It’s been a great opportunity for our community to get together, to chew the fat about what’s important, what’s necessary for them to move forward, and what society should be prioritising.” That’s exactly what Statistics NZ’s Dr John Mitchell set out to record when refocusing on how to count the hard-to-reach. “Many of them have high needs in terms of government services. Since government spending decisions are made on the basis of census data it’s even more important they are counted.”   Without needing as many people to go door-to-door this time, John says they could dedicate field officers to target people who couldn’t be reached with an internet code. “That includes groups who are low responding and need more encouragement and assistance to be enabled to do the census. We had a community engagement team out talking to many communities – Māori, Pacific, culturally and linguistically diverse communities – getting the message across why it’s important to do the census, and looking at ways to enable them. A subset of that was obviously the rough sleeping homeless.” As John’s team was out engaging, Michelle was also looking for ways to enable taumai to take part in the census. The organisation had worked hard to encourage them to vote in last year’s election, and many did. The feeling of empowerment, of having a say and being heard, remained. John and Michelle came up with the idea of having census officers at DCM – and other similar organisations around the country – to help marginalised people fill in the census. “Usually that’s done by a street count,” says John. “Where field officers walk along looking for people sleeping rough, and try to persuade them to give enough information to complete at least some of the individual form. “This census we’ve taken a multi-faceted approach. We’ve done a street count, but in eight cities we’ve worked with organisations who engaged directly using different approaches depending on what would suit their clients.” “It seems to have gone well, with lots of buy-in by letting the people the rough sleepers know and trust recommend doing the census.” Trust is certainly a major issue for  taumai and others like them. While voting is just ticking a box, filling out the census means handing over personal information. “But they trust DCM and trust us not to get them into trouble,” says Natalia Cleland, one of DCM’s social workers. “We’ve been talking about the census for weeks. We put up notices covering what the census is about, why it’s useful and what happens with the information. Our taumai also had the chance to tell us their concerns, then we could get the right information to give them confidence.” “It also gave them time to gather the information they needed,” says Michelle. “We could say, ‘If you’re Māori and you aren’t sure about your iwi, go away and find out so you can include it in the census’. “We wanted them to come with that rich part of who they are and what’s gone before them. It really appealed to them as a topic of conversation and it was fascinating to see them connecting and discussing their various backgrounds. So lots of other positive things have come out of doing the census here.” But for the country the main benefit of having three days of census filling at DCM, and like organisations, is that many people have registered their existence who otherwise wouldn’t have. “Some of our people don’t have any ID and may not even be recorded on any databases. If they’ve filled out the census they are recorded somewhere as a human being and as a New Zealander,” says Michelle. While not having an address is one barrier to filling out the census, low-to-no literacy is another. Even taumai who DCM has supported into housing came in for support, with one knocking at DCM’s door at 8:55am on census day morning, waving his census form. Yes, Statistics NZ offered to send field officers to people’s homes if they needed help, but that wouldn’t have worked for all of DCM’s taumai, says Michelle. “This is where their whānau is. Here, some of them have sat in our marae atea and discussed their answers with each other. They had kōrero with others who had already done it, and they’d say, ‘Well, I did that, I ticked that box’, so they got a huge resource from one another.” Robert is one who wouldn’t have completed the census without DCM’s help. Released from prison in 2016, he slept for a while in his van. He’s housed now, but came to DCM to do this census – his first ever. “If someone hadn’t helped me, I would have just got pissed off with trying. We were told the story of why you should fill it out, and then it made sense to me so I did it. “I encourage people who have been in prison all their lives to do this. It’s a piece of the puzzle that is missing. When we include ourselves in things like this, it helps us to feel part of the bigger picture and you want to do it more and more. It feels pretty cool to fill it out.” Jason sleeps anywhere that’s (hopefully) warm and dry. Along with homelessness, literacy issues would have prevented him filling out the census. “I understand we’re not counted but they’re trying to make a change, the government. I wanted to fill it out because it adds to the big picture. But without someone helping me, I couldn’t. I appreciate DCM giving us the opportunity to have a voice.” The staff at DCM are happy to play their part in drawing that big picture. “It’s not giving an accurate picture of New Zealand society if we count only people who are willing and able to fill out their census forms,” says Natalia. “We’re helping provide New Zealand build an accurate picture of who we are, and who are the ones with the highest needs. That feels really valuable.” Statistics NZ can’t pinpoint when this year’s data will be available, but be sure everyone at DCM will be watching to see how that data is used. “We’ve reinforced that this is about reciprocity – ‘tuki atu, tuku mai’, another of our kaupapa,” says Michelle. “We told our taumai that they give their information so, in turn, the government can support them – with enough houses, hospitals, doctors, etc. “They now feel like they have a voice, that they count. Now they are watching to see if they’ve been heard.” Freelance journalist Lee-Anne Duncan contributed this piece as a volunteer for The Community Comms Collective, whose pro bono clients include DCM. Thank you for your ongoing support, From everyone at DCM.   Click Here to Donate Now! <!-- --> Copyright © 2018 DCM, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list
    • Accepted from DCM alerts archive 67 months ago by feedreader
    • Tagged as:
    • government
    • media
    • internet
    • freelance
    • wellington
    • art
    • housing
    • hospital
    • people
  
  

• • In the census, did the homeless count?

    • 27 Mar 2018
    • Downtown Community Ministry
    • 96 In the census, did the homeless count? p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; font-size:inherit !important; 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In the census, did the homeless count? View this email in your browser   Ngā mihi mahana, In this month's census, DCM was determined to ensure that our taumai were counted. We wanted to share this story from The Spinoff with you at the end of this tax year, and invite you to make a donation to the on-going work of DCM in Wellington. Remember that for every dollar you donate, you can claim one-third back as a tax deduction.  In the census, did the homeless count? With the 2018 census pushed online there’s been much discussion about reaching those without computer access, who still need someone to knock on their door. But what about those without even a door to knock upon? Lee-Anne Duncan visited DCM. The southerly marks a sharp turn from a stunner summer to chilly autumn. At the start of each season, DCM marks the change with “Seasonal Kai”, a lunch they put on for their “taumai” – which is what DCM calls the people it supports, Wellington’s vulnerably housed or homeless. Some 30 taumai – meaning “to settle” – have come to the lunch. About half are Māori and there’s only one woman, a fair representation of DCM’s clientele. They’re very welcome. With the food waiting, a karakia is given and everyone is asked to consider what the change to the colder months means for those sleeping rough, those without a home. It’s happenstance the quarterly kai has fallen on that day, one of three in early March that hi-vis-clad Statistics New Zealand’s field officers are at DCM to guide taumai through filling out the census forms. But it likely means a few more have turned up and will agree to add their details to the national count – something DCM encourages those assembled to do. “This is a really important time for taumai to have a voice and tell the government we need to build more houses and feed more support and resources back to you. Filling out the census helps you add your voice,” the group is told. Situated on the site of Wellington’s Te Aro Pā, DCM’s kaupapa follows what would have happened at the pā all those years ago. “This is where people came for food, for shelter, for community, to have a voice, to speak, to be heard, to be lifted up, to be counted,” says DCM’s Michelle Scott. “So for us, supporting our people to be included in the census reinforces the kaupapa of this place. “It’s been a great opportunity for our community to get together, to chew the fat about what’s important, what’s necessary for them to move forward, and what society should be prioritising.” That’s exactly what Statistics NZ’s Dr John Mitchell set out to record when refocusing on how to count the hard-to-reach. “Many of them have high needs in terms of government services. Since government spending decisions are made on the basis of census data it’s even more important they are counted.”   Without needing as many people to go door-to-door this time, John says they could dedicate field officers to target people who couldn’t be reached with an internet code. “That includes groups who are low responding and need more encouragement and assistance to be enabled to do the census. We had a community engagement team out talking to many communities – Māori, Pacific, culturally and linguistically diverse communities – getting the message across why it’s important to do the census, and looking at ways to enable them. A subset of that was obviously the rough sleeping homeless.” As John’s team was out engaging, Michelle was also looking for ways to enable taumai to take part in the census. The organisation had worked hard to encourage them to vote in last year’s election, and many did. The feeling of empowerment, of having a say and being heard, remained. John and Michelle came up with the idea of having census officers at DCM – and other similar organisations around the country – to help marginalised people fill in the census. “Usually that’s done by a street count,” says John. “Where field officers walk along looking for people sleeping rough, and try to persuade them to give enough information to complete at least some of the individual form. “This census we’ve taken a multi-faceted approach. We’ve done a street count, but in eight cities we’ve worked with organisations who engaged directly using different approaches depending on what would suit their clients.” “It seems to have gone well, with lots of buy-in by letting the people the rough sleepers know and trust recommend doing the census.” Trust is certainly a major issue for  taumai and others like them. While voting is just ticking a box, filling out the census means handing over personal information. “But they trust DCM and trust us not to get them into trouble,” says Natalia Cleland, one of DCM’s social workers. “We’ve been talking about the census for weeks. We put up notices covering what the census is about, why it’s useful and what happens with the information. Our taumai also had the chance to tell us their concerns, then we could get the right information to give them confidence.” “It also gave them time to gather the information they needed,” says Michelle. “We could say, ‘If you’re Māori and you aren’t sure about your iwi, go away and find out so you can include it in the census’. “We wanted them to come with that rich part of who they are and what’s gone before them. It really appealed to them as a topic of conversation and it was fascinating to see them connecting and discussing their various backgrounds. So lots of other positive things have come out of doing the census here.” But for the country the main benefit of having three days of census filling at DCM, and like organisations, is that many people have registered their existence who otherwise wouldn’t have. “Some of our people don’t have any ID and may not even be recorded on any databases. If they’ve filled out the census they are recorded somewhere as a human being and as a New Zealander,” says Michelle. While not having an address is one barrier to filling out the census, low-to-no literacy is another. Even taumai who DCM has supported into housing came in for support, with one knocking at DCM’s door at 8:55am on census day morning, waving his census form. Yes, Statistics NZ offered to send field officers to people’s homes if they needed help, but that wouldn’t have worked for all of DCM’s taumai, says Michelle. “This is where their whānau is. Here, some of them have sat in our marae atea and discussed their answers with each other. They had kōrero with others who had already done it, and they’d say, ‘Well, I did that, I ticked that box’, so they got a huge resource from one another.” Robert is one who wouldn’t have completed the census without DCM’s help. Released from prison in 2016, he slept for a while in his van. He’s housed now, but came to DCM to do this census – his first ever. “If someone hadn’t helped me, I would have just got pissed off with trying. We were told the story of why you should fill it out, and then it made sense to me so I did it. “I encourage people who have been in prison all their lives to do this. It’s a piece of the puzzle that is missing. When we include ourselves in things like this, it helps us to feel part of the bigger picture and you want to do it more and more. It feels pretty cool to fill it out.” Jason sleeps anywhere that’s (hopefully) warm and dry. Along with homelessness, literacy issues would have prevented him filling out the census. “I understand we’re not counted but they’re trying to make a change, the government. I wanted to fill it out because it adds to the big picture. But without someone helping me, I couldn’t. I appreciate DCM giving us the opportunity to have a voice.” The staff at DCM are happy to play their part in drawing that big picture. “It’s not giving an accurate picture of New Zealand society if we count only people who are willing and able to fill out their census forms,” says Natalia. “We’re helping provide New Zealand build an accurate picture of who we are, and who are the ones with the highest needs. That feels really valuable.” Statistics NZ can’t pinpoint when this year’s data will be available, but be sure everyone at DCM will be watching to see how that data is used. “We’ve reinforced that this is about reciprocity – ‘tuki atu, tuku mai’, another of our kaupapa,” says Michelle. “We told our taumai that they give their information so, in turn, the government can support them – with enough houses, hospitals, doctors, etc. “They now feel like they have a voice, that they count. Now they are watching to see if they’ve been heard.” Freelance journalist Lee-Anne Duncan contributed this piece as a volunteer for The Community Comms Collective, whose pro bono clients include DCM. Thank you for your ongoing support, From everyone at DCM.   Click Here to Donate Now! <!-- --> Copyright © 2018 DCM, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list
    • Accepted from DCM alerts archive 67 months ago by feedreader
    • Tagged as:
    • government
    • media
    • internet
    • freelance
    • wellington
    • art
    • housing
    • hospital
    • people
  
  

• • DCM – together we can end homelessness – one very special story

    • 27 Apr 2022
    • Downtown Community Ministry
    • 96 DCM – together we can end homelessness – one very special story p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; 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} } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnImageCardLeftImageContent,.mcnImageCardRightImageContent{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-bottom:0 !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcpreview-image-uploader{ display:none !important; width:100% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h1{ font-size:30px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h2{ font-size:26px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h3{ font-size:20px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h4{ font-size:18px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .headerContainer .mcnTextContent,.headerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent,.bodyContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .footerContainer .mcnTextContent,.footerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } Many of the people DCM supports die at a young age. Today we share the story of Russell, who died two days before Christmas last year. Remembering Russell Two days before Christmas, the team from DCM stood with two police representatives down on the waterfront, at the site where the body of a man they had all supported over the years had been found that morning. After a karakia led by the police iwi liaison kaimahi, the DCM team sang waiata, beginning with “Te Hokinga Mai”...   ...TANGI ANA TE NGĀKAU I TE AROHA... How my heart weeps with sorrowful love... HEI ORANGA MO TE MŌREHU, TANGI MŌKAI NEI... The survivor cries out with loneliness... E RAPU ANA I TE ARA TIKA... Seeking out the right path...   Russell Fleming was born in Palmerston North and spent his earliest years in Levin. Later the family moved to Lower Hutt. Russell had two older sisters and two older brothers. His mother describes him as her “surprise baby”. Growing up, Russell learned many skills from his father. He loved tinkering with bikes and as an adult, this continued to be something he enjoyed. On the morning of Russell’s funeral, there was a bike in his flat which he had been working on. He rode bikes; he rode scooters. This was part of who he was. His father Hugh helped him get his heavy truck driver’s license. Russell always saw himself as a worker. This had been one of his family’s core values. Drunk or sober-ish, he would say to us “I have to get a job!”; “I have to get my truck driver’s license back.” His mother recalls how, when they were together, he would say, “You sit down, Mum. I will make you a cup of tea.” His house was clean. Even on the day of his funeral, there was his washing drying on a clothes horse indoors. Russell’s undoing was his alcohol addiction. He kind of didn’t have a choice. He faced so many challenges – addictions, mental health, a back injury and a head injury, which he attempted to address through self-medication. Combining his prescription meds with alcohol led to a seizure. Being diagnosed as epileptic meant he lost his truck driver’s license and could not work, something that was so important to him. As a result of this complexity, Russell could not access or receive the support which he needed, something we often see with the taumai we support at DCM when they experience multiple, complex issues. He did not fit in one category; the fact that he needed support around all three (mental health, addiction, cognitive impairment through head injury) meant he slipped through the cracks of secondary health services. Russell lived a mobile life, but was always drawn back to Wellington, to this area, to “home”. And so many people in Wellington were connected to him and were part of his story: his friends in the street community, the street cleaners, the Wellington City Council local hosts, his lawyer, all the different tenancy managers, Mōkai Kāinga and the community gardens – even the police were fond of him! At DCM, Russell connected with and was supported by so many of the team over the years – from the dentists, eye doctor, and Te Aro Health nurses to many DCM kaimahi. Every team at DCM was part of his journey – the Outreach team when he was rough sleeping, the Sustaining Tenancies team when he was struggling to stay in a home, and towards the end of his life, he was housed again through the Aro Mai Housing First collaboration. Here a few of those he was closest to, share their memories and reflections about Russell. Russell loved spending time with Natalia and Rob. Natalia Natalia Cleland, DCM I was the first person Russell met when he came back to Wellington in 2018. He had been living at a campsite in Nelson, and he said to me, “I can’t keep living on the street! I need a house!” He connected with people well, and was able to voice his own aspirations well. I didn’t want to be the one who told him that there was no house for him. I wanted to be in his corner, supporting him. So I put him on the line to the MSD Social Housing team. He howled and screamed down the line – “I need a house! I am going to die out here!” He absolutely demanded a house – and he got one! This is when he got his first tenancy – at Lower Hutt, just around the corner from his parents. “Yes, the housing stuff; well, it’s stuffed!” – this was probably one of the most incredible things Russell said. He was really smart and could see what was going on in the broken system. Not just looking at his personal situation but seeing that he was caught in a system that was “stuffed”. I was blown away by his insight and how he didn’t complain about his homelessness necessarily but rather he called out the problem for everyone. He was such a friendly guy, so happy and gregarious. In every photo shown at his funeral, he is smiling, laughing. This was his strength, but also the challenge. He was so connected, he didn’t always know when to step back and give others some space. His personality could be too much for others at times. Russell was always connected to his family, even in his dis-connection. He always wanted to be re-connected to them all. There was a birthday card from his parents that he kept on his mantelpiece in his final home. When we mentioned this to his mother, she said that it would have been a card from several birthdays ago. He had carried it around with him while he slept on the streets and put it on display when he moved into that final house.   “Yes, the housing stuff; well, it’s stuffed!” Russell Fleming Robert Robert Sarich, DCM How would I describe Russell? He was ENERGETIC – literally a ball of energy. And he was LOVING. He was also completely and utterly committed to social justice. I first met Russell on Lambton Quay. I was out on outreach, walking along the street en route to work early in the morning. I explained where DCM was and left him a card. “Please come down and see us,” was my kōrero. He was open to this, immediately, which was awesome. When he was housed out at the Hutt, I helped him move in. He was always positive. He was only ever negative when he was drinking. I guess that in a past time, he would have been the lovable town drunk. As I say, Russell was committed to social justice. If things were going wrong for other people, he would often raise it with us. He would tell us about the person, tell us that they needed help, tell us that it wasn’t “fair” how things were for this person. You often had to listen and reflect, wait to see what it was that Russell was getting at, what it was that was going on with the person he was concerned for. But often when you got to the heart of it, Russell was bang on. Russell was assaulted a few times, when his behaviour was just too big for others to deal with. He would advocate for himself too. I thought it was very brave; he would go to the police, name no names, but he understood he needed to do this – for himself, and for others. “If they could do it to me, they could do it to anyone, Rob!” he would reflect to me. My feeling is that Russell was a lot more settled in the final months of this life. Russell knew that he was loved, not merely tolerated. Yes, he was a loved ball of energy, dressed in a beautiful korowai. Hamish Hamish Knight, Police City Community team, Wellington I have been in the Police for 14 years, and Russell Fleming is one of those characters like Ben Hana, who you really connect with, who many people know and have connected with. He had that wow factor. He has evolved over time; he has grown and he has changed. And it’s not just that the numbers of bangles up his arm have been added to, the jewellery has changed. But some things have also stayed the same. Russell has always been pleasant to chat to. Banter. That’s the word. Russell and I enjoyed plenty of banter. He went through his camo stage, with that huge backpack, full of everything! I would pretend that I couldn’t see him in his camo gear. He would be calling out to me, and I would be going: “Who is that talking? I can’t see anyone!” Yarns – that’s another word. There were some big yarns about his life. I usually had to cut him off or we would be talking on and on and on – forever. He was talkative, yes, but he was never disrespectful of me, of police, of authority. I didn’t arrest him; there was no offending that I dealt with. I would take the alcohol off him. He would listen to reason. Like when I would explain that he was just being too loud. He knew he needed to tone it down; he just didn’t really know how to go about it. He didn’t go looking for trouble, but it did seem to find him at times. Russell seemed to be on the fringes. In so many ways. On the fringes of many friendship groups, but never at the heart; never quite experiencing the connections and close friendships he seemed to want. That was a bit sad, watching him try to find a place he belonged.   “I am a homeless person. But I look out for others.” Russell Fleming Joe Pastor Joe Serevi, Salvation Army I first met Russell at DCM. He was sitting outside, and he wasn’t having a good day. I said to him, “Come on, let’s go for a walk and have a chat.” I took him for a cuppa. Russell just loved to talk, and that’s how I began to connect with him. Russell was such a character, with his great big backpack, and his military fatigues. He was intelligent, and this shone through whenever you had a kōrero with him, especially when he was sober. He was one of the more challenging people on the streets, and he found it very challenging when he got housed. Those four walls and living alone were difficult for him. Russell was someone who really needed and was always seeking connection with other people. I was privileged to be one of those people, and to be able to support him in different ways over the years. Russell Russell Fleming, in his own words Many of you have “met” Russell through DCM’s film clip. He was keen to be involved with this – he saw it as a way to lift up DCM and acknowledge the support he, and others, had received from the team. At the time, he was rough sleeping. In amongst all of the film footage which Ocular shot while making the DCM film clip are conversations which the film crew had with Russell. Producer Steph Miller pulled some of these reflections out for us this month. There is Russell, in his own words, talking about his life and about homelessness. He speaks about the complexity – of being so used to the street that he often felt more settled there:   “It’s hard. Every time I go in to a house, I am used to being out here.” “A house. It’s just four walls, you just sit there and do nothing. Whereas out on the street… I guess it’s more of a social thing.” ...while at the same time being totally over it, and wanting to have a safe place to be – ”But then again, you want a house cos you are sick of it.” He asks the film crew – “If you were homeless...would you be able to go to sleep at night, in the cold, in the wind, in the rain?” Over and over again, Russell lifts up DCM.    “Natalia is a lovely person; she has put me in to a few houses and stuff”; “Natalia and that; they are cool. DCM are cool fellows!” At the same time, he draws attention to the key underlying issue – too many people experiencing homelessness and too few houses:   “Natalia and DCM; they are doing a really good job! But they have had to help so many people.” “DCM have so much on their plate, dealing with so many homeless people!” “Yes, the housing stuff; well, it’s stuffed!”   And his own kaupapa and commitment to others also comes through, as he shares examples of times when he has been able to help others, especially young people experiencing homelessness and addictions.   “I am a homeless person. But I look out for others”.   Sia Sia To’omaga, DCM Russell was little, and loud, and often all over the place with his thoughts, with his kōrero. When he was referred to our team, he had a property in the Hutt, back when DCM’s Sustaining Tenancies team was still covering the Hutt. When he was living on the streets, he was bullied. I would go out and look for him, go out and find him. He found a safe space for himself, up by parliament. We knew where to find him. At DCM, we have housed him three or four times, and have tried some different options. The challenges were always around his drinking and his behaviour. He could get to a situation where he didn’t feel safe in the whare or living situation we had sorted for him, and then he would return to the street. One day a few months before his death, he came in to DCM; he was drunk and he was loud. He was calling out to me. “I am going on a course, Sia! Then I can get a job.” He had this card; he was anxious that he might have missed the course, the chance to do this. I was asking him to calm down and to explain what was going on slowly and carefully to me. Here I was trying to call the number on the card – and then a phone call came through! Magic, amazing timing. It wasn’t the same name or number as on the card, but it was a man named Tone, calling to ask DCM about Russell and the course. Tone and I figured out that we knew each other, and we were able to make sure there was a spot on the course reserved for Russell. But it wasn’t going to be easy. When I heard that this training course was going to be at a place at the bottom of Ngauranga Gorge, and that it was going to begin at 7.30am – well, I did not know how Russell was going to get to the right place at the right time. But you know what? He made it! And he completed the course!   The last time I saw Russell, I congratulated him on passing the course. He showed me photos of his house on his phone. I said to him “Wow, Russell! You could eat off the floor. It is so tidy! Well done.” Russell kept a beautiful home.   Yes, many things were going well for Russell in the final months of his life. He was housed – in a home provided by a private landlord. He was more settled and was feeling very hopeful that he would soon be able to work again. After his death, Tone called Sia to ask how he could forward on Russell’s certificate. Sia had to let him know that Russell had passed away, but that the team would love to pick up the certificate. Russell would have been so proud of this achievement, and sharing it with the team at DCM has been another way of acknowledging him, and all that he meant to so many. Two days before Christmas, the team from DCM stood with two police representatives down on the waterfront, at the spot where Russell’s body had been found that morning. With Rob Sarich on guitar, the team sang waiata, ending with “Ma te kahukura”... MAU ANA TĀKU AROHA Cloak yourself with my love WHAI AKE I NGĀ WHETU Follow the pathway to the stars RERE TŌTIKA RERE PAI Fly straight, fly true RERE RUNGA RAWA RĀ E Soar high towards the heavens. Russell Mark Fleming 31 Mar 1974 – 23 December 2021 “A loved ball of energy” <!-- --> Support DCM We call the people we work with taumai, meaning to settle. This reflects the journey we set out on together – to become settled, stable and well. Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi With your basket and my basket, the people will thrive <!-- --> Copyright © 2022 DCM. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: DCMPO Box 6133Marion SqWellington, Wellington 6011 New ZealandAdd us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
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    The artist as many other things first

    • 16 Feb 2023
    • Urban Dream Brokerage
    • Holly McEntegart in conversation with Anne Noble, facilitated by Mark Amery <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Anne Noble Merging her work as an artist, mother and full spectrum doula, Holli McEntegart recently brought something remarkably different to the bustle of Wellington’s Courtenay Place, in an exploration of art as a social practice.  Providing a warm, calm space for participation, Inhabit brought together mothers and their infants to examine how community, cultural and whānau postpartum care has changed in Aotearoa, sharing experiences in real-time and as oral history. A private issue was brought into a public realm. Rethinking the artist’s role in society, McEntegart was supported by artist Anne Noble in a project commissioned by Letting Space for vacant space activators Urban Dream Brokerage. McEntegart now has plans to bring the project to Auckland.  Here are Holli and Anne in conversation. Mark Amery Anne Noble: Letting Space and Urban Dream Brokerage have made a really remarkable contribution to the Wellington art scene. Letting Space positioned itself as an entity that sits outside the conventional domain of the gallery, where the artist is mostly defined e as a producer of objects and artefacts. They offered an experimental space and an invitation to artists to expand the ecology of contemporary art and provide support for them to provide a new kind of experience for communities and publics to engage with contemporary art I see Inhabit as a perfect example of the kind of project that Letting Space and Urban Dream Brokerage were established to nurture, enable and support.  When I first thought about your ambition for Inhabit: to marry both your practices as an artist and a full spectrum doula, one of my first questions was about the expanded role of the artist in a social practice. How is your work first and foremost art while being shaped by other practices and concerns?   What came to mind was a book [^1] I’ve had on my bookshelf, which has on its cover The Artist As followed by a list: that includes such descriptors of the artist as .. producer; the artist as… archivist; the artist as… ethnographer; the artist as… catalyst; the artist as… orchestrator; the artist as… poet; the artist as… curator. And it ends with this really beautiful phrase in capital letters: AND MANY OTHER THINGS FIRST. This points to the fundamental premise of your art practice - driven and formed by another whole domain of expertise, professional practice, experience and activist concerns. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Anne Noble | Infant massage with Jo Chambers. From left: Megan Rodgers and Jasper, Jo Chambers from Blissful Bubs You define yourself as a social practice artist but you also practice as a full spectrum doula.   How did you arrive at the idea of merging your practice as an artist with your life as a mother, your interest in the post-partum experience and your activism in this space?    Holli McEntegart: You and I talked a lot about the artist as a conduit; or as activator. As a young artist I was always really interested in capturing images of moments that had complicated stories behind them. I realised that my interest was often more in the story; how we got to this point; the full stop. The work was always, for me, in the negotiation of  getting to that image - with the image itself feeling lacklustre in comparison to that journey. Then when I moved to Pittsburgh to complete my Masters I found that there was a greater focus on social practice as a role for the artmaker. The driving need for me has always been to build relationships, and therefore community. So when I was taking photographs I would spend months getting to know people, navigating the permission, not just to be there, but to be accepted; to belong. I’ve joined every group under the sun! A loon (an aquatic bird) counting group in Maine, a porcelain painting group in Mt Albert, a bluegrass group, banjo club and a barbershop quartet in Pittsburgh, and a cake decorating group in Otara, to name a few. But I didn't feel like I had the right to be there unless I was really an accepted part of the community. That came to a head for me in Pittsburgh when I joined a  semi-gated spiritualist community called Lily Dale, and began making work out of the readings they were doing for me. I would spend eight months with them before I could make that work. By the time I was living in New York there were many grants, residencies and galleries supporting a socially engaged framework of art making. My eyes were opened to the fact that this community exchange and the energy I was investing into relationship building was not only valid, it was the work.That really gave me permission to move past just documenting my work with photographs or videos and writing and to pull the focus back to the process, the making and the relationship tending.  Research is a huge part of my process, whatever I’m working on I’m always off down a research tunnel. So, when I got pregnant in New York with my first child Arlo I went on a huge journey to understand pregnancy, birth and everything that was happening to my body. I discovered that in New York City, the maternal mortality rate in pregnancy, birth and early postpartum is astoundingly high, and that black women are 12 times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. OB’s are often pushing for a lot of unnecessary interventions within the hospital system and midwives are not as commonly used, though that is changing. I come from a family of home birthers in New Zealand, it was normalised and seemed like the obvious place for me to birth, but only around 1.5% of people give birth at home in the US, so it's quite a radical thing to do in that context.  I was so lucky that I had a neighbour and friend who was training to be a midwife and was working as a birth doula. Through her I discovered this group of folks called doulas. I started learning about the role they play in birth work, about reproductive and birth justice advocacy, and about everything I was going to need to know to birth my baby at home while being supported by a midwife and doula team. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Anne Noble New York City is so compact, we had a tiny apartment and I had a home studio. My son, Arlo, was born underwater, in a birth pool on my studio floor. At that point I had been working for some time within these spiritualist communities. I had been really delving into why people were seeking healing in these communities and what it meant to be constantly practising these healing rituals. Birthing my son in my studio was like an epiphany, I was on a healing journey myself and this was a part of the work.  Birth was incredibly healing for me at that point in my life and then, like many people, postpartum was a completely different beast. Like most people experiencing giving birth far from their home and family, I just felt an intense lack of support from the world. And with that a deep loneliness. I was so homesick. My parents came to visit for two weeks which was incredible, but it went so fast. A few good friends showed up as best they could but I was living and working as an artist in New York, I didn’t know anyone with babies or even young kids. People are busy - for everyone else, life goes on. It’s the postpartum person that is stuck in stillness, but constantly working. It was a totally different world. You get the sense  that everybody shows up for birth, everyones interested, you learn so much about pregnancy and childbirth, tracking the changes in your body all the way through to this kind of event, and then everyone leaves, and you’re left in charge of a human. It’s wild, uncharted territory and no-one’s told you that much, or what they have told you is irrelevant, biassed, outdated and sometimes even harmful. I longed for my family, mostly for my mum. I found myself floating out to sea, and there was a realisation that no one was going to rescue me - I had to rescue myself. And to do that I needed  to dive even deeper into what was happening to me, go down that research tunnel again and find out what support there was in the world and how I could heal.  That led to me doing Seen, a postpartum doula mentorship programme with Birdsong Brooklyn, and learning constantly - four or five months too late - what could have rescued me before I needed rescuing! It was eye opening and there was a lot of deep grief about the care I had missed out on, and the ways I could have been  supported. I was diving deeply into the profoundness of becoming a mother and the reality of how much is lacking in the world in supporting new parents. I just fell in love with this idea that we could be healing collectively if we just looked after each other better and shared our knowledge.  I built my community from that in New York in that first year of parenting. At that point I had been  working for three years as the studio manager for an incredible artist, Janine Antoni, who is also a parent and understands that mothering work. It was a huge question for me: how do I keep working in the world as an artist, be able to show up as a mother and earn enough money to live? How do I juggle all of this and stay tethered to myself? I gave birth to my son when I was 38 and I was being called a geriatric mother by the medical system. It scared me. I wanted to breathe in my baby, just inhale him and not miss a second. But  how do I do that and keep up my practice? Well… I just gave birth to my son in my studio…. It was these layers of realisation: this labour is the work. I have to reframe my life so that this labour of the home, the labour of care, of mothering, is seen and valued. So I left my job in the studio with Janine and went straight into postpartum doula training. I needed to be immersed in the community in the same way I had been with the spiritualists or the cake decorators or the bird counters in Maine. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Holli McEntegart | Multiples Feeding Support Group. From left: Jessie Lee Broadbent, anon Anne: You have talked about your journey as a photographer engaging with communities, and how the outcome can be separated from those experiences that feel like part of the work. That is n true for many documentary photography projects.You’ve also described beautifully your dissatisfaction with being both outside a subject and yet needing to be  right in the heart of it.  The notion of a social practice artist is less common in New Zealand than in the US. It has currency in art schools, but my instinct when we first met and talked was that you have a really highly evolved practice in which you prioritise your  relationship as an artist to the post-partum communities you engage with  Your work  begins with you your life as a mother and your practice as a doula being the site of public art activism, of making the post-partum world experience shared and visible. How have you then addressed the visibility of this as an artwork? You only need to look at the project website to see the level of community engagement and the number of people you have drawn into this space. It’s really significant. Those workshops - people flocked to them. But to make it public, visible to participants and to audiences how does that work?  Holli: What comes first for me is the relationship, being a good community member and trust. I come at relationship building and getting people involved with their whole heart; with a genuine interest and respect. I have to have something at risk as well. Inhabit was a year in the making, but the day we opened, with a multiples lactation support workshop. We had six twin mums and probably six assistants or helpers, including grandmas, friends, lactation and doula support. That's 12 babies plus Indigo [Holli’s own baby]. Over 24 bodies breathing life into the space. That was the moment that the work became art; that it became an artwork. It was activated by the community of people in the room and their energy. Up until then there’s a lot of risk on my part because I don’t know who is going to show up and what they will bring on the day. The work is filled with intention but it has to meet people where they are and vice versa, and for that reason, it’s never the same, it evolves and unfolds and, much like mothering, I must surrender to it.   I think I’m comfortable leaning into the unknown. Within a socially engaged practice you really don’t know how your participants or your audience (the public) are going to enter the work.  I consider the folks facilitating  workshops my co-creators. There were six months of emailing and zoom conversations about what I was making with that final group of people, so many conversations about what the community needed. And then there was a point when  they came to me with a  plan to set up this specific workshop for multiples families. They were asking for my permission, and I was overjoyed because, it was at that point that they took ownership and really began to have agency within the work. That was the moment when the community was activated, they started creating what they needed under the umbrella that I offered - this community activation was where the social practice aspect of the work really came into play. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Milan Maric | Combined yoga and Infant massage workshop with Emma Chen Flitcroft and Jo Chambers I was coming to Wellington, into a community I’m not from, so I’m constantly asking myself, how do I leave this space better than when I got here?  Within social practice I think there is a very real responsibility to care for the community you're working in and to make sure there are ongoing care agreements in that community. Everyone that provided a workshop for Inhabit offers free or sliding scale services that could continue to be accessed after Inhabit closed for example.  Anne: That’s a beautiful description of the artist as catalyst. I’m very fond of the notion that when an artist plays those roles, the artist in a conventional sense disappears to become a  generating and catalysing force  Holli: I’m interested in the way my role shifted from facilitator to participant, or mother , or host. Hourly that changed. Originally I thought I would be facilitating some workshops but I didn't end up doing that because so many people wanted to facilitate their own. At the beginning of each workshop I would introduce the project and really ground it back into the context of an artwork, to remind people they were participating in something both bigger than them, but also inherently generated by them, and then I would participate alongside them. I was  never an observer, I was a participant.  I think it’s really important I have the ability to be part of what’s happening as opposed to being an outsider. Learning, participating and being vulnerable. That vulnerability permissions other people in the space to also be vulnerable. It’s not like, as you’re describing Anne, that ‘‘you’re the artist and you’re over there’ on a pedestal. The process is about me sinking back into the work. It’s a dance between making sure people feel like they are being held and acknowledged and the space is being tended to in the correct way, but not dominating it. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Anne Noble Anne: As a public artwork, positioned in Courtenay Place, it was a really beautiful intervention with really subtle signage and this glowing light masked by a wall of handmade stitched together nappies! It offered a surprising encounter that was intriguingly signposted and people were welcomed to just stop and to consider what it might be - as a public art project.  Sometimes I was amazed at the number of people participating and how  the work created an opportunity for a community to assemble. How did you introduce participants to the process of being part of something for them but also part of something larger? Of being participants and collaborators in Inhabit as an artwork. Holli: That was definitely one of my biggest challenges. There were a couple of things I did practically. Even before Inhabit opened I worked very hard to centre the project in the community with this drawing project that involved - six Love Note posters that were plastered repetitively around the city in the two weeks leading up to our opening. I was documenting them in situ and sending images of them to people when they were signing up for the workshops as well as using them in social media. So there was a centring of it as an art project before they arrived. Most people had seen these drawings and then saw the wall of Love Notes  growing on the wall when they came into the space. I introduced that as a collaborative drawing project and really impressed the importance of adding everyone's voice to that growing archive.   <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Lily Dowd I constantly was re-centring it as an artwork in this way all the time, and encouraging the public  to participate, reminding them of what they are a part of. I see the Love Notes as the beginning of an archive of postpartum stories - a collection. And that maybe this is how we start something: a movement, a book, an archive - we just have to start putting our stories on the wall. I think that grew really organically and became a way for people to gently  be reminded of the fact that they were a part of an artwork, and then they forgot about it - which was great. Someone hands them a bowl of soup, nourishes them, checks in and makes sure they’re OK. Offers to hold their baby.  and that energy of care flows into the space and  people feel really comfortable. And that comfort was there in part because I was there visibly parenting, making the work. Creating a space that makes visible the lived experience of parenting, and artmaking at the same time.   <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Anne Noble As it transpired there was very little foot traffic, and actually the space needed to be very protected, intimate and gate kept. So the curtain that I made really provided a level of intimacy. It is another drawing project I had been working on as a part of the show, but I didn’t quite know where it would fit. I’ve been collecting these used flat nappies. They are very identifiable, heavily washed and starched white cotton with a red stripe down the side. They are the kind of do everything cloth of motherhood. So representative of the labour of the home. Soaking up the mess of it all. I’ve been stamping all over them with my own mother at my kitchen table, “Ssshhhhhh sshhh shhh ssshhh shh shh shh…” On the first day of installation it was clear to me that we needed to be able to transform the space into a private, intimate one, and to open it up to the world. Sewing the nappies together to make a curtain was a wonderful way to create that boundary between public and private. And then at the end of the last workshop I was really inspired to “pull back that curtain” and be seen. I called you and asked you to document this moment of being seen in parenting and artmaking. It was such a moment of connectivity and community connection. There’s now two groups I believe that came together at Inhabit and are continuing to meet. It was great to cultivate this level of nurturance and community engagement  in a place like Courtenay Place - buses, cars and people with so much going-to-work energy,  once we pulled back that curtain I think people were taken aback by it “there are so many babies!” <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Milan Maric | Combined yoga and Infant massage workshop with Emma Chen Flitcroft and Jo Chambers Anne: Yes it was a brightly lit window that glowed like a little jewel! And was such a surprising experience walking by. You’ve described the artist as a generator and how there is a legacy for participants beyond the exhibition space. What were some of the highpoints during Inhabit and some of those legacies? Holli: The highest high was our opening, that first day. 13 babies in the space. One of the sets of twins was only five weeks old and it was their first time out of the house and their mum had driven an hour to get there, they spent all day with us. Any future Inhabit projects will always open with a multiples workshop  because these folks are the least catered for within the system. The world was not made for people birthing two or three babies at a time… So to have this space where people were surrounded by support and advice and understanding. It was so magic and it was so clear there was a need for that.  I think that in the current Covid climate people are feeling so much more isolated and unable to get out of the house. Opportunities for connection that were available to parents pre covid often aren't now, like community or library meetups and coffee groups. Many people were speaking of coming to Inhabit  as the first time they’d been to a group outside the home, there is a lot of isolation and fear out there, and a deep lack in support services. A few people who weren’t parents had some very interesting interactions with the space as an artwork, which I found fascinating. Some really generative conversations came from them being confronted: that they were coming to a public  exhibition, and were questioning ‘what is this?!’ I had very interesting conversations with other artists about what participation looks like when you’re not a parent. For parents their participation was organic but for others, it felt very different. They accessed it through my facilitation and it was interesting seeing them sink into comfort because they were being cared for; getting down on the floor and playing with Indigo. Having some soup, and learning about traditions of postpartum care and methodologies. I’m interested in pulling back the veil on this kind of care work because we can all benefit from learning how to tend to our communities and families. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Milan Maric Another highlight was my involvement with Little Shadow. They run perinatal mental health support groups in the Wellington region and virtually across the motu. They were so supportive of this project. They really saw the power of what Inhabit created in offering an entrance point  to conversations about perinatal mental health that are softer and more nurturing than how it’s often tackled when people are looking for support within a healthcare system. Inhabit provides nourishing food, a space to express yourself creatively, a place to move your postpartum body,  and a room full of folks on a similar path. Once there, we are able to get into the nitty gritty of what we are all experiencing because the space itself is so tended to. Something that I repeat all the time is that I’m examining patterns of care, whilst caring for our communities. I want to decolonise postpartum care so that we may all gain the knowledge of how to care for each other. Then there was that final reveal, pulling back that curtain. I felt I was truly being seen as my whole self in the work. Before that point I was a shapeshifter facilitating everybody else's journey. But at that moment I was in my deeply creative space of making and mothering as I  finished the project. It felt like closure and an answer to that question of how I can be an artist, make work and be a parent. It struck me how that question has deeply impacted my relationships with people and how I move in the world.  In my first few days in Wellington I had a clear vision of that image we captured at the  end. I saw the room glowing with light, semi dark outside and the interior being a place of making and of process. A gallery, and a living room and a studio and a feeding place. Where bums are getting changed, a place where all of life is happening at the same time. And that the public are walking past and peeking in. The labour of parenthood and of artmaking is usually so invisible. That moment at the end just felt like: let’s get it all on display! <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Milan Maric <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Milan Maric Anne: I love what you say about risk. Because if art doesn't involve risk it doesn't leave the opportunity for engagement - If it's there and says it all it doesn’t ask very much of people. The way both your processes of making and lived experience are entirely central to the work raises questions for people coming in off the street  - challenging their notions about art - and confronts them with the invisibility of the post-partum experience. Can you talk about how Inhabit is an evolving work? How it’s more than  a one-off event where communities come together and are potentially transformed. How is the  website a part of the evolution of the work? Holli: If you are thinking about community engagement and looking at different types of communities' needs then you’ve got to move around those communities. My vision for Inhabit was always that it would move around the motu. One of the things I thought was important about the experience in Wellington was that it felt disruptive. It felt radical. It was an  interesting way to inhabit vacant space in the CBD and disrupt a community. It ignited something that people were aware they needed, but no-one knew how to connect on and build.  <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Anne Noble I think there’s a lot of power in Inhabit travelling around regionally and disrupting systems in ways that are really positive and ignite connection. I think of little things growing, sprouting. And of having this homebase of an archive online where we can collect and hold these postpartum stories and learn from what we’ve been doing here to better support communities. Anne: Thanks Holli - for the pleasure of being a small part of this project with you.  Anne Noble (Laureate), ONZM, is a photographer and curator whose work spans still and moving image, installation and international curatorial commissions. Over multiple projects Annne Noble has considered the significance of memory and imagination to personal and cultural narratives of place and belonging.Holli McEntegart is an interdisciplinary artist using social practice, video, performance, photography and text. She holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Photography (NZ), and a Masters of Visual Art and Design from Auckland University of Technology (NZ), which included a one year MFA scholarship at Carnegie Mellon School of Art, Pittsburgh (USA). In 2014  she was an artist in residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine (USA). Her work has been performed and exhibited throughout the USA and New Zealand. In 2018 she trained as a Full Spectrum Doula after giving birth to her first son in Brooklyn, New York. Returning to Aotearoa in 2020, where she continues her work as an artist and as a Reproductive Justice Advocate. Holli is now an island named Mother to two boys, aged 4 and 9 months.  <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Holli McEntegart | Multiples Feeding Support Group - From left; Anon, Georgie Manning, Jessie [^1]: Aileen Burns, Tara McDowell, and Johan Lundh, The Artist As Producer, Quarry, Thread, Director, Writer, Orchestrator, Ethnographer, Choreographer, Poet, Archivist, Forger, Curator, and Many Other Things First. Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Curatorial Practice at Monash University, Melbourne and Sternberg Press, 2018.
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