Saturday Morning for Saturday 10 December 2022

8.10 Hon. Ralph Regenvanu: Vanuatu demands climate change justice 

One of the countries most under threat from climate change, Pacific neighbour Vanuatu is taking a lead in the fight against climate change. The Republic is building a coalition of countries seeking an Advisory Opinion on Climate Change from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). 

Their campaign gained momentum at COP27, winning the support of almost half of the nearly 200 countries. They are asking the ICJ to clarify what obligations governments have to protect their own populations and others and hope to win a vote at the United Nations General Assembly early in the new year. 

8.40  Prof Catherine Fowler: the greatest film you’ve never seen

It’s a film some people say is like watching paint dry, whilst others say it will change your life. And it’s the film that this month 1600 film critics and academics voted the greatest film of all time, knocking Vertigo from the top slot.

1975’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels, by Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman is a three hour and 21 minute long film following the daily routine of a widow, whose chores include making the beds, cooking dinner, and turning the occasional trick.

Otago University Professor in Film and Media Catherine Fowler has been studying the film for 30 years and this year published a study of the film for the British FiIm Institute Classic book series. 

An example ahead of its time of slow cinema, Fowler describes it as a “contrary classic” -  choosing to do what other films don’t: stay in the kitchen. 

9.05 Sir Hugh Rennie: overcoming 150 years of NZ misrule in the Chathams

In 1990, writes Sir Hugh Rennie in Chathams Resurgent: How the Islanders overcame 150 years of misrule, the islanders had lived with “years of muddlement, some good intentions, financial waste, exploitation and theft and failure to deliver democratic rights and basic infrastructure.” 

Their increased independence since, he believes, has been a success story that might offer a lesson for other parts of Aotearoa misunderstood and neglected by government.

Sir Hugh Rennie CBE QC is a retired lawyer, director and trustee whose involvement in the Chathams spans more than 50 years, including 11 years from 1990 as first chair of the Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust. Rennie was knighted in 2022 for services to governance, the law, business and the community.

9.40 Jonathan McDowell: a year of space exploration in review

It's been a busy year for space exploration. Phase one of NASA's Artemis mission is scheduled to conclude on Monday, bringing us spellbinding new images of our moon. 

Meanwhile, jostling for position as a space superpower is China, which has just completed its own Tiangong space station and successfully returned three astronauts back to earth, after six months aboard.
 
Elsewhere, the European Space Agency has included an amputee as part of its latest intake of trainee astronauts for the first time, adding to efforts to make space exploration more inclusive. 

Joining Kim to reflect on these developments and look ahead is Dr Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 

10.05 Brad DeLong: the modern dream slouches towards utopia 

If you had told people 150 years ago how well off the world would become, they would have anticipated paradise. So why do things feel so broken?
 
A former advisor to President Clinton and a professor of economic history at Berkeley, Brad DeLong’s magnum opus Slouching Towards Utopia is a big 150 year history of the creation of the modern world. It begins in 1870, with the birth of free market capitalism and the industrial research lab, and takes in the rise of globalisation and the multinational corporation before bringing us to the present.

10.40 Jaye Pukepuke: the bro helping at-risk youth 

“It's easier to build strong children, than repair a broken man” is Jaye Pukepuke’s favourite quote. And he knows, because he has done both.

Pukepuke has rebuilt himself after going off the rails as a teen, ending up in jail and, as a result, derailing a promising professional rugby league career.

As the founder and director of Christchurch based alternative education programme Bros for Change his mission is to guide vulnerable rangatahi tāne so they fulfill their potential and don’t miss out on opportunities. 

The twenty-week long kaupapa Māori programme uses outdoor adventures, mau rākau (traditional martial art), haka, and traditional food gathering practices to build connection and resilience.   

11.05 Prof Mike Parker Pearson: new discoveries about Stonehenge’s purpose and origins

Stonehenge discoveries have been numerous in recent years, with new techniques allowing us to learn more about a monument so ancient there are no records to explain why or how it was created. 

A leader in this research is archaeology professor Mike Parker Pearson. A specialist in the Neolithic British Isles, he is curator of exhibition Secrets of Stonehenge, opening at Auckland Museum December 15. It features over 300 objects from archaeological digs, including stone tools, antler picks, pottery, gold and bronze burial objects. 

Parker Pearson led the discovery nearby in 2005 of the remains of the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain - Durrington Walls. He says its houses provide insights into how the builders of Stonehenge lived. 

In 2020 a mysterious ring of pits, up to 10 metres across and five metres deep was discovered.  ‘Durrington Pits’ is 20 times bigger than Stonehenge and its construction has been dated to 2400-2500 BC. 

11.40 Kate Louise Elliot: the power of theatre in a community 

In the play-within-a-play which is Thomas Sainsbury and Chris Parker's The Opening Night Before Christmas, the Levin Community Players are presenting the town's annual Christmas pageant. It's currently being produced up the road at Palmerston North's Centrepoint Theatre, with real-life Centrepoint general manager and artistic director Kate Louise Elliot playing the writer and director of Levin's show.  

Elliot knows all about the comedy and tragedy of theatre. She's both a veteran actor of stage and screen and one of the country's most respected theatre managers. Credited with turning Centrepoint around since she took over in 2017, it's the only surviving professional theatre company in regional Aotearoa. Elliot first started performing there 25 years ago.

After Christmas Kate is set to take a role in the Auckland Theatre Company's The Heartbreak Choir. It's about another subject straight out of her own songbook - a regional community choir. 
 

Books featured on this show:

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles 
By Catherine Fowler
Published by British Film Institute
ISBN: 1839022825 

Chathams Resurgent: How the Islanders overcame 150 years of misrule
By Hugh Rennie
Published by Fraser Books
ISBN: 9781991164421

Slouching Towards Utopia
By Brad Du Long
Published by John Murray Press
ISBN: 9781399803410