THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND ALUMNI MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017

FROM COMICS TO SUPER HEROES ENGINEERING THE FUTURE 40 UNDER 40 Still young, flying high Ingenio The University of Auckland Alumni and Friends magazine

Spring 2017 ISSN 1176-211X

Editor: Judy Wilford Contributing editor: Helen Borne Art Direction and Design: Daniel Holt Advertising manager: Don Wilson Proofreading: Rupert Alchin, Treena Brown, Julianne Evans Writers: Helen Borne, Julianne Evans, Andrew Patterson, Sharon Stephenson, Judy 24 Wilford

Editorial contact details Ingenio Communications and Marketing The University of Auckland Private Bag 92019 IN THIS Auckland 1142, New Zealand Level 10, Fisher Building 18 Waterloo Quadrant, Auckland ISSUE Telephone: +64 9 373 7599 ext 83257 Facsimile: +64 9 373 7047 Email: [email protected]; j.wilford@ University news 4 auckland.ac.nz www.auckland.ac.nz/ingenio Audited by www.abc.org.nz Confessions of a comic book geek 8 FEATURES Amnesty in action 12 How alumni keep in touch To ensure that you continue to receive Ingenio, Engineering the future 14 and to subscribe to @auckland, the University’s email newsletter for alumni Cracking the autism code 18 and friends, please update your details at: www.alumni.auckland.ac.nz/update 40 under 40 20

Alumni Relations Office Tour of duty 24 The University of Auckland 19A Princes Street, Private Bag 92019 The pink and white terraces 28 Auckland 1142, New Zealand Levelling up the playing field 30 Telephone: +64 9 923 4653 Email: [email protected] www.alumni.auckland.ac.nz REGULAR Poem by an alumna 7 Copyright Opinion 26 Articles reflect personal opinions and are not SECTIONS those of the University of Auckland. No parts Taking issue 32 of this publication may be reproduced without Around the globe 34 prior consent of the University of Auckland. All rights reserved. Alumni networks 35 ©The University of Auckland 2017 Art 36 Cover image Design Daniel Holt. Photo Billy Wong. Films and books 38

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2 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 EDITORIAL

A FORCE FOR JUSTICE

At a time when countless millions does create. Our high proportion of a new Master of Conflict and Terrorism of people have been displaced by international students and staff, with degree led by Dr Chris Wilson from conflict, and intolerance appears to over 120 nations represented on campus, Politics and International Relations. The be increasing, research universities and the experience of diversity that we programme is very interdisciplinary, such as ours have an important role to consequently offer our community, with courses from Politics, Criminology, play in promoting informed debate, contribute to that understanding. History and Media Studies, among encouraging diversity, breaking down So too, our active membership of other disciplines. Still in its first year, it prejudice, and developing citizens international consortia such as the is receiving substantial student interest, and future leaders who are tolerant Worldwide Universities Network particularly from overseas. and have broad interests in and and the Association of Pacific Rim As a nation distant from the world’s understanding of others. Universities, and our encouragement of major centres, New Zealand has a long transnational exchanges and research tradition of being outward-facing. We wo characteristics of universities, collaborations, many of which address travel frequently, a high proportion research-informed teaching and the most challenging global problems of of us were born overseas, and we have Tour role as a critic and conscience our time, mean we are well positioned strong ties all over the world through of society, are in New Zealand enshrined to promote international understanding our diverse population and our trading in legislation – something that is not and tolerance. links with Europe, Asia, the Pacific, the common elsewhere. This means that In this issue of Ingenio, two of our Americas and the Middle East. As New informed analysis and debate can be – and alumni profiles feature people who are Zealand’s highest-ranked university, we must be – one of our key contributions to actively involved in promoting peace: are well-placed to foster acceptance and international understanding. one is Grant Bayldon, the New Zealand tolerance of other ways of life and to help The “fear of the other” is being used director of Amnesty International; the work towards a better and fairer world, now, as it has been in other turbulent other is Esther Harrop, a senior New contributing to solutions for global times, to encourage people to take Zealand Defence Force officer who has problems and reducing the inequalities sides in a contest for power, control been serving with the peace-keeping that often lie at the heart of conflict. and influence. The antidote to this fear, forces in South Sudan. and a powerful element in attaining Also appearing in this issue is an peace and advancing human rights and opinion piece by a staff member, international justice, is to understand Dr Ritesh Shah from the Faculty of that other groups of humans are much Education and Social Work, whose like us, and that many of the problems research is concerned with the part and challenges facing us are shared. played by education in preventing (or STUART MCCUTCHEON This is the kind of understanding exacerbating) conflict or restoring peace. Vice-Chancellor that a university like ours can and Recently the University has launched The University of Auckland

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 3 NEWS

Louise was involved not only in HELPING teaching, research and administrative roles but also with the running of the RESEARCH Brain Bee Challenge, which encourages secondary students to develop an interest IN SPINAL in the brain and neuroscience, and has attracted many of these young people CORD INJURY into scientific careers. or 28 years Professor Louise Her family has many rich connections Nicholson (now professor emeritus) with the University, beginning with Fhas given the gift of her passion and the enrolment of her mother in 1938 expertise to her colleagues, her students at what was then Auckland College of and the wider community. the University of New Zealand and In the process she has earned much continuing through four generations ETHICS OF respect and appreciation in New Zealand to the recent graduation of her eldest and overseas. grandson, Taylor. PEST CONTROL On her retirement earlier this year, Photo: Louise leads the Graduation hilosopher Dr Emily Parke from Louise, an internationally respected parade in autumn this year, just before her the Faculty of Arts is one of two neurologist, made the decision, with her retirement. PUniversity of Auckland academics husband Jon, to donate $1 million to the who will be convening the first bioethics University of Auckland. panel in New Zealand dealing with the This, the largest single gift ever ethical and social challenges involved in presented to the University by a staff eradicating invasive predators. member, will help enable work in her The other is biologist and statistician, field to continue by providing funding Dr James Russell. for a PhD student working on spinal The two are co-leading the panel of cord injury and repair at the Spinal 11 people, which includes experts in Cord Injury Research Facility, which she genetics, law, indigenous world views helped to found. and ecology, as well as a hunter and a During her time at the University psychologist. The panel will advise on social and ethical issues relating to the Biological dietetics, optometry, and imaging. Heritage National Science Challenge- DOCUMENTING In preparation for the 50th funded project “High tech solutions to anniversary, students from the History invasive mammal pest control”. 50 YEARS OF Department, led by Professor Linda This is part of a larger endeavour to Bryder, are interviewing key people who make New Zealand free of rats, stoats, HISTORY have been important in its development. and possums by 2050. n March 1968, the first cohort of 60 These interviews and the information Emily says the eradication project medical students was enrolled in the obtained from them will be used to is driven by the search for new Inew Auckland School of Medicine. create a publicly accessible website as a technologies, some of which might Since that time, the school has permanent record of the achievements be controversial, such as investigating expanded to five times its original size, and challenges of the last 50 years. potential toxins that are specific to now enrolling nearly 300 new students For information about activities particular species, or using genetic annually into what has become the planned for the anniversary year, see editing techniques to drive pest Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, “Alumni network”, page 35. populations extinct. which trains undergraduate and “So we need to stop and reflect on the postgraduate students in a wide range of Photo: In the beginning: The Medical possible social dimensions of these,” she health sciences and delivers professional School was officially opened by Her Majesty says. courses in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, Queen Elizabeth II. “It’s impossible to talk about conservation issues without bringing values in,” she adds. “For example how do we define an invasive or pest species in the first place? And why might we prioritise one species over another?” In an unusual teaching collaboration bringing together science and the arts, Emily and James are co-teaching a postgraduate course in the School of Biological Sciences dealing with ethical issues in biology

4 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 NEWS TEN BARS, ONE NIGHT uckland is the latest city to join a NIGHT worldwide movement to transform Abars into one-off lecture theatres for a night. OF THE There were 20 talks at ten city bars on From left: Dame Jenny Shipley, Dame Jocelyn Fish, Margaret Fish the same night: 29 August. DAMES The event was free but required prior his was a first for the University dextrose gel, used to treat low blood registration and every session sold out and quite possibly a record event sugars in newborns, could be used as a fast. Tfor New Zealand: a gathering of 20 preventative for the condition, which The organisers report that they’ve Kiwi Dames to celebrate the achievements affects one in six newborns. had great feedback. Those who went are of the Liggins Institute. The other was Catherine Davies, who requesting more events of the same kind, The glittering event, attended by was advanced in pregnancy and was and owners or managers of the bars are 300 distinguished guests, was held to taking part in the NiPPeR study, looking keen to do it again next year – or even celebrate the research of the institute, at whether a special cocktail of vitamins, every week. which aims to give all babies a healthy other nutrients and probiotics taken Among the academics taking part were start. by pregnant women can help break the microbiologist Dr Siouxsie Wiles on Each Dame hosted a table of ten in intergenerational transfer of obesity. the quest for new medicines; Professor the pavilion at Old Government House, Dames who attended were Deidre Tracey McIntosh on imagining a world where dinner guests had the chance to Milne, Diane Robertson, Iritana without prisons; Dr Thomas Gregory hear about the institute’s research both Tawhiwhirangi, Wendy Pye, Paula on drones and the politics of killing; from senior academics and research Rebstock, Margaret Sparrow, Malvina Professor Peter O’Connor, asking participants. Major, Jenny Shipley, Beverley Wakem, “Why do terrorists want to kill us?; and Among the speakers were Sir Peter Cath Tizard, Lowell Goddard, Lesley renowned marine scientist Professor John Gluckman, founding director of the Max, Kate Harcourt, Jocelyn Fish, Silvia Montgomery, exploring the brains of Liggins Institute; Professor Frank Cartwright, Alison Paterson, Therese sharks. Bloomfield, its current director; and Walsh, Rosanne Meo, Susan Devoy and Raising the Bar originated in New renowned researchers Professors Jane Rosie Horton. York, with the idea of making education Harding and Wayne Cutfield. Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy a greater part of a city’s popular Two research participants also spoke. was unable to attend but sent a pre- culture. It has since expanded to major One was Amanda Kamani, whose recorded video message to kick off the cities around the world including San children were participants in two studies evening. Francisco, Hong Kong, Sydney, London, led by Jane Harding, looking at whether Melbourne and now Auckland. Staff who organised the event are already looking ahead to another one the Council for six years prior to that. next year. Put it in your diary for August He was also an MA (Hons) graduate 2018, but don’t forget you’ll be needing of our University, and was awarded the to book in early. degree of Doctor of Literature (Honoris causa) in 2005. This year's videos and podcasts are on John Taylor, senior advancement www.alumni.auckland.ac.nz/rtb consultant at the University, knew Sir John over many years and describes him as “a brilliant sportsman and a fine FAREWELL educationist, who gave a great deal to the University, not only as Chancellor but TO SIR JOHN also as a patron for the ‘Leading the way’ campaign”. GRAHAM In sport he clocked up 22 tests as an t was with sadness that the University All Black loose forward, including three community farewelled Sir John Graham as captain, and was elected president of I(KNZM CBE), who died on 2 August. the New Zealand Rugby Football Union Sir John, a highly-respected figure in in April 2005. He also managed the New education and sports, a former captain Zealand cricket team from 1997 to 1999. of the All Blacks and a long-serving “However,” says John Taylor, “he never headmaster of Auckland Grammar, had lost his love of sport at the grass-roots strong ties with the University, serving level and one of his great pleasures was to Peter O'Connor speaks at the Birdcage. as Chancellor from 1999 to 2004 and on watch the University team play rugby.”

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 5 NEWS

edition of his poems. He received a Marsden Grant and a James Cook Fellowship for this, but in 2009 he died, leaving an exhaustively-researched draft of 460,000 words. His wife Linda Cassells then worked back through the draft on the basis of earlier discussions with her husband. And now the two books have been published by AUP. “Allen Curnow was central to the mid-20th century search for what was distinct and special about New Zealand’s place and history,” said Associate Professor Alex Calder. “He is to poetry as McCahon is to art, as Lilburn is to music.” EXTENDING THE AS LILBURN IS CAMPAIGN POETIC PAGE TO MUSIC SUCCESSES AND STAGE landmark literary and cultural More than 4,000 donors have so niversity alumna and associate event took place at the Gus Fisher far contributed to the University's professor, Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh, AGallery on 29 September: the Campaign For All Our Futures and Uhas been declared New Zealand’s launch of two important books, both 70,000 of our alumni are now actively Poet Laureate for 2017-19. closely associated with the University. engaged with the University. The announcement was made at the One was Terry Sturm’s Simply by The target set at the public launch University’s Fale Pasifika at the launch of Sailing in a New Direction, an extensive in September 2016 was $300 million. her latest volume of poetry, Tightrope, on biography of Allen Curnow. The other “Thanks to our generous donors, the Friday 25 August: World Poetry Day. was Curnow’s Collected Poems, co-edited total is now an extraordinary $220 This honour recognises outstanding by Terry Sturm and Elizabeth Caffin. million,” says Alumni Relations and contributions to New Zealand poetry. Allen Curnow lectured in English Development Director Mark Bentley. Each Laureate is awarded $80,000 over at the University from 1951 to 1976, “This includes gifts from hundreds of two years by the National Library of while Emeritus Professor Terry Sturm alumni and staff who have chipped in New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga also taught in the English Department for student scholarships and research o Aotearoa to create new work and from 1980 to 2006. Elizabeth Caffin is a projects as well as funding for major promote poetry throughout the country. former managing editor of AUP. programmes such as cancer research They also receive a carved tokotoko or After Curnow died in 2001 Terry and entrepreneurship initiatives. Each orator’s stick, symbolising their authority Sturm agreed to write a literary and every gift makes a difference.” Visit and status. biography, and produce a comprehensive www.giving.auckland.ac.nz/campaign Said Selina: “It’s a wonderful opportunity to extend the poetic page and stage to this nation’s multi-coloured, ormer Ingenio editor and University multi-hued voices. Samoans have the alumna Tess Redgrave has written to’oto’o, the orator’s staff, a symbol of Fa novel which will be published by the authority to speak on behalf of a Mākaro Press in March 2018. group. To be recognised in this way is Gone to Pegasus was developed on breath-taking. To occupy the role is the University’s 2013 Creative Writing breath-giving; I can’t wait to take the Course, with help from mentor Professor Laureate’s tokotoko to the people and of English Michele Leggott. It is make poetry.” set mainly in Dunedin and Central Of Samoan, Tuvaluan, English, Otago in 1892-93 and covers a pivotal Scottish and French descent, Selina was time in New Zealand history. In the first Pacific Islander to graduate with particular it shines a light on Victorian a PhD in English from the University of concepts of madness and Dr Truby Auckland. King’s experiments at Seacliff Lunatic To read more about Selina, see the Asylum, as well as intersecting with and cover story of the Autumn 2009 issue of highlighting New Zealand women’s Ingenio (www.ingenio-magazine.com). GONE TO struggle for the right to vote. See more at www.makaropress.co.nz Photo: Selina receives the news of her award at the PEGASUS www.tessredgravewriter.com launch of Tightrope at the Fale Pasifika.

6 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 ALUMNICOVER STORY POEN ALUMNI POEM Poems by an alumna Night horse Alumna Elizabeth Smither is a poet, In the field by the driveway novelist and short story writer who was as I turn the car a horse the 2002 Te Mata Poet Laureate. Is stepping in the moonlight. She was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit and received Its canvas coat shines, incandescent. an honorary DLitt from the University Around its eyes a mask of Auckland for her contributions to a Sienese horse might wear. literature. She was awarded the 2008 Prime No banners stir the air, but mystery Minister’s Award for Literary in the way it is stepping Achievement in Poetry and the 2014 as if no human should see Janet Frame Memorial Award for Literature as well as the 2016 Sarah the night horse going about its business. Broom Poetry Prize. The soft grass bowing to the silent hooves The poem we are featuring was chosen the head alert, tending where not only for its quality and wide appeal Emeritus Professor C.K. Stead, but also to celebrate the central figure on the moonlight glows and communes another of our alumni, says: “Elizabeth the beautiful cover of her latest volume. in descending swoops that fall Smither’s world is the people she knows, Night Horse, published in 2017 by through the air like ribbons the places she visits, the animals she Auckland University Press, is designed encounters. As they appear in her work by Katrina Duncan, with cover design by as the horse moves in a trance they take on mysterious, sometimes Keely O’Shannessy. so compelling, so other-worldly surreal, qualities. Her imaginative world The poems are reproduced by kind it doesn’t see the car lights. is charming and enchanted, peculiar, permission of the publisher and the whimsical and often very funny.” author.

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The best holidays are created together. 161 PARNELL RD I 09 355 9130 I [email protected] Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 7 COVER STORY CONFESSIONS OF A COMIC BOOK GEEK LA-based alumnus Shane Thompson talks to Judy Wilford on a recent visit to his home town. f Shane Thompson hadn’t been a kid games, mobile games, DVDs, blu-ray sound tracks? $40 million from home who loved comics, he wouldn’t have and direct digital marketing through TV. entertainment? These are all factored in Ibeen doing what he’s doing now. They also include consumer products such when they greenlight the movie.” If he hadn’t had a passion for collecting as the toys, collectibles, action figures and Shane’s first step towards this kind of Star Wars figures and smurfs, he wouldn’t t-shirts he used to collect. work came in the year 2000, just a few have been nearly as good at what he does. “Interestingly,” says Shane, “that’s where years after his graduation from Auckland And the job couldn’t even have been a lot of the money is made. We might and a few months into his OE in London. his childhood dream, since nothing spend $150 million to make the movie, A former colleague from New Zealand like it existed then. Shane, an alumnus plus tens of millions more to market it. was working in a licensing agency that of Auckland (BA 1995) is based in Los “But when you have to split profits had just signed up on a new brand from Angeles as vice-president of Integrated with the movie theatre chains and other Japan called Pokemon. Marketing for Warner Bros. Pictures participants – that means you have to “It was new, it was big in Japan,” says – which means he works across all the sell $500 million plus worth of tickets Shane, “but it hadn’t yet gone offshore. marketing departments including the to make it break even. This means a lot An American investor had just bought team responsible for all the ancillary of the profit comes from the ancillary the rights for the rest of the world and products that help support the movie revenue down the line. suddenly had this property that was they are working on, but are in a separate “We have to ask ourselves the questions: exploding and they had no idea how big it revenue stream from the movie itself. Are we going to make $50 million from was going to get. These include the sound track, video the products? $10 million from the “My former colleague said why didn’t I apply for the job. So I went in and met the head of creative. I didn’t have the background or experience but I think it was my passion and interest in learning about it that got my foot through the door. They only offered me three days a week”, says Shane wryly. “They weren’t sure how long this Pokemon craze was going to last. “I was earning £16,000 a year, could barely afford to rent a room but I knew it was something I was excited about.” Over the next few months Shane learned as much as he could – before receiving another call from his helpful former colleague. This time the job was with the company working on the Spider- Man movie. “Again it was being a comic book geek that got me the job,” says Shane. “A little passion and enthusiasm goes such a long way.”

8 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 Next came an unexpected offer of work from Warner Bros. on Batman Begins, which was filming in London and being directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Christian Bale and Liam Neeson. “It was one of those interesting crossroads in your life. They wanted someone while they were filming, they said it would last nine months and they couldn’t promise beyond that.” In other words it was another risk, but one that paid off well. “I was a production liaison, working on set every day, helping gather information for the companies developing all of the products and video games. They needed to know what the characters looked like, what kind of shoes they wore, what their clothes were made of. I would supply dimensions, samples, swathes of cloth. You have to develop relationships with the film director, the actors, the art and costume designers. You’re embedded in the production. “In this first movie I think the filmmakers and studio saw that I really wanted it to succeed. Luckily that has led

“I was that kid glued to the TV who would try to spin around like Wonder Woman.” to me working on every movie of those filmmakers since.” These have included the later Batman films The( Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises), plus sci-fi dramas, Interstellar and Inception, the recently released World War Two drama Dunkirk for Nolan – as well as Batman v Superman and Wonder Woman for producer Charles Roven. When I talked to Shane in Auckland, filming had just started on Aquaman on the Gold Coast in Australia. He’d taken a flying trip across the Tasman but was due back next day to plan the Aquaman range of toys in liaison with the movie’s production designer, and global toy- making company Mattel. “We have to think, are we doing 20 or 30 products? What are they going to be? Will there be 12 action figures, eight vehicles, three play sets? They want to know what little children would want to play with, how they would interact with them. “And that’s what you want – to have

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 9 COVER STORY people fully involved with the movie. sits back for a minute. “But I’m also glad Woman actress, Gal Gadot. (Though a They don’t just want to watch it on the big they’re paying me what they do,” he adds personal highlight for Shane was meeting screen. They want to interact with it, take with a warm smile. Linda Carter, the original Wonder it home and play with it. You’re building I asked Shane about his most exciting Woman from the 70s series). life-long fans.” moments. But there was a disappointment, as Next steps are to have the models built, “One of them is going on right now,” Shane explains. “The programme wasn’t returned to the film-makers for approval, he says, “because I worked on Wonder so well received within the UN as we had painted in the US then sent on to China Woman, which seems to be having a hoped. When the announcement was for mass production and distribution, cultural zeitgeist moment, and deservedly made a group of women within the UN carefully-timed to place them on the so. It’s a wonderful movie, the highest protested that Wonder Woman was not shelves just eight weeks before the movie grossing film by a female director, and the a good role model for women and girls: opens. first movie with a lead female superhero she was a fictional character who wore “That’s when it all comes together,” that’s doing so well. skimpy clothing and girls shouldn’t have says Shane. “Warner Bros. will be selling “Watching the series in the 70s, I was to aspire to be a particular body type. This the movie. You’ll see it was frustrating because I on the TV, the buses, the don’t think people fully billboards; the kids’ll be understood that this buying the toys. character had been around “It all comes together for 75 years and stood for in a crescendo by the time so many great things to so the movie starts. And I’ll many people and they had see people wearing our reduced her to one physical t-shirts and think ‘wow, aspect. that’s great. They’re helping “But many women were promote the movie and also supportive. They they’re even paying to do were saying: ‘Why can’t it.’” we be smart and strong Shane admits to being and still be beautiful and “a big kid at heart,” who feminine?’” would have been a great This job that he loves consumer of the products. doesn’t come without “I’m lucky to have stresses, Shane admits. held onto that part of my “You’re working in childhood because I still LA, with top directors, look back on it fondly. Here top talent, sometimes in New Zealand my mum temperamental still has my comic book personalities. I just try to collections in boxes. do the best job I can and “For years, and years she not get too involved with used to ask ‘When can I get that. rid of those boxes of comic “Sometimes when we’re books?’ – that I’ve been having a bad day we look collecting probably since I at each other and chorus was eight. together: ‘But we’re making “But now I don’t think dreams come true’. It’s I’d ever be able to let them somewhat sarcastic but also go. If I hadn’t been a child somewhat real. who always had his nose in “Or someone will ask me a comic book, I wouldn’t ‘How are y’ doing today?” have this understanding of the worlds that kid glued to the TV who would try and I answer ‘Livin’ the dream’. And that were created in those books. Even to spin around like Wonder Woman did once again it’s partly ironical – but then, within my company now I think one of to get into her costume. Linda Carter was it’s also true.” the reasons I’ve been successful is that my idol.” I’m one of those people who are seen as The value of “Wonder Woman” as a Shane was the first in his family to go to experts, one that the others can turn to role model was affirmed by her selection University; he has now generously funded a and ask, ‘Would that have happened in last year as “honorary ambassador” to the scholarship to give others the same chance. the comics?’ And I can say – ‘yeah’. United Nations for the empowerment of “There’s a lot to be said for finding a women and girls. way to combine your career with your Shane was involved in promoting the CAN WE BRING THE ARTS INTO BUSINESS? childhood passions and I think it’s such film in the context of that programme, a an amazing place to get to in your life. highlight of which was the speech made “I’d do this for much less money.” He on the day of the presentation by Wonder

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AUD2686 Q7 e-tron Giltrap Ingenio.indd 1 6/09/17 1:57 PM ALUMNI PROFILE AMNESTY IN ACTION Alumnus Grant Bayldon (BA/BCom 1998) speaks to Judy Wilford on freedom and the fight for human rights.

“It could hardly have been a more tumultuous time. From Yemen to Syria to South Sudan to Burundi we’ve seen terrorism at its ugliest, war that has descended into the moral abyss of bombing hospitals and schools and behind it all the stench of superpower politics.” development projects or give aid. Its work the abuse of asylum seekers and refugees These are the words of Grant is based on the International Declaration in offshore detention by the Australian Bayldon, executive director of of Human Rights, and its purpose is government. Amnesty International, in his powerful to create a chorus of voices to make a "We definitely need to hear much more introduction to an opinion piece difference, with a focus on really tangible from the New Zealand government on published in the Dominion Post in July change that will affect individual people’s this issue," he says. last year on New Zealand’s obligations lives. From Grant’s own life there’s at least and achievements during its two-year “One of my roles is to keep us focused one lesson to learn: if you want to have a term in the UN Security Council. on those campaigns where we can achieve mid-life crisis, best do it early. He continues: “The biggest cause of wins,” says Grant. At age 33 and at a high point in horror has been the rise of explosive And one of the recent wins has been a successful career – as CEO of a weapons in densely-populated areas, many on the “Double the quota” campaign, Christchurch-based national law firm of them dropped by plane. An astonishing designed to persuade the New Zealand with a long history and a proud reputation 92 percent of the victims of these attacks Government to lift the quota of refugees – Grant was in a department store have been civilians. Families like yours (unchanged for 30 years) from 750 to buying carpet for the lifestyle block he and mine, queuing for food, walking to 1,500 – at a time when more people are and his wife had recently bought, when school, running for shelter.” being forced to flee from their homes than he was suddenly struck by a compelling His words are clear and strong. They at any other time since World War II. realisation: “This is not the life I intended are also an example of one of his own Amnesty is glad to have the support to lead. What am I doing here? How did obligations in the position he holds – of other organisations such as AVAAZ this happen?” and of the main function of Amnesty (a US-based group that campaigns on Not that it hadn’t been a great life so International – to campaign to change the issues of conservation and human rights). far, but he wanted something different, structures and systems that keep people “What we’re trying to do, especially “something more” – something in tune oppressed, using strong, truthful voices with government, is demonstrate that with the conviction he’d had, even as a to hold governments, businesses and people really care about what we’re schoolboy at Auckland Grammar, that organisations to account. attempting to change. The more voices success was about much more than having Grant’s conclusion on New Zealand’s we have the better. And in this case, some a comfortable professional career. Security Council performance, looking quite unlikely allies came out: we were With immediate, warm encouragement back from now, was, on balance, supported by celebrities and businesses, from his wife, Helen, he started exploring favourable: “The NZ Government did plus every political party except the a whole new set of options which led good work on practical steps to improve government – including New Zealand him first into a fundraising role with civilian protection. It also helped progress First. It’s very powerful when you get Tearfund, an international development the move towards getting rid of the voices from places you wouldn’t expect.” organisation. This meant relocating to veto [the power given to each of the five Though the numbers weren’t doubled, Auckland – “at a third the pay and with permanent Security Council members they did go up to 1,000, which still gives houses at twice the price,” Grant says to veto any UN resolution]. Now there’s reason to celebrate. “That’s 250 extra ruefully – but with an unrepentant smile. a new initiative led by the French of people each year who can restart their He now cycles to work and lives “the good voluntary veto restraint. And at least the lives and get to safety. That’s not a small life” in Mt Roskill, with his wife, four UN is talking about it now.” thing. And we haven’t finished yet,” he children, bees, chickens and a dog. Amnesty International is not a think- adds with a smile. Next step was into marketing at tank, says Grant, and it doesn’t establish Another current issue close to home is Oxfam, where he later became deputy

12 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 ALUMNI PROFILE director (and director of operations) the women are within a few kilometres of you’ve never questioned before about before being invited to take his present a military base: they’re seeing the people the way the world works. It was quite a position, which he describes as his go past every day that they think are defining experience for me. But I was also “dream job. Amnesty gives the ultimate responsible.” keen to do something that would give environment for working on systems and One of the paths for bringing the Sri me a good professional start, so I did a structures and creating change, because Lankan Government to account has Commerce degree as well – I guess it was that’s what it’s all about. been international pressure, so Amnesty a buck each way.” “It was also a chance to lead an International sees its role as part of that. Grant sees the universities and Amnesty organisation that has incredible “We can come in and say things it’s International as closely aligned in the international respect and a wealth of not safe for the local people to say,” says value they place on freedom of thought. global knowledge and experience. We’re Grant, though he adds a hasty proviso. “In so many countries academics are present in 70 countries and work in about “We always have to take the lead from persecuted, along with journalists and 150. The name, Amnesty International, those who are living there. We need to be human rights advocates. There’s not the opens doors with governments, media and sure that what we do makes them safer, freedom to explore ideas in the way we decision-makers in ways that few others not less safe.” take for granted in New Zealand. An do in the international space.” Is it difficult to stay politically neutral example is the sweeping purges taking Though the tradition of writing floods when speaking out strongly on human place now in Turkey, with thousands of of letters (originally mainly to help free rights abuses? journalists and university staff fired or in “prisoners of conscience”) has been largely “I don’t find it a challenge because we prison.” replaced by on-line communication, can absolutely take sides on issues,” says Grant has good reason to be aware members are encouraged to use both: “As Grant. “If a government has closed its of this. His counterpart in Turkey, mail volumes go down, letters become borders and is turning back refugees, the executive director of Amnesty more powerful because it’s becoming probably sending them back to their International, and its chairperson, are much rarer to receive them.” deaths, then we can and do take sides on both in prison now for speaking out to I ask about the challenges, which he that. What we can’t do is endorse any protect human rights. admits can be confronting. particular party or leader. “In New Zealand we’re very lucky,” “You can’t overstate the levels of abuse “We still get constantly criticised for says Grant. “We don’t have to be brave being biased, but it’s quite reassuring that to criticise the government. In a lot of we get accused of bias by both sides at the the countries we’re working in you do “Some of them are same time.” absolutely have to put your life, your still holding silent Grant, who majored in sociology for his family, your freedom on the line." arts degree and always had an interest in vigils, holding photos social justice, is “a big fan of a liberal arts CAN WE IMPROVE SOCIETY THROUGH of their loved ones. education. There were real challenges for UNDERSTANDING OF INJUSTICES? a 17 or 18-year-old going into courses like sociology, or even economics or political and damage that human beings will do science. They made you really think about to each other – and working for a human your assumptions, and question things rights organisation we see every day what that means. Here in New Zealand we’re insulated, but those are the issues we’re working on.” Grant’s most recent trip overseas was as part of a mission to Sri Lanka, where a report was being launched on the history of disappearances. “Tens of thousands of people have disappeared over the years – perhaps hundreds of thousands – many picked up by death squads and bundled into white vans, never to be seen again. The civil war finished in 2009 and a lot has improved since then, but there is still in many places a climate of fear and intimidation by security forces, and there’s been almost no justice for what’s gone on in the past.” Grant met with quite a few groups of families, mainly mothers. “Some of them are still holding silent vigils, holding photos of their loved ones, holding onto hopes that they are still Activists and families of the disappeared from Sri Lanka stand outside the Palais de Nations in Geneva. Behind alive, still imprisoned somewhere. Often them is a sari designed by the mothers of the disappeared. Photo Amnesty International.

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 13 RESEARCH ENGINEERING THE FUTURE Research at the University’s Newmarket Campus gives a glimpse into a changing world. Helen Borne joined a group of Engineering alumni on a tour behind the scenes.

laces on a special tour of the tour, and were keen to see how much had state-of-the-art Engineering changed and what was new. Pfacility at Newmarket were Opened in 2015 and home to around snapped up within hours. 3,000 pieces of specialised equipment, And in spite of stormy weather on Newmarket was purpose-built to foster the day it was almost a full turn out, interdisciplinary research and industry including a high school student who collaboration. was lucky enough to tag along with his Our tour began with the NZ Product grandfather. Accelerator, which provides the “glue” From 1948 to 1969, the University’s to connect more than 300 companies, Engineering School was housed at the many of them high-risk ventures. Ardmore Aerodrome in old World War It’s led by the University and involves II military barracks, and it was alumni partnerships with other universities and from this era who were invited on the research institutions across the country.

The three began working together first real premises, which were formerly a ROBOTS VS on a ROV device in 2014. But this dive shop with a dive pool that’s perfect moved closer to becoming a commercial for testing the ROV. SHARKS venture when in July 2016, the Product And next year, to prevent damage to Accelerator hosted an innovation day at fishing industries and the environment, Who wouldn’t prefer to send a robot Newmarket for Sanford, New Zealand’s New Zealand will become the first into shark-infested waters instead of largest fishing company. country in the world to introduce diving in oneself? Product Accelerator business legislation aimed at inspecting ships for development manager Brian McMath contamination from invasive species. At Newmarket, we were introduced invited the Boxfish team, which arrived This could potentially open up a to a new robot project – with a robot with its 28kg ROV prototype in a carry local and export market for the ROV designed to go into the ocean on case. technology. missions that have up until now been What followed was a trip to mussel “Everyone else is looking to New undertaken by human divers. farms in Coromandel and to Sanford’s Zealand to find a way to deal with this However these dives are risky for the salmon farms at Big Glory Bay in type of legislation,” Axel says. divers and expensive for their employers. Stewart Island, where great white sharks, Meanwhile back at Newmarket The robot, or remotely operated vehicle unsurprisingly, create a significant safety development continues, and a PhD (ROV), was developed by Auckland issue for divers. project has just begun in the Department start-up company Boxfish Research, The ROV was sent down into the of Electrical and Computer Engineering whose tale begins with three men in a ocean to make inspections and carry out to further develop the ROV’s shed and someone who knew someone. real-time monitoring. navigational capability. The three men are diving buddies Axel says the Product Accelerator Robots utilising expertise from the Axel Busch, a software engineer, Craig provided critical connections and “kept University’s engineering researchers have Anderson, an electronics engineer and the ball rolling” with industry while already been used in the health sector, Ben King, a mechanical engineer, who Boxfish worked on developing the ROV and more recently work has begun had already worked with the Product for demonstrations. with the agritech industry on robots to Accelerator on a previous product, Wine A year after the meeting at pollinate or pick fruit. Grenade. Newmarket, Boxfish has moved into its

14 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 Above: The Boxfish remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Ben King operates the ROV.

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 15 RESEARCH

BMW goes electric Another high-profile client is BMW which produces the answers needed (Germany). A team at CACM, led by its immediately and doesn’t destroy the director, Professor Simon Bickerton, has sample in the process. developed a revolutionary tool for use in This device generated a lot of interest manufacturing composite components at the factory, with BMW entering it for the all-electric BMW i3 and the into the German Composite Association BMW i8 plug-in hybrid. Innovation Awards. It is now in use in The production process for making the BMW manufacturing plants in Munich. carbon fibre components that are used “The type of material being used was for the door frame and boot structures up until now only seen in high-end super of the i3 and i8 involves “resin transfer cars such as McLaren,” says Graeme. moulding technology”. “This is the first time someone like In the past, a sample was cut out of BMW, who’s making hundreds of America’s Cup secrets the pre-form taken to a lab for testing. thousands of cars per year, has applied Work in the Centre for Advanced Results would take hours to produce, this technique to mass production; Composite Materials (CACM), our next during which time hundreds more of they aim to make a million composite stop, has fed into one of our nation’s the same product had been made, all components a year.” proudest recent moments, the 2017 of which could potentially be wasted He says the incorporation of America’s Cup victory. – along with the sample, which was composites into the automotive industry University engineers have conducted destroyed in the process of testing. will increase rapidly, mirroring the testing for Team NZ right back to the The Newmarket team has developed changes that have already happened in first challenge, mounted in 1986. a “non-destructive inspection tool”, the aviation industry. In 2017, most design aspects of the America’s Cup boats were standardised, with only a few, such as the foils, the rudders and the wing masts, able to be designed by individual syndicates. “The work that we did was testing the materials that they were going to build their foils from, determining the mechanical performance properties of the carbon fibre materials,” says Graeme Finch, business development manager at the centre. And it wasn’t only Team NZ that called on our researchers’ expertise. The Warkworth-based Oracle team also put its materials through their paces Postdoctoral research fellow Dr Tom Allen. at the Newmarket campus, perhaps Photo: Graeme Finch surprisingly, given the secrecy and Reinventing the umbrella controversy that surrounds America’s Cup racing. Umbrellas can be annoying. They can umbrella but the next major challenge “I believe it is a reflection of our turn inside out in the wind, poke a was to produce a smaller umbrella which expertise and our integrity that we were passer-by in the eye, stab you in the foot would perform just as well. engaged with both the challenger and and generally self-destruct at the worst The company is now about to launch the defender,” says Graeme. possible moment. its latest model following testing in Fortunately engineering alumnus late 2016 and early 2017. “There’s one Greig Brebner and science alumnus Scott component that’s quite key to making it He grew up wanting Kington decided to do something about work, a ‘clip-in strut’ which can flex and them. operate like a hinge,” says Greig. to be an inventor Greig says he grew up wanting to be To test it they started by putting an inventor and looking for “that elusive gauges over the whole umbrella, attached and looking for that great idea”. A lightbulb moment came to a computer which measures strain elusive 'great idea'. when he was on his OE in London in levels. They worked out the worst case 1999: the umbrella was not doing its job scenario in the wind tunnel facility at A lightbulb moment properly and needed a rethink. Newmarket, simulated that into another So he started on a project to create his machine, then put the umbrella through came when he was on own design while still in the UK and a range of tests with repetitive load to see his OE in London. finalised the first product after returning how durable it was. to New Zealand, hence the Blunt “It gave us a lot of security around that umbrella. The first version was a stick one part,” says Greig.

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Pushing the boundaries is that we’re used to doing prototyping Mountains in Australia for research into The Engineering Workshop is a magical and we’re used to doing something that cloud seeding, a technique for changing place where you can see things being is outside of the norm. We’re always clouds by adding other substances created in real time. pushing the boundaries with what we to them – to produce more rain, for The people on our tour party were can produce.” instance. A later model of this mobile totally engrossed; one alumnus said The workshop works on around weather radar unit is being used by he could happily spend a month down 700 jobs a year and among the most Auckland Council when planning for there. interesting and challenging, says Steve, heavy rain events. The workshop produces custom-made has been the work over a number of years Our last stop is to inspect a large 3D parts, mostly for research projects in the on inductive power pads with Professor printer. Steve says smaller 3D printers Faculties of Engineering and Science. John Boys and Professor Grant Covic, will one day be in many homes, much “We’re here to try to do different who are internationally recognised like ink jet printers are now. things, not produce what you can buy experts in Inductive Power Transfer “Another five years and everyone will in industry,” says Steve Warrington, the (IPT). have them, but they’re not really a silver technical services manager who heads up Designing and making mobile weather bullet,” he says. “They’re just another the workshop. radars for the Department of Physics was tool, and the technology is constantly “The benefit of having a facility like another memorable task. changing. We have to move really this, and the people that we have here, These were used in the Snowy quickly to stay up with it.”

What’s next? Our tour complete (though we've covered just three of 22 areas) Dean of Engineering Professor Nic Smith talks about what the future might look like, with driverless cars, robots, personalised healthcare, and 3D printers that will produce goods at home as we need them. How will engineers be part of this future? How does this change the way our students need to think? An ambitious new student project This is the type of rocket launcher from based at Engineering, the Auckland which the University satellite will be Programme for Space Systems, partly launched. Photo Rocket Lab. Above is a answers these questions. The mission model of the CubeSat. is to send the first-ever University of Auckland satellite into space; 16 teams

The mission is to send the first-ever University of Auckland satellite into space.

have presented ideas for a satellite mission using a miniaturised 10cm cubic satellite. Next year one “CubeSat” will be launched by New Zealand company Rocket Lab, from its base at Mahia Peninsula. The challenge is to successfully send a satellite into orbit, but it’s also about developing future-proof ways of thinking; of being able to take in the bigger picture and put our knowledge to work in unconventional ways. CAN WE PIONEER A NEW WORLD OF DESIGN AND INNOVATION?

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 17 ALUMNI PROFILE

CRACKING THE Jessie Jacobsen, Young Distinguished Alumna 2010 (left), with PhD Student Whitney Whitford. AUTISM CODE Photo Godfrey Boehnke

Dr Jessie Jacobsen and the Minds – that led her to autism: a pioneering she worked at the Center for Human for Minds team at the University field rich with possibilities. Genetic Research at Massachusetts of Auckland have already made It’s now estimated that one in 68 General Hospital and Harvard Medical internationally significant discoveries people are on this spectrum in the School: “I was fortunate to be able to in the area of genetic sequencing US, and in New Zealand it mildly or learn from and now collaborate with to isolate the causes of autism and profoundly affects more than one in colleagues in Boston who work on neurodevelopmental disorders. 100 of us. These are large numbers, particularly complex, and previously Julianne Evans reports. even allowing for wider screening unknown types of genetic variation.” and more accurate diagnosis and the Returning to New Zealand in 2012 ife can be a lonely journey if you re-categorising of conditions such as on a Neurological Foundation of New experience the world very differently Asperger’s Syndrome under the umbrella. Zealand repatriation fellowship, Jessie Lto other people but don’t know why. Officially defined as having “impaired was awarded a Rutherford Discovery This is often the fate of many on the social or communication skills, repetitive Fellowship to help establish a genetic autism spectrum and their families. behaviours or a restricted range of research project, based at the University, The sharp rise in conditions included interests”, ASD’s causes have been a for autism spectrum and other neuro- in the classification of autism spectrum matter of heated debate and “many developmental disorders. disorder (ASD) has led some to urban myths,” says Jessie. Working collaboratively with her team, controversially label it an epidemic. Some combination of environmental which includes Professor Russell Snell, But what if you could get an accurate and genetic factors appears to be the Associate Professor Klaus Lehnert and a genetic diagnosis for autism? Could it consensus, with the latter usually number of postgraduate students, Jessie’s lead to earlier detection, more specific different for each individual, depending leading-edge project invites members and effective management and, ideally, on their unique gene variants. of families affected by autism to submit a brighter future, particularly for those And rather than a single “autism gene,” blood or saliva samples. The team then affected by ASD and their families? scientists have identified multiple genes examines or “sequences” the DNA. Imagining that outcome, and already that in particular combinations can This “sequencing” is carried out making significant progress towards add up to a risk factor for ASD, while to determine the precise order of it, is what drives neuroscientist Dr admitting that many genetic factors nucleotides within a DNA molecule. Jessie Jacobsen, School of Biological remain mysteries to be discovered. Jessie explains the process. Sciences. It was her fascination with the Acknowledged as a high flyer by senior “Chromosomes are a thread-like genetics underlying human conditions, University colleagues such as Emeritus structure of nucleic acids found in the especially those affecting the brain such Professor Louise Nicolson and former nucleus of most living cells, and they as Huntington’s Disease – an area in Dean of Science, Emeritus Professor carry genetic information in the form which she’s worked with renowned brain Dick Bellamy, 35-year-old Jessie has of genes. The genetic code consists of researchers Distinguished Professor Sir already had a distinguished early career. four letters: A, T, G and C, and each Richard Faull and Professor Russell Snell As part of her post-doctoral research, represents a chemical building block of

18 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 RESEARCH

DNA, the molecule that encodes the There have already been some exciting as potential heart defects and kidney information necessary to build life as we breakthroughs. conditions; thankfully the tests have all know it. Once sequenced, we compare “Some things we’re discovering for been positive so far,” he says. an individual’s genome (a person’s the first time in New Zealand, which There is still a long way to go in complete set of genes) to a reference to is really exciting, or we are discovering understanding the biological basis see what is different, rare and biologically variations that have been seen only a few of autism, and Jessie is the first to relevant to autism.” times in other countries – which helps acknowledge that a genetic approach is “The changes in DNA can be provide evidence that they are indeed not always going to be the only answer, complex,” says Jessie. “It’s like causal,” says Jessie. which is why the Minds for Minds proofreading a book; you’re looking for Researchers are able to deposit or research network was established. things like missing paragraphs or letters, publish their findings on an international “Children with autism seem to have repeats, changes in the way the words database so that knowledge is shared. an increased incidence of gut issues for read, an extra volume of a whole book, She says that particularly now, as a example, so work is currently being something that stops mid-sentence or mother of a young child herself, she done by Associate Professor Mike Taylor a deletion of a whole sentence, even can understand how parents feel about in Minds for Minds, investigating the a single letter change – all of us have getting a diagnosis. microbiology of the gut and gut health. different variants that make us unique. “I underestimated how much families “But if you can improve diagnosis, it’s There are so many ways that our DNA is appreciate just having an answer. There easier to go forward. Finding an answer, stitched together.” can be a lot of guilt and wondering: even for one family, is important, so we The “fun time” is when the team ‘What could I have done to prevent it?’ can say, ‘here’s the DNA variation, here’s examine what they’ve discovered and With the right knowledge, we’ll be able what caused it.” interpret what might be a causative say, ‘It’s nothing you’ve done, nothing This question is being addressed variant for autism or a related that could have changed things'.” by other minds all over the world: neurodevelopmental disorder. One such family has a daughter, Sofia, “Microbiologists, physiologists, “We get in a room together and go who is affected by autism. Sofia’s father psychologists, and importantly, our through all the variants – people’s brains wonderful New Zealand clinicians. The have different approaches to the same only way we can tackle a complex issue information, so it’s always a team effort “It’s like proofreading like autism is if we all work together.” – we continually learn from each other, Jesse and her team would like to thank and have a lot of fun in the process.” a book: you’re looking all the families involved in this research, Jessie says the genetics team is keen as well as the Oakley Mental Health to move some of its research findings for things like missing Foundation, the IHC Foundation and into clinics here: “We’ve just received paragraphs or letters.” the Minds for Minds Charitable Trust. funding from ‘A Better Start’ national science challenge and ‘Cure Kids’ to help More information about this project can be found at www.mindsforminds.org.nz us develop a clinical panel of the most feels incredibly grateful for the work frequently-affected genes in children Jessie and Minds for Minds is doing. diagnosed with autism.” “The involvement in the project was CAN WE UNCOVER THE MYSTERIES OF "In this way we can contribute to a an opportunity for us to understand THE HUMAN BRAIN? future in which the clinician will have more about our daughter’s condition, a cost-effective panel of genes that they which had been described as global can directly check when making a developmental delays, and as being on diagnosis. the autistic spectrum,” he says. “Historically, there have been many He says the research resulted in changes in the behaviourally-based findings that were far more valuable than diagnostic criteria, which can make he’d hoped for: “This research picked up consistent diagnosis a challenge. We'd a rare chromosome disorder called 2q37 like to help improve that,” she says. deletion. A diagnosis is something we've Jessie believes families affected by never had and this has made it possible profound autism deserve all the help they for us to understand so much more about can get. why our daughter is like she is.” “An earlier diagnosis leads to earlier He says it’s been a big relief and helped and more targeted interventions, which the family understand that issues they can make a big difference.” were aware of, such as hyper-mobility, Once they have individual DNA are actually features of 2q37. results, clinicians like Auckland “It’s enabled us to get further tests neurologist Dr Rosamund Hill, who is done for things specific to 2q37 such an honorary academic in the School of Biological Sciences, along with clinical geneticists at the Auckland District Health Board, authenticate the results and deliver them back to the families.

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 19 ALUMNI PROFILE

UNDER

This month we launch the University's inaugural 40 under 40 to recognise alumni who have made significant contributions by that age. Andrew Patterson gives a brief introduction to these talented achievers. For the full profiles of all 40 recipients see www.alumni.auckland.ac.nz/40under40

n New Zealand and around the world “We knew others in the University “It was a satisfying but challenging we have more than 185,000 alumni. community would feel the same. By task that required many meetings and I Almost 70 percent of these – sharing the stories of our inaugural 40 a lot of research and healthy debate 121,000 – are under the age of 40. with our other alumni we can all draw for the selection committee to decide Recognition of achievements often inspiration from their accomplishments.” on the 40 who made the cut. All have comes later in life, but Alumni Relations In a world that is increasingly had professional success, community and Development Director Mark dominated by high achievers under involvement and/or University Bentley says he felt it was important 40, including Facebook founder Mark engagement.” not to wait any longer to celebrate these Zuckerberg, recently elected French In responding to a series of questions, high-achieving alumni in a range of President Emmanuel Macron and the many of the nominees expressed their professions and locations. rise of new Labour Party leader Jacinda gratitude to lecturers and academic “The 40 under 40 came about Ardern, it seems the mantle of leadership staff who had influenced their lives and because we were often hearing about the is being passed to a new generation. helped steer them on their chosen paths. significant achievements of our alumni Mark says the list was drawn from Alumni wishing to submit through a variety of avenues, including alumni the University had come across nominations for next year’s list are social media, and we wanted to recognise in the past few years. Making the final invited and encouraged to do so. (See them also,” says Mark. selection was not easy. address below.)

To submit nominations please visit www.alumni.auckland.ac.nz 20 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 40 UNDER 40

Business leaders • To me, university is more than just gaining knowledge; it’s about under- standing who you are: Emma Dawson, global head of talent development, Dropbox • Its OK to take the road less travelled – in fact it will probably make you stand out from the rest: Dane Fisher, gen- eral manager of global business and ALEX FALA transformation brand, Infiniti Motor Company Ltd. Being required to listen to motivational ously working for Les Mills International, • Information-sharing across different tapes at an early age while travelling on Trade Me and Orion Health. Being men- businesses is key: Dave Larsen, chief family road trips might be considered tored by some of New Zealand’s business executive, Rayglass Boats a somewhat extreme form of cultivat- elite along the way has played a powerful ing success but Alex Fala says it was an role in where he finds himself, he says. • The world is inherently complicated. effective way his parents instilled in him And when it comes to his biggest lessons, Simple ideas enter the brain quicker and his sisters a drive to succeed. Alex is unequivocal. and stay there longer: Jaimes Leggett, “It worked without crossing the line “My biggest learning is to always be group CEO - M&C Saatchi into being pushy.” learning. We live in a time where most of • Success is about how you think, how you Having gained a Rhodes scholarship in the world’s knowledge is available in our make decisions and most importantly 2003 and spent time at international pockets, in real-time, in every possible how you lead: Caroline Rawlinson, management consultancy McKinsey & format. This is a privileged world but also CFO, TradeMe Co, Alex was appointed CEO of online a harsh one, where the slow and compla- sales platform Vend in 2016, after previ- cent are eaten by the agile and hungry.”

Influencers • I wasn’t a great student, particularly in my early years: Duncan Greive, editor/ publisher, The Spinoff • I’ve always admired people who are humble: Max Harris, Examination Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford • My time at University gave me a political and sociological grounding I didn’t know I craved: Elisapeta Heta, architecture graduate, Jasmax CHLÖE SWARBRICK • At University I experienced many examples of professional and personal For someone who never intended pur- years, she says she didn’t see the point in generosity: Chye-Ching Huang, Fed- suing a career in politics and describes taking on debt for longer than necessary: eral Tax Policy, Center on Budget and herself as “shy and introverted,” alumna “Student life is not exactly comfortable Policy Priorities Chlöe Swarbrick (set to be a Green MP) financially, so I was focused on complet- • Surround yourself with people who are always looks very composed. ing my studies and didn’t participate that smarter and better than you, and books As an aspirant to the Auckland mayoralty much in student life outside of classes.” that elevate you: Robyn Scott, CEO, last year she surprised everyone, including Starting her first business with her Apolitical herself, by polling almost 30,000 votes partner in men’s fashion at 18, using on an almost zero budget. That was after $10,000 saved from working part-time in • Hard work and determination become going in with no expectations, given the retail, ChlÖe says she learnt anything is what others call luck: Alanna Simp- other well-funded campaigns. possible with the right mindset:“I learned son, senior disaster risk management It’s hardly surprising for someone who is our generation can do anything with specialist, World Bank Group driven and not afraid to take a risk. Com- confidence and Google. For me it’s about pleting a BA/LLB in just four and half flexibility and critical-mindedness.”

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 21 40 UNDER 40

Performers • The greatest joy in life is to never stop growing and learning: Tianyi Lu, conductor, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra • We may only be a small part, but we need to choose wisely what we want to be a small part of: Kimberley Hika- ka, North Iraq logistics manager, Médicins Sans Frontières • I have learned how to take small steps toward something greater, even when I RUBAN NIELSON cannot see how they will add up ahead of time: Kate Newby, artist Psychedelic rock group Unknown Mortal it hard to be a student until I left home to • Growing up, time spent watching Orchestra (UMO) frontman and former begin at university.” TV had to be matched by time spent Mint Chicks guitarist Ruban Nielson said Having completed his degree in Fine Arts reading; I slogged through a lot of Enid he was “flattered” when told he was being at Elam in 2002, including collecting the inducted into the University’s inaugural Sir James Wallace Prize, Ruban says his Blyton: Ben Sanders, author 40 under 40. biggest influence has been his father Chris. • My parents read to me, encouraged Ruban, though now based in Portland, “As a kid, his stories of hanging out with me to read and talked about books as Oregon, remains strongly connected to people at Elam while studying music really if they were alive, present, and utterly the place that was formative in his music stoked my desire to be there.” vital: Anna Smaill, poet and novelist career. But getting into university was One piece of advice from Elam has stuck. • The hardest work you'll ever need to do is never a foregone conclusion and it was “I remember the tutors saying things like the work on yourself: Kristian Schmidt, the support he received from Orewa Col- ‘it takes ten years to become an overnight show host, WAV media lege that helped smooth his pathway. success’ which is really important for “Things going on in my home life made young ambitious people to hear.”

Entrepreneurs • Recognise your strengths and surround yourself with brilliant people who com- plement your skill set: Mimi Gilmour, creative leader and CEO, Burger Burger Ltd. • Everything is broken down into steps and you figure it out as you go. The important thing is to think big and be fearless in your approach: David Hig- gins, boxing promoter, Duco Events founder CHRIS HEASLIP • Leaders I admire have great interper- sonal skills and can bring calm to chaos: Growing up in Kumeu Chris Heaslip business – which very nearly turned in Angela Lim, doctor/CEO/board never anticipated his Christian faith on itself in late 2013 when he had to tell member, Ministry of Youth Develop- would be the catalyst for co-founding a the company’s eight staff it was unable ment Partnerships Fund highly-successful tech start-up business. to make payroll. They all stayed anyway However, in church one day, feeling and this was a turning point. Within • The people who influenced me initially that discomfort you feel when you weeks additional investors were found were the naysayers, including the boss don’t have cash on you for a donation, and these days Pushpay is growing fast. who fired me when I suggested a new Chris envisioned a cloud-based, mobile Chris, who completed a Master of business idea: Hannah McQueen, commerce system that would allow Commerce (Taxation) with honours at founding director, enableMe church-goers to give money as easily as the University of Auckland, now lives • If you embrace being patiently impa- buying a song on iTunes. with his family in Seattle, chasing the tient, good things will happen: Ben With Elliot Crowther, he co-founded next big opportunity for Pushpay – in Young, CEO, Nudge PushPay, mortgaging his house and a country where 37 percent of the pouring every cent into the fledgling population attends church weekly.

22 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 40 UNDER 40

Humanitarians • Knowledge matters more than ever; it drives creativity and social progress: Geoff Cooper, international financial econom- ic associate, Federal Reserve Bank of New York • My parents were factory workers, I became a chief executive at 36; I can only imagine what my kids will be doing: Peter Fa’afiu, partner, Navigator Ltd. • Higher education is a powerful driver for change; it is the reason I have a voice and KIRI TOKI can advocate for the voiceless: Rez Gardi, solicitor, Chapman Tripp One of the most idyllic places to grow Law Society Centennial (Māori) Scholar, • We need to constantly challenge ourselves up in New Zealand would have to be and then completing an LLM as a Ful- and others, adapt, be creative, learn from Aotea Great Barrier Island. The Hauraki bright Scholar at Harvard Law School, our failures: William Pike, director, The Gulf’s northernmost island is a haven for has led to her current role at the World Pike Experience Ltd. solitude, only interrupted by the lapping Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) of waves on its deserted beaches. in Geneva. • We can digitise the world but nothing real- But for Kiri Toki, a born and bred local Says Kiri: “My time at Harvard reaffirmed ly happens without the human connection: of Ngāti Wai and Ngāti Rehua descent, my belief that the quality of education at Amber Sainsbury, trustee, Dramatic the island’s isolation was no barrier to the University of Auckland is truly world Need building the early foundations for her class. At Harvard, I never felt out of my • Learning to trust my instinct has helped own education and her eventual move to depth or technically disadvantaged. In fact, me make decisions quickly: Qiujing Switzerland where she is now based. because of my time at Auckland, I feel like Wong, CE, Borderless Productions Ltd. Graduating with a BA/LLB (Hons) in I thrived. Without this foundation, I could 2011, including being named the NZ never have reached my present position.”

Disruptors and Innovators • Embracing frustrations, living uncon- ventionally, taking hard risks deliver the best outcomes: Dr Rosie Bosworth, planner/project manager, Rethink X and Sustain Ltd. • My biggest learning was in learning how to learn: Alexei Dunayev, CEO, TranscribeMe • Figuring out the problems was impor- IPSHITA MANDAL tant learning: Dr Elizabeth Iorns, CEO, Science Exchange Moving to New Zealand at 12 after emi- waste water treatment. Then after spending grating with her family from India was a time at Bactevo, a Cambridge-based plat- • A strong appreciation of both engineer- new start for Ipshita Mandal. form technology start-up, as Chief Business ing and sales has been pivotal: Ben She completed a BTech in Biotechnology Officer she joined the global management O'Brien, CEO, StretchSense Ltd with first class honours in 2011, and was consultancy McKinsey and is now based in • People, relationships, teamwork are the top student in her graduating year. India. important part: Simon Talbot, plastic Given an enviable choice between a Ful- Ipshita has been nominated twice as one of surgeon, Partners Healthcare bright scholarship to study in the US or a 50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness in the • Where I gave something everything PhD scholarship to study chemical engi- UK, and has won the 2013 Cambridge Uni- I was deeply rewarded and satisfied: neering at the University of Cambridge in versity Entrepreneurs Award, as well as being the UK, she chose Cambridge, where her nominated a Leader of Tomorrow at the Amar Virk, group lead of special pro- research involved engineering a novel pol- 43rd St Gallen Symposium in Switzerland, jects, UberEverything at Uber ymer membrane device, with applications the world’s leading forum for international in pharmaceutical drug purification and debate in politics and economics.

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 23 ALUMNI PROFILE

“I was the New Zealand Senior Even if that means a child waving an National Officer and Military Assistant to AK47 in your face? David, which basically involved advising “We learn how to de-escalate situations TOUR him on the military aspects of what he like that,” she says. Which is pretty much was doing. David has amazing knowledge all she will say about that particular of the humanitarian sector in conflict- incident. OF ridden places such as Somalia and Iraq, The mandate of the mission in South but this mission comprises around 70 Sudan – which gained its independence percent military personnel, so that’s where from Sudan in 2011 after an earlier my experience came in.” agreement that signalled the end of the DUTY Esther’s role included supporting David longest-running civil war in Africa – is in Juba, the capital, as well as travelling to protect civilians, investigate human Alumna Lieutenant Colonel around South Sudan, a country roughly rights violations, provide humanitarian Esther Harrop speaks with Sharon the size of France, visiting mission assistance and assist in furthering the Stephenson about her life with the NZ members and humanitarian agencies comprehensive peace agreement signed Army and her recent experiences in a and providing the conduit between the in 2013 between factions within the new country torn by war. 13,000-strong military peacekeeping nation. force, and their leadership. Esther was one of only five New ere’s what Lieutenant Colonel “The travel was tiring, and testing, Zealanders and the sole NZ Defence Harrop remembers about South usually in helicopters, small fixed-wing Force member based in the capital Juba. HSudan: the heat, the squalor, the planes and often armoured vehicles. Her personal goal when she left NZ was unpaved roads that became rivers of mud The roads there are terrible so most long to make a difference: to leave the UN after the rainy season. Not to mention distance travel was by helicopter.” mission in better shape than she found it the extreme poverty and violence, and the Esther was the most senior female – which sounds like a huge challenge but time an 11-year-old boy pointed a loaded military officer at the UN base of around proved less difficult than she thought it AK47 at her. 2000 people, including 500 civilians. might have been. “I’m making it sound so grim and at Because of the volatile nature of the “I know I made a difference to some times it was, but it’s also a country full of region, all mission personnel were placed of the men’s perceptions of women in the the most beautiful people suffering from on a curfew (7pm-6am), but outside this military. My presence took a lot of guys displacement and violence, from man- Esther managed to drive herself to the by surprise. I was working with Indians, made famine and horrific abuses,” says market to buy food and have clothes Nepalese, Rwandans, Chinese: there are Esther of her 10-month UN peacekeeping made by a local tailor. 52 different nations in the force. A lot of deployment. “We’ve had lots of training on how to those nations don’t have female officers The 45-year-old, who graduated from handle ourselves in certain situations, or if they do, the women are in specialist the University with a BCom in Marketing so although I would never take an roles such as in the medical area, and are and Management in 1995, was working unnecessary risk, I’m not the the kind of somewhat limited in the roles they fulfil with former Labour leader David person to hide away on the base all day. on operations. Shearer, who heads the United Nations’ When I had the chance I'd go out and “I was upset at first that many of the peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. interact with the locals as far as possible.” men couldn’t even look me in the eye. But

24 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 ALUMNI PROFILE

I was the deputy chief planner, responsible for developing plans for the operations of the UN forces in South Sudan. They had to work with me and do what I asked them to. It was a new experience for many of them to have a competent female officer in charge.” On International Women’s Day a colleague phoned Esther with a heartening message about the males in the forces: “You’ve no idea how having a senior woman in the Force headquarters is changing their perceptions.” As a woman in uniform, she was also able to relate in a different way with the local women and children: “The UN has made a big push to have women in peacekeeping,” Esther explains. “Many played an instrument (the French horn) role was to manage a team of engineers of the women and children in South and her accountant/musician father who designed survivability add-ons to the Sudan (and other countries where the was keen for his children to follow him vehicles to ensure that soldiers would be UN has military peace keepers) have either into the world of music or number better protected in an explosion.” been treated with shocking cruelty by crunching. Esther chose the latter, signing “I had limited French, but that didn’t men from various factions in ongoing up for a BCom in marketing with the stop us gelling as a team and we managed conflict. The stories you only occasionally vague notion of going into the corporate to outfit 120 LAVs with the survivability hear back here are true. Conflict-related world. kits. As far as I’m aware, there have been sexual violence and villages razed by fire Nothing in her background suggested a no deaths in those LAVs since then.” – torture, beatings and killings. They are career in the armed services but nibbling Her efforts were also recognised with a often terrified by the sight of a man in at the edges of her university years were Golden Anvil Award from the Canadian uniform.” the Territorials. She’d been introduced to government. Esther and other women in the the weekend pursuit and discovered she Esther had barely returned from South force, were able to talk with them, to be loved being outdoors. Sudan when she was appointed deputy accepted by them, to create respectful “The structured nature of the services director strategic engagements (regional) relationships of a kind that at times were also really appealed to me, as well as the and defence adviser Pacific. It’s a role that closed off to her male colleagues. idea of doing something that could make will see her foster New Zealand’s defence For most people, the prospect of being a difference,” she says. relationships in South East Asia and the away from family and friends in one of From there it was a short leap to signing Pacific – in particular Samoa, the Cook the most politically and economically up for an intense five-day selection process Islands and Niue. unstable regions in the world might not with the NZ Army. Esther got through It will, of course, involve more time be terribly appealing, but when you’re that and then spent a year at officer cadet away from her husband and children the mother of four boys, the youngest school in Waiouru. Nelson (12), Abraham (10), Solomon only three years old, it can be even more She did a few military history papers (6) and Wolfgang (3). But Esther is difficult. through Massey and chose her specialty looking forward to it, and particularly “I’m lucky I’ve got a lot of support from – supply and logistics, which is how she the opportunities it offers her to further my husband Stephen, who was able to ended up in Fort Lee, a US Army base develop her leadership skills. quit his job before this deployment to in Virginia, where she spent 12 months “I’ve always had a leadership mindset keep things ticking over,” says Esther. completing a masters in science in and the Army fosters that, as well as That includes the children and the logistics management from the Florida strong emphasis on team membership. couple’s 17-acre property in Pauatahanui. Institute of Technology. Last year I was selected for a New “It would be too hard to do what I do One of Esther’s favourite roles since Zealand Leadership Institute programme without his support.” then has been her three-year secondment at the University of Auckland, which was Before South Sudan there were two to the Canadian Department of National incredibly useful in bringing together all deployments to Bougainville, one of Defence, from 2009-2012, where the strands of my leadership experience. It which saw her recognised as a Member she managed the Canadian Forces really encouraged me to carry on. of the New Zealand Order of Merit Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV) fleet “As long as I’m making a difference, I’ll (MNZM) in 1999. There was also a three- both in Canada and on operations in keep doing what I’m doing.” year stint with the Canadian Army and Afghanistan. time logged at bases including Waiouru, “The Canadians had a large fleet of CAN WE PREPARE YOUNG NEW Linton, Trentham and Burnham. around 150 LAVs in Afghanistan and ZEALANDERS TO BE GLOBAL CITIZENS Before that there was a happy they had lost over 100 soldiers in those AND INFLUENCERS? childhood in the Auckland suburb of Mt LAVs, basically because Improvised Albert, where Esther was the youngest Explosive Devices (IEDs) would rip of five. Along with her four brothers, she through the bottom of the vehicle. My

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 25 ALUMNI PROFILE

Photo: Anas al Baba/Oxfam EDUCATION IN TIMES OF CONFLICT

A global concern 65.6 million people have been forcibly have often been driven by geopolitical displaced from their homes and in 2016 and economic interests of the “powerful” ccording to the 2017 Global Peace alone, an estimated 265,000 civilians lost rather than the needs of citizens on Index, the world is less peaceful their lives due to armed conflict. the ground. The result is that emphasis Anow than it was a decade ago. has been given to opening markets to Growing outbreaks of disease and The contemporary problem: short- trade, strengthening law and order, and famine, displacement from land sighted approaches to peace and introducing weak forms of democratic because of climate change, increasing security governance. This has been to the competition over scarce natural The evidence points to a failure of the detriment of significant investment resources, a protracted global economic way peacebuilding has been deployed in or attention to social services like slowdown, shifting geopolitical in recent decades. The most telling sign education. landscapes and violent extremism have of this is that, since 2000, 90 percent of This narrow conception of all contributed to more protracted and violent conflicts are not new but rather peacebuilding has, in part, been driven frequent conflicts. reoccurrences or consequences of past by our desires to keep conflict at bay In contemporary times, the greatest tensions. from our own soil rather than concerns burden of such violence falls on civilian Internationally-led peacebuilding and for the sustainability of our diplomatic, populations. At present, a record reconstruction efforts in recent years defence and development efforts

26 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 OPINION

including from our own government’s involvement in Afghanistan – to ensure Ritesh has had extensive experience researching the role of education that schools, students and teachers in countries with a history of conflict. The photo to the left shows do not become part of the ideological something of the situation in Gaza, where his experiences during battleground for winning “hearts and several visits have provided him with a more complex insight into minds”. The other important issue is that we concepts such as resilience. “We can easily assume that conflict- must demand more from education in affected societies are depressed, and lack resilience. But one of the such circumstances. It is insufficient to things that has come through to me from my time in Gaza is that restore educational provision without any people have their own mechanisms of coping, and ensuring that life consideration for the cultural, political, goes on, despite the kind of gross violations of rights that are in place economic and social structures it feeds there … Palestinians comprise some of the most highly educated but into and contributes to shaping, in areas affected by conflict. poverty-stricken people in the world. I’ve never been anywhere where Transformative remedies through I’ve seen education so highly valued.” education require significant consideration of social justice concerns – of redistribution, representation and recognition within the system itself, and overseas. This myopic view is no longer across a country, or as complex as what of the broader intersections schooling has tolerable or conscionable given that the language children should be taught with the political economy. New Zealand government, alongside in, are often poorly considered by Only then is reconciliation, and the 192 other countries, has agreed to the policymakers and international advisers potential for achieving the global vision Sustainable Development Goals, which tasked with reconstruction. This fails to of a peaceful, inclusive, and just society at their core are about ensuring just, ensure that education is safe, inclusive, – as articulated in the Sustainable peaceful and inclusive societies by 2030. equitable and accessible for all, and has Development Goals – fully possible. We can no longer neglect our moral been shown to lead to significant levels of and ethical obligation to eradicate the drop-out, due to the irrelevance or poor Dr Ritesh Shah economic and social costs of violent quality of the education that is provided. Critical Studies in Education conflict on society. Part of the solution This creates a vicious cycle, where Faculty of Education and Social Work relies on giving more attention to social education itself becomes a grievance services, such as education, at all stages against the state (or occupying power) of a crisis – from humanitarian relief to for some, and a site of future conflict. longer-term peacebuilding efforts. In a global economy where knowledge has become commodified and has Education’s conflicted role become a key instrument for upwards Education is recognised as an social mobility, education systems which important catalyst for promoting actively or passively exclude citizens psychosocial recovery, normality, hope, from full participation are demonstrated and the inculcation of values and skills to have a strong correlation with the for building and maintaining a peaceful renewal of violence. future. It also has an important role in reconciliation or nation-building goals A future focus through the messages and shared values What I and a growing number of it can promote, restoring social cohesion colleagues have been arguing in recent that is often eroded during conflict. years is that during and immediately Unfortunately, in humanitarian after periods of conflict, we must do settings, education is poorly prioritised, two things better. One is to ensure and often even more poorly funded. The that education and other social services result is that approximately 30 million are not left as an afterthought, but are children remain out of school during considered from the outset of efforts periods of displacement or conflict to stabilise and transform societies – which represents half of the global affected by conflict. New global funding out-of-school population. Furthermore, mechanisms such as the “Education after the cessation of hostilities, efforts Cannot Wait" initiative are emblematic are often made to restore schooling to of this, and our own government could those affected by conflict, but often with contribute, as part of its humanitarian little thought to underlying structural aid package, to this. conditions in education which may have Importantly though, we must precipitated or fuelled conflict. uncouple education aid from military Matters as simple as the distribution interventions – a phenomena which of textbooks or other learning materials we’ve seen too often in recent years,

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 27 RESEARCH THE ULTIMATE IN BURIED TREASURE Dr Sascha Nolden speaks with Sharon Stephenson about a fruitful union of arts with technology.

hey were the eighth wonder of the Basel, Switzerland. These detailed the in 10-15 metres of ash, with the lower world until the 1886 Tarawera only pre-eruption survey data of the reaches of the white terraces under the Teruption buried the famous Pink terraces. lake bed near the shore.” and White Terraces at Lake Rotomahana, “I had to completely digitise the The new lake, he explains, is ten south of Rotorua. notebooks in Basel, because I wasn’t able times the size of the old lake before the But it took a University of Auckland to bring them back to New Zealand,” eruption – and also much deeper, at arts graduate, Dr Sascha Nolden, to says Sascha. “And then I set about about 100 metres, compared with the uncover historical survey data that may translating the notebooks from the pre-eruption depth of just a few metres. well lead to their rediscovery. original old form of German, which had The pair’s findings were published in It all started when Sascha (DipPerfArts never been done before.” June in the Journal of the Royal Society of 1998; MA in German with first class In late 2015 he began to collaborate New Zealand to coincide with the 131st honours 2003; PhD - Dean's list 2007) with researcher Rex Bunn, who used anniversary of the Tarawera eruption. was curating an exhibition at Auckland Sascha’s translation to reverse-engineer Their research came six years after City Library about German geologist Hochstetter’s survey data to plot the GNS Science reported it had discovered Ferdinand von Hochstetter, who possible locations of the once popular part of the Pink Terraces at the bottom travelled to New Zealand as part of the attraction. Their research placed the of Lake Rotomahana. But by 2016, GNS SMS Novara expedition from Austria in three terraces largely beneath land – and had dismissed those claims, concluding the late 1850s and stayed on to conduct not at the bottom of Lake Rotomahana, the majority of the terraces had been the first-ever geological survey in the where they were widely believed to have destroyed. provinces of Auckland and Nelson. been buried. Sascha, who fits his independent While doing research for the 2008 “Evidence suggests the locations may research around his day job as a Research exhibition, Sascha tracked down have survived the eruption,” says Sascha. Librarian at the Alexander Turnbull Hochstetter’s field survey notebooks in “We now believe the terraces are buried Library, believes he and Bunn have come

The historical German connection with “New Zealand is often underestimated, particularly the role of naturalists such as Hochstetter, because so much of their original material is in German. With his archival skills and his ability to decipher the most idiosyncratic German script, Sascha has made material available that many New Zealand researchers had no idea existed. It is a perfect example of how arts and science can work together to explore new frontiers of knowledge. ”

Sascha is holding his own copy of Hochstetter's 'Neu-Seeland' (1863), a very special copy as it bears an inscribed dedication from Hochstetter's widow, Georgiana, to Andreas Reischek (1845-1902), dated Christmas 1889, the year that Reischek returned to Austria after spending 12 years exploring in New Zealand. In the background is the original “testimonial” presented to Hochstetter at the conclusion of his visit in 1859, as a gesture of acknowledgement by the people of Auckland Province. Photo by Sandy B Nolden, 2017

28 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 closer than anyone since the eruption to finding the terraces, which, without the pre-eruption survey data, were assumed to be lost. He says the next step will be to use ground-penetrating radar on the sites they’ve identified. “This will reveal if silica is present and, if that’s the case, then the second phase John Kinder – Encrusted terraces at Rotomahana – Otukapuarangi, will be core-drilling to retrieve rock 1865. Hochstetter Collection Basel. (Sascha Nolden and Sandy B samples.” Nolden, Hochstetter Collection Basel Part 1: New Zealand Paintings and Drawings 2012). If the first and second phases prove successful, the third phase would be to excavate the area. “We are working closely with the local iwi as to the next steps, as it is very much in their hands,” says Sascha, who will continue as an historical consultant and adviser on the project. It’s not the first time humanities and science have worked together. “I have always worked closely with scientists in very productive collaborations, especially in the geosciences. I see my role as discovering and making accessible, but also contextualising, historical information,” he says. Professor Emeritus James Bade, Josef Selleny – Hochstetter in his cabin on the frigate Novara, 1857 (Mike Johnson and Sascha Nolden, Travels of Hochstetter and Haast director of the Research Centre for in New Zealand 1858-1860, 2011, page 24) Germanic Connections with New Zealand and the Pacific, said he was delighted with Sascha’s role in helping to establish the exact location of the Pink and White Terraces. "With his archival skills and his ability to decipher the most idiosyncratic German script, Sascha has made material available that many New Zealand researchers had no idea existed.”

Note: Sascha’s PhD at the University, supervised by James Bade, focused on the correspondence over many years between Ferdinand von Hochstetter, who returned to Austria in 1860, and Julius von Haast (for whom Haast Pass was named), who had accompanied him on his geological John Kinder – Otukapuarangi, 1865. Hochstetter Collection Basel. expeditions in New Zealand and had (Nolden and Nolden 2012). become a valued friend. This year's paper was entitled "Forensic cartography with Hochstetter's 1859 Pink and White Terraces survey: Te Otukapuarangi and Te Tarata".

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 29 STAFF PROFILE

“People are not what you think, they’re what they think,” says Jackie Ede, with one of her wry smiles. She LEVELLING UP smiles, and laughs, a lot.

t’s a great line, one of many produced THE PLAYING in our rapid-fire conversation about Ilearning, level playing fields, students who don’t fit the mainstream model and how you make life at University as fair for FIELD them as possible. Jackie has the title of ‘Learning Disabilities Adviser’ and currently lives under the umbrella of Libraries and Learning Services, Te Tumu Herenga, after having had various homes in the past. She rather wonderfully described what her job involves in a recent UniNews staff profile: “I question, listen, respond, assess, evaluate, recommend, review, motivate, suggest, nudge, encourage, laugh (a lot), redirect, reframe, reflect and sometimes pull my hair out.” The very existence of a person (or in this case, a team of people) whose job involves helping students living with what some refer to as ‘invisible disabilities’ like dyslexia, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) succeed at University can be considered a triumph for inclusivity and advancement in how educators’ think, says Jackie. Acceptance that people learn in diverse and unique ways has been a long time coming. While the UK identified dyslexia as a real condition around 25 years ago, it wasn’t until 2007 that the New Zealand government acknowledged that dyslexia existed as a legitimate disability. Prior to this, she says children with these conditions largely went “My students drive me. undiagnosed and unsupported, often leaving them to fail at school with They’re the change- no likelihood of ever achieving their makers of the future. astonishing academic potential. “Recognising dyslexia was a game- I love standing in the breaker” says Jackie. “Up to that point, foyer of the Kate Edger people often didn’t succeed in school if Building, students they were ‘neuro-diverse’, they simply didn’t survive. But now in 2017 we’re streaming past me; a starting to see kids who were diagnosed river of hope heading with a learning challenge ten years ago and have had the support ever since, into the future and I’m which is great.” being pushed along in Support for students with invisible the current.” disabilities at this university is slowly gaining momentum. Two University of Auckland educators with psychology

30 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 STAFF PROFILE backgrounds, Emmanuel Manalo and I imagine it must be a fine balancing example, some students simply say, ‘That Glenis Wong-Toi, were the first people act, bearing in mind how stretched quiz doesn’t work with how I learn’. to start assessing and helping these lecturers usually are? Agile thinking is then required on our students, as distinct from those with “Academic staff are generally happy to behalf to figure out the workarounds.” physical disabilities or mental health help once they understand what is going She says a learning discrepancy can conditions, who are supported by on for a student. From time to time, impact more in some courses and Student Health. I’m probably seen as a troublemaker. environments than others. Jackie joined them on contract in My own kids have dyslexia, so I can be “In medical school for example, 2004 and over time they grew into the very tenacious when things start to look it’s important to have good working ‘Learning Disabilities Programme’. ‘unfair’. Luckily we have some really memory because you have a lot to learn. Fast forward to 2017 and there are robust processes here for students with One student might need to look at now three learning disabilities advisers disabilities so this doesn’t happen often.” something three times to remember it, working alongside around 300 students Fortunately for these students, there whereas someone with a weaker working each year. has also been a change in teaching memory might need to look at it seven So if you’re a student who would like techniques to favour a more student- times. In a test-heavy environment, this help, how do you go about it? centred teaching and learning approach can become an insurmountable hurdle.” After registering at Student Disability across the board, says Jackie. Some of Jackie’s students are very Services, students make their way to For example, the Physics department literal thinkers so their take on university Jackie’s office on level 3 of the Kate has recently adopted a studio style processes can be both surprising and Edger Building to be screened and tested environment for some of their courses, understandable. for a range of conditions. where students work in multi-ability “Like the student who thought the “The first time I see a student I say, groups of three alongside lecturers and expression ‘office hours’ meant you could ‘Congratulations, you made it. If you’ve tutors. regularly spend an hour meeting with the got this far, you have a reasonable chance “The shift from passive to active lecturer/tutor in their office, as opposed of success because here, you get to work learning has worked really well for our to a time between which someone will be to your strengths'.” students. To quote a student; ‘This is available in their office to speak with any Sometimes she’s the first to pick up how physics should be’.” number of students. Simply, sometimes a problem that might have existed for the easy stuff is harder than the difficult years. When this happens students are stuff for our students.” often surprised – and very relieved – to “The world is a better And predictably, life is not all discover that there’s a reason behind why place because we don’t bouquets and gratitude in the learning they think like they do and, secondly, adviser’s world. that it’s okay to think that way. And all think the same.” “A comment I hear regularly is: ‘But unsurprisingly, a difficulty in one area how are these students going to get on in can have side effects in others. the real world if they don’t have people “We often deal with factors of co- Debates are still raging about the like you to help them and advocate for morbidity, and we have to ask which benefits of a label; is the possible stigma them?’” is the primary impairment. Someone and stereotyping that comes with it And her response? might start out by thinking they have worth the support a diagnosis brings? “I throw the question back at them. a handwriting disability for example; “On balance I think it’s better to own University is not the real world; when in however testing then reveals they have the label,” says Jackie. “The more people the real world are they going to have to ADHD. Or someone with ADHD might we know personally who have these do tests and exams under that level of also have depression; as a student adviser, issues, the more open we become to the pressure? When will they have to attend you have to deconstruct what’s going on. concept of difference. Let’s face it, we lectures and complete assignments?” “It’s not always easy and we don’t all fall somewhere on a continuum of In fact, says Jackie, in the ‘real world’ always get it right but an educated shot is ability; I’m not great at baking cakes but a learning impairment more often than better than nothing.” I can make a mean curry. Similarly, a not transforms into a gift. Then she makes a cunning plan for student may not be a fast writer but their “The world is a better place because their future academic success, which ideas may be astounding. Every student we don’t all think the same. Watch this involves understanding their capabilities presents with a unique set of strengths space. My students are the future game- and tapping into their potential, as well and weaknesses so I think it’s better to changers. Researchers, writers, poets, as mapping out obstacles or barriers to consider the individual first, then the scientists, doctors, historians and makers; learning. label.” they’re busy making a difference and not She says all sorts of things, some of The widespread assumption that caring about being different.” them quite minor, can be adjusted to digital learning is the way forward for make a difference: where they sit in a neuro-diverse students needs to be Julianne Evans room, who they sit with, the brightness challenged, Jackie believes. of the lights, the level of noise, the “Some students don’t want to take that CAN WE CELEBRATE OUR DIVERSITY way assignments are given and testing route. They can get swamped by social AND CREATE AN INCLUSIVE SOCIETY? is done. In some cases, it’s a matter of media, emails, information coming at thinking outside the square: “That’s them from all sides and suffer overload. where the magic happens.” Online quizzes are another good

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 31 TAKING ISSUE MORE FREE OR LESS FREE?

I didn’t have a vote in a national election from 1997 to 2005. I wasn’t in a non-democratic state, I was in the UK and then in New Zealand, disenfranchised by the vagaries of electoral cycles and immigrant qualifying periods. On election day 2005, visiting London, I made it to the ballot box in New Zealand House with seconds to spare, narrowly avoiding making it 11 years without a vote. That would have been 11 years a slave, according to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who remarked that voters are only really free when voting, being prone to slavery the rest of the time. He also argued, famously, that individuals are rightly “forced to be free” in being constrained and guided by the general will. Would compulsory voting make people more free or less free? The philosophical-political conundrum SHOULD continues, probed recently in debates in the vein of Rousseau on “republican” freedom as non-domination, with the VOTING BE thought that anyone who doesn’t vote is effectively under the dominion of those who do. In practical political terms, however, COMPULSORY do we need to address the conundrum right now? Participation in New Zealand elections has fallen over time, which is worrying and needs action. But there are IN NEW many reasons why people don’t vote and there are many types of response to be explored before coercion tops the agenda. Don’t expect me to list the possibilities ZEALAND? here, as if proffering alternative instant solutions (e-voting is the notorious example). It’s complicated. There are We asked this question of two expert academics factors external to procedure too, of course, including the role of a changing in politics, and a postgraduate student who has media as well as what happens in politics been working through the Centre of Innovation itself. (By the time you read this, will the Ardern effect have mirrored Britain’s and Entrepreneurship on developing a solution Corbyn effect in raising interest among young voters?) for getting people more engaged in politics. At the 2014 election, the Electoral Commission started picking apart the problem statistically, confirming that voters aged 18-39 – the young-ish – have under-average turnout, as do Māori. But in a linked survey only four percent of eligible voters who didn’t vote offered a reason in the “can’t be bothered” categories. More cited barriers of work, health,

32 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 TAKING ISSUE religion, transport or being away from core element of any democracy. Most particularly youth, engaged in news and home. Australians support it, and accept it politics. This suggests barriers to overcome as a reasonable obligation, not unlike Through an app, users can keep track before compulsory voting is the resort. stopping at a red light, or paying taxes. of the changes in the political landscape It also suggests how compelling people Finally, scholars argue that when we related to the issues that they care to vote is likely to punish further have a sense of control over the political about, as they happen. They can give those least free in other ways, being system we are more contented, and their opinions on changes which can likely disproportionately from more society is more stable and inclusive as a be recorded and tracked. And they can marginalised groups. A vote to introduce result. If the need for political control is see which party’s policy and stance they compulsory voting would then be continually thwarted, voters may become agree with the most. “mainstream” older New Zealanders deeply alienated, which in turn may lead Though this may not be the complete telling their younger, diverse fellow to more extremist political action. solution to the lack of voting in this citizens what to do, again. In 2014 over 50 percent of voters who country, it does help with making an Dr Geoff Kemp teaches politics in the responded to the New Zealand Election informed decision on who to vote for. If School of Social Sciences study supported the introduction of you can swipe on a phone, then you can compulsory voting here. So the time is swipe on policies that can shape your right to bring our missing million into entire future. process and build a happier and more Sahara Dhunnookchand is one of THE ‘MISSING inclusive democracy. seven University of Auckland students Associate Professor Jennifer Curtin who have worked with mentor Dr MILLION’ is co-author of the book A Bark but Jamie Newth at the Business School No Bite. Inequality and the 2014 New on developing an app to encourage Persistent patterns of low turnout by Zealand General Election. younger New Zealanders to engage those who are less well off, young or from with politics. The VoteSmart NZ app diverse ethnic backgrounds worries many was due to be launched in early political scientists and commentators, September. who argue that participation is crucial SWIPING ON for an effective democracy. Of course there are others who claim that non- POLICIES voters are satisfied with politics or are not sufficiently interested to care. A decline in voter turnout may have However, the fact remains that over prompted some of us to think, “Our time, turnout in New Zealand has next door neighbour has the mandatory WHAT DO YOU THINK? steadily declined. Rueing and wooing the voting rule in place, so should we be SHOULD VOTING BE “missing million” is a familiar refrain. following suit?” Many hoped new Labour leader Jacinda I personally believe that voting should COMPULSORY? Ardern would appeal to younger voters not be compulsory in this country. The views of our contributors are because she was of a different generation It goes against the core principle of intended as the beginning of a to Bill English, social media savvy and democracy and that is freedom. Even discussion, which our readers can then cognisant of the issues of import to the though we mostly revere freedom of respond to. Please visit our Ingenio under thirties. Ardern’s promotion also choice and speech, we seem to forget that website www.ingenio-magazine.com or made the electoral race much closer. this freedom also imparts the privilege write a letter to the editor to continue the This is significant because the more to remain silent. Therefore, forcing conversation. competitive a campaign, the more likely a New Zealand citizen to vote is an You can also comment on “Taking Issue” turnout increases since people believe infringement of their liberty. topics from previous issues, including their vote can influence the outcome. Furthermore, a high voter turnout gender inequality in the world of work However, this is a serendipitous doesn’t necessarily correlate to a and New Zealand’s response to the factor and one that is unlikely to politically engaged electorate. I would refugee crisis. Letters to the editor are reverse the downward trend evident in rather see a smaller voter turnout of also welcome. Please email to New Zealand. Does this mean then informed and engaged voters than a [email protected] or post that compulsory voting is a viable and 100 percent voter turnout with a high to Ingenio, Communications and valuable solution? number of ill-informed and disinterested Marketing, Private Bag 92019, Auckland I believe so. Compulsory voting people at the ballot box. So, the real Mail Centre, Auckland 1142. enhances turnout significantly (it is question is not about making voting The views expressed above reflect 94 percent in Australia) ensuring that compulsory but about how we can make personal opinions and are not those of political parties of all persuasions have our citizens more politically engaged. the University of Auckland. an incentive to appeal to as many voters Nowadays people are sourcing as possible. In voluntary systems parties information through Facebook and can choose to target only those voters YouTube, and through the hundreds of they expect will turn out. news apps available in the palm of our Second, compulsory voting supports hands, at the touch of a button. These the principle of one vote, one value – a are the ultimate tools to get people,

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 33 AROUND THE GLOBE DOING WHAT YOU LOVE Our two alumni featured on this page both live in Australia, but that’s not the only thing they have in common. Both have found ways of combining their passion with their work and of earning a living through what they most enjoy.

Susannah Fullerton, What do you love about living in Sydney? novels. In my new memoir Jane nee Wilson & I: A Tale of Austen Addiction, I (BA 1979), OAM, FRSN It has some great bookshops, and write of how vital that was to me fabulous libraries and literary festivals. and what happiness it gave. I was Where are you living and what are you I love its vibrant literary community only 16 when I began my BA at doing? and enjoy all the societies of which I’m Auckland; yet from my first day, a member, including the Australian when I heard Professor Musgrove I’m living in Sydney where I’m a Brontë Association, the Dylan Thomas declaim from Marlowe’s Dr literary lecturer, giving talks to a great Society of Australia, the Kipling Society, Faustus, I felt I was at home and variety of groups about famous authors an Anthony Trollope reading group knew that in one way or another and their works. I also lead literary and the New South Wales Dickens my career must include tour groups of Australians and New Society, which will host an international English Literature. Zealanders to see places connected conference next year. To see how Susannah with writers in the UK, France, Italy, has turned her hobby New Zealand and the United States. Is your study at Auckland important into a career – see I’ve published several books about Jane to what you do now? susannahfullerton. Austen and about famous authors who It was in the English Department com.au visited Australia, and have written and at Auckland that I first studied a Jane recorded an audio CD called Finding Austen novel. I’d read most of them, but Katherine Mansfield. For 21 years I’ve that was when I first read Mansfield Park been president of the Jane Austen Society and came to realise, through my study, of Australia. what depth there was to Jane Austen’s

Big League and Rugby League World. I Is your time at the University of also do some corporate writing, and have Auckland important to what you do just published my first book, which is now? about rugby league and is called Their Finest Hour. Rugby union dominates Doing a variety of subjects and topics in New Zealand but rugby league allowed me to appreciate creativity from captured my imagination. It was fast, the different angles. I know that writing long commentators loved it and I grew to love essays helped with the discipline and it too. structure I needed to write the book. I credit a lot of my success in sports What do you love about where you’re media to Gavin Ellis, who taught politics living and about what you’re doing? and media studies. We had frequent chats about journalism, and he really Melbourne is such a diverse and lively helped me in getting there. I also think city. There are always things happening the social skills you develop while Andrew Marmont and lots of sport on all year round, which studying, particularly in group study, (BA 2007) is great for my work in sports media. help with corporate life and networking. Rugby league is growing in popularity, Photo: Andrew at a press conference with Where are you living and what are you with the Storm (the first professional rugby league team based in Victoria) Melbourne Storm – interviewing Storm coach Craig doing there? Bellamy. Photo supplied by Melbourne Storm. doing consistently well, plus World Cup I live in Melbourne, Australia, and and State of Origin matches that are work as a freelance journalist. I mostly always strongly supported. The weather cover sport, including rugby league and is great, warm in summer and cold in cricket, working with magazines like winter.

34 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 ALUMNI NETWORKS VOLUNTEER ALUMNI AND FRIENDS EVENTS We host alumni and friends networking functions and special events throughout PROFILES the year in New Zealand and all over the world. These events give a great opportunity Meet Summer Wu (below, left) and to reconnect and refresh networks. In many cases, you'll also be able to hear about the Ruonan Duan – our Volunteer Alumni latest University news, research and innovations taking place on campus. In the run-up Coordinators in Shanghai. Summer to Christmas we are excited to have the annual Golden Graduates Luncheon and the gained a Master of Commerce University of Auckland Society AGM and Christmas Function happening right here in and is an International Marketing Auckland. We will also be hosting special events in London and Tauranga. Don’t miss Consultant for Bocconi University. out – visit alumni.auckland.ac.nz/events to keep up to date. Ruonan did a conjoint Law (Hons) and Arts degree and is a Banking and Finance Associate at UK-owned law firm Allen & Overy. Details of all our VACs can be found INTERNATIONAL on our website. If there isn’t an existing Both have fond memories of their alumni network where you are, you may student days. Summer recalls how ALUMNI want to start one and consider being a chatting with classmates of different VAC. Contact us at alumni@auckland. nationalities in the Business School’s NETWORKS ac.nz for further information. kitchen exposed her to new cultures and helped her to make friends. Similarly, With over 185,000 alumni living in Ruonan remembers hanging out with 147 countries our alumni networks bring her friends in coffee shops while they together groups of alumni living all over discussed such big questions as the the world. Our networks are run by meaning of life and their hopes and Volunteer Alumni Coordinators (VACs) Connect with us dreams after graduation. Following who help alumni remain connected with www.facebook.com/UoAAlumni university, Summer and Ruonan made the active life of the University. the move to Shanghai. For Summer, Check out the map below to see where www.linkedin.com - the city’s strategic location in the heart in the world our VACs are located. Auckland University Alumni & Friends of Asia provided a great platform for Find the volunteer closest to you, make www.twitter.com/AucklandAlumni travelling but was also close to her contact and start a conversation. hometown Anhui. Ruonan, on the other hand, began her career in well- recognised New Zealand law firm Chapman Tripp. While working on transactions backed by Chinese investors, she was given the opportunity to move to Shanghai, and jumped at the chance.

Outside of work, Summer finds cooking an enjoyable distraction after a tough day. Ruonan, who is an active volunteer and recently lent her time to a tree-planting project in Inner Mongolia, enjoys travelling to different parts of the world to hit the ski slopes. Summer and Ruonan are keen to hear from alumni based in Shanghai. They aim to support alumni in their professional and personal lives through networks and to foster pride and life- 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF MEDICAL long connection between the University and its graduates. Visit AND HEALTH SCIENCES alumni.auckland.ac.nz to find out more The University’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences is celebrating 50 years about the Shanghai alumni network. in 2018. The faculty has become one of the most productive research entities in the University. As well as training generations of new doctors, medical scientists, nurses, optometrists and, more recently, pharmacists, it has played a significant part in moving the University to its pre-eminent position among New Zealand universities. Activities planned for the celebration include an open day, an evening lecture series and a celebration dinner. Keep an eye out for more details in the next few months on the faculty website, Facebook page and in alumni newsletters.

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 35 ART

unique and exciting creative space can be found where art and science Ameet. And this is the space that award- winning artist Dr Ruth Watson has had the chance to explore this year as inaugural artist for the University's new “Creative Arts Science Collaboration (CASC)”. Ruth, a senior lecturer in the Elam School of Fine Arts, has a strong interest in memory and representation: for over 30 years she has been making works, in a variety of media, that deal with maps, how they are made, used and represented. For the CASC collaboration she has chosen to work with neuropsychologist Professor Donna Rose Addis, who uses neuroimaging to understand how our brains function to remember the past and imagine the future. Eventually an art work will be produced that will reflect on how we remember what we've experienced as well as how we use memory to simulate future events and construct a sense of identity. This will build on the ideas from Ruth's video “Unmapping the World", shown as part of Ruth's recent solo exhibitioon titled Geophagy. This word, which means literally “eating the earth,” refers to the effects of excessive consumption by humans on natural resources. The show included works Ruth made during her residency at the Headland Centre of the Arts in San Francisco in 2015. She’d received the Fulbright-Wallace Trust Award for the work “Telluric Insurgencies” the previous year, and the prize enabled her to make "The Surface of Things,” a video work which responded both to the Headlands site – a former military barracks – and to the decommissioned Nike missile site Geophagy 2017 nearby. Installation with recycled pallets, second hand clothing, The real scene-stealer in the exhibition monitors with 5 single-channel, looped HD videos. was the eponymous work in the foyer – Installation dimensions variable. “Geophagy” – where piles of discarded clothing were tossed over a stack of pallets under the dome. Cascading shirts and skirts created an effect like a static fountain: an oil strike on Shortland AIDE DE Street. Five television monitors were lodged at different points playing looped videos with voices reading extracts from a variety of texts: Jorge Luis Borges’ The MEMOIR Library of Babel, Benjamin H. Bratton’s Story by Linda Tyler The Black Stack, Donna Harraway’s Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chuthulucene, Susan Schuppli’s Slick Images: the photogenic politics of oil and

36 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 ART BLINDED BY LIGHT

etween now and 31 October you have a chance to take a peek at what Bthe University of Auckland Art Collection has tucked away. Decent Exposure: The University Art Collection Undressed features 25 nudes, semi-nudes and demi-nudes in what Associate Professor Linda Tyler describes as, "a jaunty local riposte to the Body Laid Bare exhibition staged at the Auckland Art Gallery earlier this year." The exhibition showcases masterpieces from leading contemporary New Zealand artists Yuki Kihara, Rohan Wealleans, Ioane Ioane and Lisa Reihana, New Zealand's 2017 Venice Biennale Representative. Unmapping the World 2017 One of the highlights is "Charis, Santa Single-channel, looped HD video with screen and loungers Monica, 1936" (seen below), by Edward Duration 7:23 Weston, a seminal figure of American twentieth-century photography. "Blinded by the light, the woman in Hito Steyerl’s In Defense of the Poor bags to watch it in, takes the viewer on a this photograph turns her head from the Image. journey down memory lane. sun," wrote Andrew McKay in a recent With this work, the artist is It begins with a vintage porcelain UniNews. "Weston's use of light and commenting on environmental ornament – a kitsch pair of hands with shadow are striking, illuminating the disasters, and the part played by fast painted fingernails. Modelled to look angles of Charis's body, the folded legs fashion. like they are cradling something – a and the encircling arms. The long limbs “We’re of an age where we can baby’s head, perhaps – these ceramic are contorted, yet relaxed, making her remember our mothers making most hands are a memorial to an ideal of seem like a flamingo at rest, calm and of our clothes and you would buy femininity that has passed into history. peaceful." something as a treat. Now it’s the Like an aide-de-memoir, a trigger of The show, curated by the students reverse – we buy everything and throw memory, these hands precipitate a of Art History 744: Art Writing and things away at the drop of a hat. The montage of images of the wilderness of Curatorial Practice, is open weekdays work is about a particular form of Antarctica, and instructional films on 11am to 4pm. map use. As the video progresses, items and “Like a trigger of objects are produced, from which can memory these be constructed a fragmentary narrative. A green handkerchief, for example, hands precipitate a introduces the story of the death in montage of images” childbirth of the artist’s Irish great- great-grandmother, Sarah. Through "Unmapping the World," consumption – most of those clothes the artist examines her own decision not have got plastic in them. The stack is to have children: was she consciously 200 kilos of clothing ordered from trying to reduce the squeeze that a company that sells second-hand burgeoning human populations have clothes by the kilo. All those plastic put on the planet or was she traumatised microfibres go out into the ocean by having read the coroner’s account of when you wash them, and so fish are Sarah’s death? eating them and they are killing life on This work is Ruth's point of earth – but we don’t really think about connection with the research of Donna this when we buy, let alone wash, our Rose. clothes.” CASC links the Faculty of Science "Unmapping the World," set up like and the Faculty of Creative Arts and a home movie, with screen and bean Industries.

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 37 BOOKS AND FILMS A BETTER ENDING oss and betrayal, secrets and lies, love and redemption, hope and Lheartbreak: these are the themes of a new novel, written by Amanda Lyne (MA 1998, PostGradDip Bus 2010), who will be familiar to many readers as the former Alumni Manager of the University. A Better Ending is her first novel, published last month, in which she explores the destructive impact of poverty and of intergenerational cycles of behaviour including rejection, abuse and infidelity. The story is crafted around the dramatic and sometimes tragic events in the lives of three generations of her family, whom she describes as her “feisty, Alumni Relations at the University of WIN A COPY beautiful and broken ancestors”, all born Auckland before leaving two and a half A Better Ending is now out in print – in the Midlands in the UK. years ago to follow a dream. She now on demand. To enter the draw for one Amanda, who was also born in the lives and writes in Mangawhai. of two free copies of the book, email Midlands and came to New Zealand To learn more, see a video interview [email protected] with the with her parents and her two brothers with Amanda on the Ingenio website: subject line, A Better Ending. at the age of five, worked for 14 years in www.auckland.ac.nz/ingenio

TUAI A Nle Zélande, pencil, ink and watercolour by Antione Chazal after Jules-Louis, TRAVELLER IN 1826. Alexander Turnbull TWO WORLDS Library C-082-102. ripping yarn of clashing cultures, ocean adventures and romantic Aforeign travel in strange lands is rarely a fitting blurb for an academic book. But Tuai: A Traveller in Two Worlds by Professors Alison Jones and Kuni Kaa Jenkins is exactly that. and features a number of images that the two young Māori men were received Compellingly written for a general have never been reproduced before. in polite English society. audience, it focuses on the extraordinary Alison (from the Faculty of Education Tuai was not the first Māori to travel story of Tuai, a young Ngare Raumati and Social Work) did the writing and to England in the early 1800s, says chief from the Bay of Islands (born researching, while Kuni (professor at Alison, but he was of the first generation about 1797) who, after befriending Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi) of Māori “to travel confidently overseas European traders and missionaries, set stimulated the project. While Alison’s from a country still dominated by off in 1817 for England with a travelling research took her to Paris, Sydney and traditional culture and ancient ways”. companion Titere, to “explore the world Shrewsbury, she also used the rich Being curious and ambitious, he hoped and its riches and bring them back to his resources in the Marsden Online Archive to make use of all the technological people”. at the Hocken Library, Otago University. advancements of the industrial age, And so the pair’s many adventures An important connection was made particularly its superior weaponry, to on convict ships, in exotic foreign ports by chance, with Professor James Sneyd help his people, who were facing the and as guests of honour at high society from the Mathematics Department at expansion of their rivals Ngāpuhi. He London dinners unfold. Auckland, who, while researching his was “a great teacher of the Europeans The product of five years of intense family in England, had come across he met, and had a shrewd analysis of research and partly funded by a Marsden a diary belonging to his aristocratic what Māori could gain from a strategic Fund grant, the handsome, 288-page ancestors. Written in 1818, it told of relationship with the Pākehā”. book (Bridget Williams Books, 2017) New Zealanders at a “grand cannibal Tuai died of unknown causes in the is rich with details of the earliest dinner” in London and proved to be a Bay of Islands in 1824, aged only 27. encounters between Māori and Pākehā treasure trove of information about how Julianne Evans

38 | Ingenio | Spring 2017 BOOKS AND FILMS

an action movie that descends into FROM KINGSEAT bloody mayhem when violent thugs storm an operating theatre. Do No Harm TO SUNDANCE premiered in January at the Sundance o be found in the rich line-up Film Festival. of alumni talent at this year’s Other short festival films by alumni TNew Zealand Film Festival were included Stay directed by Graig not one, but two films by Toa Fraser: Gainsborough and Luke Thornborough, 6 Days, a fictional re-creation of an where the lives of June and her pet dog invasion by six gunmen of the Iranian Lucas change forever; The Coffin Club Embassy in London, and The Free Man, a (Briar March), a musical documentary documentary that follows world champion about celebrating life and death; and freestyle skier Jossi Wells as he travels and East Meets West (Julie Zhu), in which a trains with The Flying Frenchies, a group Chinese grandmother finds kinship on of extreme sport eccentrics. her bus trip to the Asian supermarket. Also having its first showing In front of the cameras instead of was Florian Habicht’s Spookers, a behind them was alumnus Bill Direen, documentary portrait of the popular a compelling performer renowned for theme park occupying the former his voice, prose, poetry and songs – Kingseat Psychiatric Hospital, where described by Steve Braunias as “very fiends lie in wait to terrify tens of likely a genius”. Film director Simon thousands of screaming – and paying – Ogston, in The Memory of Others, customers. followed Bill through his first national Roseanne Liang won the New tour in more than a decade in what Zealand’s Best Short Film competition became a thoroughly engaging cinematic From Stay with her 11-minute short Do No Harm, trip through our cultural landscape.

about getting lost in foreign lands. MUSICAL Ship Life marks Eli’s debut as a AS IT WAS producer and singer-songwriter. It can VOYAGE be purchased on CD Baby (https://store. Emeritus cdbaby.com/cd/elimoore) Professor Russell Three Stone (History), years and 47 who grew up in countries ago, FORK IN Ponsonby and alumnus Eli Grey Lynn, has Moore (BMus THE ROAD reached an age 2009) left and stage in life New Zealand “I would get off where he can be to see the the bus midway up regarded as not world. Symonds Street, just an historian but as part of the stuff A graduate of the University of throw my pack over of history itself, someone qualified to Auckland's Jazz Programme, he took on my back and feel the tell us at first hand just what life was the role of showband pianist on various bounce in my step as like when he was young. When he was cruise ships, which gave him the material I pounded downhill born in 1923, Greater Auckland had for his debut album. with hundreds of a population of 165,000. Today the Comprising 12 songs with elements students unloading figure is one and a half million. Life of jazz, folk, country and musical from a dozen buses.” was simpler, relatively uncomplicated. theatre, world music and rock, the And that was just the beginning. But it was also harsher, with much hard album, Ship Life, was produced by Eli, In her self-published memoir, Fork physical labour for men and women. The who wrote all the arrangements for in the Road, alumna Marie Darragh memory of World War One was still raw. his additional singers and musicians. tells of her 11 years at the University of And although the attitudes and practices Recorded at Black Orange Studios in Mt Auckland as a mature student. of our colonial past were still to be seen Roskill – the personal studio of another She wanted to graduate in an exotic on every hand Auckland, just like New Auckland graduate, Vivek Gabriel – it subject but in the end settled for Zealand as a whole, was already passing is a local effort which involved many of what she calls “plain old English”. It the threshold to modernity. Auckland's working musicians. was during her University years she In this book, published by David Ling Songs include “Ghost”, featuring slow would find the answers to her life-long Publishing, Russell Stone shows how the jazz and a Fleetwood Mac-inspired burst questions. life in Auckland at that time can be seen of spread vocals and keyboards and “Lost Copies are available for $20 from as a forerunner of our way of life. in Palamos,” a celebratory salsa number [email protected]

Spring 2017 | Ingenio | 39 Hats off to you! Congratulations on being a graduate of the University of Auckland!

But wait, there’s more… You are a graduate of a world-class You have a chance to WIN one of 10 travel vouchers. You can travel anywhere you want from any destination in the world! university. You have new challenges, goals and exciting opportunities ahead of you. 1 voucher worth 2 vouchers worth $1,000 $750

3 vouchers worth 4 vouchers worth In October/November the University is running a Graduate $500 $250 Destination Survey to learn more about your experiences after graduation. We want to know what you are doing now, and how your programme has prepared you for new What do I have to do? challenges and opportunities. • We are looking for all 2016 graduates. As a graduate we know you have a busy new life. Taking the • Check if your contact information is correct at time to complete the survey is a way you can give something www.alumni.auckland.ac.nz back to the University. • At the end of October/early November you will receive an email or phone call asking you to participate in our short survey. How will my feedback help? • It will only take 5-10 minutes of your time and your feedback We will use your feedback to help future students understand is confidential. where their programmes might take them, and to continue to For more information go to www.alumni.auckland.ac.nz make improvements to the University of Auckland experience. or send an email to [email protected]