Saturday Morning for Saturday 18 June 2022

8.10 Dr Anna Powles: what is the ‘Pacific family’?

The phrase 'Pacific family' seems to be gathering steam of late. Earlier this week, visiting Australian foreign minister Penny Wong said Pacific security should be provided by the Pacific family, in the wake of China looking to sign sweeping trade and security agreements with 10 countries across the region. Beijing already signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands which was leaked back in March.

While China’s multilateral proposal is currently on pause, it’s one of the topics tabled for discussion at the Pacific Islands Forum taking place in mid-July.

Dr Anna Powles is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at Massey University. Her research focuses on geopolitics, security and conflict in the Pacific Islands region.

 

8.35 Kevin McArevey: teaching philosophy to north Belfast youth

By sharing his passion for the wisdom of ancient Greek philosophers, maverick headmaster Kevin McArevey has made a profound difference to the pupils at Holy Cross Boys Primary School in North Belfast.

The school, which has about 400 students, sits in the middle of the working-class district of Ardoyne. It’s an area that gained notoriety due to the large number of violent incidents during The Troubles, and has been plagued for generations by poverty, drugs and guns.

The documentary Young Plato is screening as part of the DocEdge Festival with its first screening at The Capitol Cinema in Auckland on Sunday 19 June. Click here for more information.

 

9.05 Mary Gaitskill: the writer unafraid of unpopular opinion

American writer Mary Gaitskill traverses a lot of ground in her new collection of provocative essays, Oppositions. Compelling and oddly cohesive, the essays see Gaitskill put her sharp writing style and nuanced mind to a wide range of topics including the Book of Revelation, Nabokov and the ubiquitous music of Talking Heads.

Gaitskill's other works include Bad Behavior and This is Pleasure. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002, and her work has appeared in many publications including The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine and Esquire.

 

9.35 Gerry Paul: getting good ‘n greasy with the T-Bone band

Local bluegrass band T-Bone is releasing their debut album Good ‘n Greasy this week, which will be followed by a jaunt around the North Island kicking off at the end of the month.

The ensemble is an eclectic bunch: a mandolin-playing ex-chef from the Far North, a fiddle-playing wine importer from New Jersey, a guitar-slinging laboratory assistant from Taranaki, a gardening double bassist from Karori, and a Dublin-born spearfishing songwriter.

Gerry Paul, the aforementioned songwriter and the group’s co-founder, has toured the world with some of the biggest names in folk music. These days he lives in Northland, where he also manages the Turner Centre arts venue in Kerikeri.

 

10.05 Prof Nichola Raihani: ‘cooperation is a form of competition’

Before the advent of the nuclear family, children were reared by many people including ‘post-reproductive’ members of the family: grandmothers. 

In her new book The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Saved the World, evolutionary biologist Nichola Rahani writes that being 'cooperative breeders' is how humans have survived. But she says at its heart, cooperation is a way individuals compete to improve their position in the world.

Raihani is a Professor in Evolution and Behaviour at the University College London.

 

10.35 Rena Owen: tackling the role of a lifetime in Whina

Rena Owen has played everyone from Beth Heke in Once Were Warriors to Nee Alavar in Star Wars, but the actress says playing Dame Whina Cooper was one of the most challenging roles of her 30-plus year career.

Cooper, who is the subject of new film Whina, lived a trailblazing life. In 1975, at the age of 79, she led a 1000 kilometre land march from the Far North to parliament, protesting against the continued loss of Māori land. She worked tirelessly to improve the rights of her people, especially women, earning the title Te Whāea-o-te-motu, meaning Mother of the Nation.

Whina was co-directed by James Napier Robertson and Paula Whetu Jones and opens in cinemas Thursday 23 June.

 

11.05 Playing Favourites with Professor Rangi Matamua 

Rangi Matamua has been helping people rediscover the connection that we all have to the cosmos, leading to what has been a dream for him: New Zealand celebrating Matariki as a public holiday, Friday 24 June. 

A professor of Mātauranga Māori at Massey University, the chair of the Matariki Advisory Board, and a fifth generation Tūhoe astronomer, Matamua has revolutionised our contemporary understanding of Māori astronomy.

He is well-known for his video series Living By The Stars and is the author of three books, including the recently-released Matariki Around the World, written with Miriama Kamo.

 

 

Books mentioned in this show:

Oppositions
By Mary Gaitskill
Publisher: Serpent's Tail
ISBN: 9781788168151

The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Saved the World 
By Nichola Raihani
Published by Penguin 
ISBN: 9781787332041

Matariki Around the World
By Rangi Matamua and Miriama Kamo
Published by Scholastic
ISBN: 9781775437420

 

Songs featured in this show:

Milk cow Blues Boogie
Elvis Presley
Played at 8.35am

T-Bone Rag
T-Bone
Played at 9.40am

Far North
T-Bone
Played at 9.57am

War
Bob Marley
Played at 11.15am

Girlfriend
Michael Jackson
Played at 11.25am

Sultans of Swing
Dire Straits
Played at 11.45am

Hiwa-i-te-rangi
Maisey Rika
Played at 11.57am