Posts by Kerry Weston
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the "brain of the head" versus the "brain of the hands."
Yep, I'm right with that man. It bothers me that we are losing manual skills, building things by hand, and the appreciation of materials like wood, clay, stone, bone. It's the time one has to put in to using handtools well, and a few power tools (not a complete Luddite) and discovering the character of materials, before you even get to make something good that is being lost. Simply through not enough time to be economic. There is a real mindless, sensual joy in making something yourself, whether it is a piece of furniture, a carving, a painting, a piece of jewellery. Once you have the skills down, your hands know what to do and your imagination/subconscious can propel them anywhere you want to go.
Sigh. i was born in the wrong age. -
As far as the Euro mindset goes, with regard to explorers, first settlers & wanderers - i hadn't realised how much it was conditioned by fantasy. Utopian literature was around - one I came across by a guy called Gabriel de Foigny "The Southern Land, Known" from 1676 was about an imaginary voyage to Terra Australis, which he conceived as "there, such qualities [of society] will be fully antipodal to European norms; an artificial perfection of the environment...complemented by human perfection." Plainly a fantasist, his Australians are physically and culturally identical, who know of no differences capable of arousing passion or causing conflict - they have achieved an ideal harmony.(!) They are also hermaphrodites.
Omai - i kept wishing he had left a diary or something. It must have been mind blowing for him. Thanks for the extra on him, Dyan, and the Thomas book, Stephen.
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Walker's book is fascinating, very well written and irrestistable if you have any interest in NZ's history, but hardly anyone read it.
Guilty! That one's been too far down the reading list....have to start a "must read over summer' pile. I was interested in Omai, who Cook took back to England and was celebrated in aristo circles, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds and written about (poems to porn) extensively. Is Omai the same person as Tupia?
Some years ago (when i had more time to wander & absorb) I visited some old whare in the East Cape area, a round house near Frasertown or somewhere not far from Wairoa, that looked very like Rua's roundhouse that got destroyed. Quite stunning. And isolated whare that were painted rather than carved, quite folk artish. Places like Lake Waikeremoana & various spots on the Cape are very affecting - on visceral/sensual/intuitive levels. I always feel like I could slip back in time there. Stumbled across other places that have some gathered intensity around, maybe, what has happened there. I once ran for my life in a bush reserve just off a highway, when overcome by irrational fear and later found it was the site of a massacre, I think around Te Kooti's bush fighting etc era in northern HB/ Tuhoe country.
It totally fascinates me that, until the mid-late 19thC, there were two astonishingly different cultures here whose interactions were multifarious and that in the areas where Maori predominated, there was actually quite alot of Euro acceptance and willingness to live alongside each other. Until greed got in the way. I'd be v. interested to research journals of artists, photographers, wanderers - those Euro whose prime interest was not in acquiring land. Another on my to-do list is reading Maori newspapers, esp round Kingitanga. -
And here was me thinking at last someone is blogging the Bristol Stool Chart
PMSL - and that'd make Perigo a type 2 then?-
I really don't get the Ayn Rand obsession - I read Fountainhead & Atlas Shrugged years ago, but they never struck me as awe inspiring. And to describe the Veitch thing as tall poppy lopping is just crazy & desperate.
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this kind of tribal history is something we need more of, and the more and the sooner, the better. It’s still too easy to consign New Zealand history to a single story of colonial exploitation.
Agreed, we need to do it before it's all been buried deeper. Looking forward to the new Ward film, long been fascinated with Rua Kenana and Tuhoe country. I'm currently a history undergrad and it keeps amazing me how much history we do have - so many stories to tell. It's still in the air, traces and echoes, especially outside the cities where it hasn't been paved over. Pave Paradise, put up a parking lot and all that...
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At the end of the day we need to move on, make the appropriate response and ensure it never happens again.
Ban these words and see what our politicians have left to say.
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Kim Hill's Nine to Noon Days were the best and no-one else has quite reached that pinnacle since. I can't put my finger on what doesn't grab me about Kathryn Ryan. She's well-researched and all that - but I don't feel I "have to listen, in case I miss something good" that I used to feel about KH. I agree with the poster who mentioned the Max Gimblett interview KH did recently - She has the knack of picking fascinating, non-mainstream guests of the creative, science, lit. genres, and drawing them out . I notice her guests often compliment her level of knowledge and appreciation of their work.
Saturday afternoons are pretty good too, but Moira's Hair Salon is dire. I'd rather listen to Maggie Barry.
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I think i get yr points, Ian & Robbery. i don't think it's incongruent to abhor Veitch's actions, whilst also acknowledging we don't have the full story. For the record, i don't buy into any "asked for it" routines when it comes to dv, either.
I suspect what happens over this will be crucial - if he's not charged, what message does that send to everybody else?
Something that doesn't get discussed alot with regard to dv is the fallout from keeping it secret or pretending it isn't happening in families or social groups. You may be the only one saying "this is wrong and it has to stop" and find yourself ousted for rocking the boat. particularly in better-off families where the abuser is powerful physically, emotionally and financially. My " humiliation and degradation" is someone else's (warped) fair exchange. Happy Families built on lies. Kids brought up thinking it's ok to "lash out" & there'll always be an excuse, or simply no recognition that anything has even happened. It's just normal to them.
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Excellent posts, Dyan. Not a sporty person myself, but I do like physical stuff and I reckon the key is having fun. I played hacky sack, French cricket, ordinary cricket and soccer with my kids in the backyard (bigger than most), occasional bush walking and always spent the summer at the river and the beach boogy boarding, rope swinging, diving, climbing trees. Volleyball for fun is another good one. Used to have parties centred around volleyball and hacky sack - they're cheap activities, alot of fun and work up a great appetite for a barby afterwards.
Neither of my boys play competitive sport anymore, but they're not fat either. I also kept them well away from fast food outlets & fizzy until social pressure from their peers having birthday parties at McD's etc got too hard to negotiate.
Just going for a walk after dinner can be a good, shared activity especially if you pick somewhere nice to go.
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No.
They did introduce a law that outlawed smacking. Smacking your children was legal before the passage of Sue Bradford's bill, and illegal following its passage. If that does not count as outlawing smacking then words have lost all meaning.
For me, the great pity about it all was the lost opportunity to make fresh legislation. It's a highly complex issue that rapidly became polarised and all discrimination lost. I think that some are unwilling to recognise the sheer ugliness that exists and the inability to find a truly workable response. A personal anecdote:
Some years ago, whilst living in another city, i called the police when I saw my neighbour beating up his naked wife on the front lawn. He was back the next day and from then on, made my life hell. Burgled my house and left a trail of destruction (no fingerprints, no proof), anything left outdoors - washing, firewood, toys plants - got pinched. I learnt to keep a minimal amount of petrol in my car, which did not have a locking petrol cap, or a garage to keep it in. Any time I went outside, he would crouch behind the fence and talk loudly about doing "someone" over in rather vile terms. Of course I moved out. The saddest thing was one of children giving me a flower "from mum" as I left. I had got a message to her that she could have sanctuary at my home anytime - she never came. I was told by a policeman that i had imposed my middle class values on these people and should have ignored them.
My point is that fear rules in some places and there are consequences for people who do try to do the right thing. I don't have a ready answer to it, nor do i think it's all a matter of legislation or "the gummint's fault". My personal answer was to move somewhere safer, but if we all did that, what would be left?