THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND ALUMNI MAGAZINE

Ingenioauckland.ac.nz/ingenio SPRING 2020 ALL EYES ON CLIMATE CHANGE FOCUSING ON THE SCIENCE

40 Under 40 Covid-19 models Powerful proverbs Wise heads on The weighty task of Dr Hinemoa Elder’s young shoulders predicting pandemic cases whakataukī for a good life BIG PICTURE FLASH DANCE During the rare times students were able to be on campus in 2020, the popular and lively club expos were held. This image of a flash mob was captured during the opening of the Semester Two club expo, held in Grafton Atrium on 30 July. Photographer: Richard Ng this issue

REGULARS 18 36 6 Doing the numbers Radar love Editorial For Covid-19 modelling, University of Golden Graduate Dr Alan Maxwell’s career Auckland academics collaborated with began when he placed a contraption on top experts all over New Zealand 14-17 of the Biology Building in 1947 News 21 Guest columnist: 24 37 Sir Anand Satyanand 22 Lessons from history A riddle picture Research Dr Felicity Barnes wants to strengthen The University owns around 1,700 artworks. our knowledge of Aotearoa’s past Linda Tyler picks out one of her favourites 26 7 tips to … learn te reo Māori 30 Taking Issue: 32 40 Can gangs ever be good for society? Out of the box Books Professor Anthony Hoete is a renowned Author Caroline Barron is featured in a architect who has returned to teach at the selection of recent books by University of 34 University after three decades overseas Around the Globe Auckland alumni and staff 42 Connection Points

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4 | Ingenio magazine 40 Under 40 Dr Hinemoa Elder’s Shana Malio-Satele is one of our book Aroha has timely 27 38 messages for 2020 40 wise heads on young shoulders

Cover story: Eyes 7on the blue marble Professor David Noone and the Auckland scientists using their initiative with climate change

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 5 Ingenio Editorial The University of Auckland Alumni and Friends magazine Spring 2020 ISSN 1176-211X

Editor Denise Montgomery Executive editor Helen Borne Art design Stephen Wang, Ashley Marshall ACTING WITH Feature photos Elise Manahan, Billy Wong URGENCY Ingenio editorial contacts Communications and Marketing, f the Covid-19 crisis has taught us societal change and the collective efforts of all The University of Auckland anything, it’s that it is possible to act swiftly actors in society. Private Bag 92019, and decisively when faced with an acute Universities have a critical role to play in Auckland 1142, threat, and the joint efforts of many matter driving New Zealand’s transition to a low- New Zealand. when responding to mammoth challenges. emissions economy and, as civic institutions, we Level 3, Alfred Nathan House I 24 Princes Street, Auckland. We have witnessed this in the way that have a responsibility to do so. Telephone: +64 9 923 6061 our own Government and many others have As the cover story in this edition of Ingenio Email: responded to the crisis. Globally, universities illustrates, our research and teaching efforts [email protected] have also shown outstanding speed and agility span widely in producing the knowledge, Web: auckland.ac.nz/ingenio in their responses to the pandemic. At our own skills and innovations needed to address this How alumni keep in touch institution, staff and students have done an urgent challenge. Through our partnerships To continue to receive Ingenio and subscribe to @auckland, incredible job rising to the challenges brought and collaborations with government, the University’s email newsletter on by Covid-19. Within a matter of days, industry, community organisations and other for alumni and friends, enter teaching moved online ensuring continuity of stakeholders, we have the opportunity to your details at: alumni. learning for our students at home and overseas, make an impactful contribution to address the auckland.ac.nz/update and our researchers are still contributing to the defining issue of our time. Alumni Relations Office fight against the pandemic in many ways. Yes, it’s a challenge, but 2020 has been all The University of Auckland 19A Princes Street, While the current focus is on the immediate about challenges. Private Bag 92019 consequences of the pandemic, it’s imperative There has been some positive news in Auckland 1142, New Zealand that we use the economic recovery to build more other areas in recent months. In September, Telephone: +64 9 923 4653 resilient social foundations, reduce inequalities the Times Higher Education (THE) World Email: and fast-track New Zealand along the path University Rankings 2020 showed Auckland [email protected] Web: alumni.auckland.ac.nz towards a sustainable zero-carbon future. had jumped 32 places to sit inside the top In the words of European Commission 150 universities in the world for the first time Disclaimer Articles may reflect personal president Ursula von der Leyen: “Sooner or since 2011. opinion that is not that of the later we will find a vaccine for the coronavirus. Around the same time, Dr Rhys Jones, a University of Auckland. But there is no vaccine for climate change.” senior lecturer in the Faculty of Medical and Audited by abc.org.nz According to the Intergovernmental Panel Health Sciences, received the Prime Minister’s Copyright on Climate Change (IPCC), we have until 2030 Supreme Award in the 2020 National Tertiary No parts of this publication to halve global carbon dioxide emissions if we Teaching Excellence Awards, the second year may be reproduced without are to avert irreversible and catastrophic climate in a row an Auckland academic has won the prior consent of the University of Auckland. All rights change. grand prize (see page 15). reserved. © The University We must act with urgency and decisiveness What a grand prize it will be for society if of Auckland 2020 in tackling the climate crisis. Reaching New some of the University’s best and brightest Zealand’s goal of transitioning to a zero-carbon minds can help solve the world’s climate economy by 2050 will require far-reaching challenges as well.

PROFESSOR DAWN FRESHWATER Vice-Chancellor

Cover concept: Jacinda Torrance Photo: Darryl Torckler

6 | Ingenio magazine Cover Story

“We represent a group where climate is very strongly influencing ways of life, and where the survival of communities is really threatened.” – Professor David Noone, Climate Science Initiative, University of Auckland

Few countries were ready for the pandemic that’s hit the world. So has the Covid-19 crisis taught us anything about ameliorating the threats of climate change? The world is heading to be 1 degree warmer in 2040, leading to fires, floods, heatwaves and scarcity of water and food. Aotearoa has committed to net-zero emissions of all Professor David Noone is the Buckley-Glavish Professor greenhouse gases, other than of Climate Physics. Photo: Elise Manahan biogenic methane, by 2050. But is that enough? Finlay Macdonald talks to scientists at the University, EYES ON THE including those involved in the new Climate Science BLUE Initiative, who are committed to Earth’s MARBLE survival.

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 7 hen Professor David Noone That perspective is behind the establishment explains the hydrologic cycle of the University’s new Climate Science Professor Richard Easther in lectures, he likes to illustrate Initiative, which David came to Auckland says riding a bike is “my reminder to myself that the it with the famous image of to lead. Not only in the sense that we are all climate is changing”. Earth,W the “blue marble”, taken from space by connected to our planet and what happens as Photo: Elise Manahan the Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972. Yes, there are its climate changes, but also that many scientific conventional infographics that explain the way disciplines and fields of research must combine water moves in and out of the atmosphere quite well, but that first space ‘selfie’ really has it all. “I’ve been using it for years and it’s very effective,” says the Buckley-Glavish Professor of Climate Physics. “One of the questions we ask ourselves as “I often ask the question, when you look at this thing, what do you see? You see the a department, a faculty and as a university water cycle everywhere. You see the clouds, Antarctica, the ocean is dark blue, you see the is what are the big questions we’re facing landscape, the brown bits don’t have water, the green bits do. You see all sorts of subtle as a society in the 21st century, and where characteristics.” More than that, though, you see home. can we make a difference?” “When you look at that picture of Earth, you think, yeah, that’s actually where I live. – Professor Richard Easther, Head of Physics, Faculty of Science That’s my home. So there is that connection. And I show that because that’s how I feel. I’m delighted to share that with people.” and connect for us to understand and mitigate The image reinforces the sense of fragility the effects of that change. the blue marble faces with climate change. The potential to bring scientists and their The headlines are about global warming and work together to create something greater rising seas, but we are belatedly realising that than the sum of its parts was what attracted climate change affects every aspect of society. A the Australian-born scientist from his previous considered response to climate change requires position in the College of Earth, Ocean a multi-faceted, audacious approach that needs and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State to engage researchers across many disciplines. University. He detects a global shift in the

8 | Ingenio magazine “It’s just been far too easy to kick the can down the road.” – Associate Professor Jay Marlowe, Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies, Tāwhārau Whakaumu climate science community from pure research has committed to net-zero emissions of all towards “actionable science” that contributes greenhouse gases, other than biogenic methane, tangibly to planning and policy. by 2050. “There are voices across the Pacific, New “When I was in school back in the last Zealand being central to that, that speak loudly millennium, climate change was a much simpler together. And we represent a group where thing,” says David. “It was going to happen climate is very strongly influencing ways of life, in the future. Now we have almost the reverse and where the survival of communities in the problem. It’s vastly more complicated because future is really threatened. it’s happening now, and we need solutions now. “This part of the world is a hotspot for these “The priorities are shifting towards things changes. One of the things I’m really excited that have time horizons, where actions could about is what we can do here to grow a broad be taken, policies could be put in place, where community, a collective alliance that, as well as solutions can be found quite quickly.” being science-focused, is evidence-based and rigorous.” IMPACT ON ASIA PACIFIC The Climate Science Initiative, underwritten In the Pacific region, those solutions could be by the Vice-Chancellor’s Strategic Development required within three decades. A recent paper Fund, aims to foster excellence in research and in the University of Oxford’s Forced Migration focused expertise and training in quantitative Review referenced research that the Pacific Associate Professor Jay climate science. It is working to facilitate Islands’ vulnerability to the impact of climate Marlowe says we need to collaboration, encourage interdisciplinary change could see up to 1.7 million people in the examine the contemporary research, train the next generation of leaders region migrate or be displaced by 2050. ways displacement in our region could occur as a in climate science, and engage the public in Associate Professor Jay Marlowe is co-founder result of climate change. climate science that informs public policy. of the newly established Centre for Asia Pacific Professor Richard Easther, Head of Physics in Refugee Studies, Tāwhārau Whakaumu, a the Faculty of Science, says the University has research centre within the Faculty of Education an essential role in shaping future research. and Social Work. The centre is looking to “One of the questions we ask ourselves as a develop responses to both conflict and climate- department, a faculty and as a university,” he induced displacement across the Asia Pacific says, “is what are the big questions we’re facing region, which he says aren’t necessarily distinct. as a society in the 21st century, and where can “If we think about climate change and we make a difference? Also, what are the most the movement of large numbers of people, Centre for intellectually challenging questions for us as particularly in cases where there might be scarce Asia Pacific scientists and researchers? resources, it’s often the politics of difference Refugee Studies “For physicists, climate is very much one of that justifies who gets access to resources and those things … and using that understanding to who doesn’t. predict how [the climate] is going to change as “Where it may have been about a lack of The Centre for Asia we force it in particular directions is obviously arable land due to drought, suddenly access is Pacific Refugee Studies critical in the 21st century. In the longer term, about your ethnicity or nationality or religion,” received set-up funding it’s seeing how that knowledge can contribute to he says. from Potato Productions, the formation of policy by experts, but also by “Social grouping or political opinions put a Singapore-based society at large. you in certain groups and those groups either multi-media company. “The other part of it, possibly outside of bestow particular privileges or make it so you’re this initiative, but it’s definitely something we effectively excluded from having access. That This year it also received have an eye on as physicists, is what can we do creates context for conflict.” support from the Vice- to develop technologies that will mitigate the He says an example would be the Syrian Chancellor’s Strategic impact of climate change or allow us to move civil war. Development Fund for away from the use of fossil fuels?” “There was a major drought in the Fertile two masters students The emphasis on research and knowledge Crescent that preceded that civil war, likewise in 2021. At the time that has application in the real world is hardly recent conflicts within Somalia tell a similar tale.” of writing, another unique to climate science, of course. But the Jay says close to 25 million people around significant investment urgency with which that applicability is pursued the world were displaced last year as a result of was being finalised from is perhaps what distinguishes the field. severe weather events. Seven of the countries an overseas donor. The Climate Science Initiative research most at risk to such weather disasters were in responds to urgent real-world goals. Aotearoa the Pacific.

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 9 Dr Jemaima Tiatia-Seath says Pacific peoples forced to relocate face a higher risk of mental health and well- being challenges.

He says many of the climate-change Jemaima says Pacific peoples forced to hazards that could displace communities in relocate face a higher risk of mental health the Pacific Islands are slow-onset events, but and well-being challenges brought on by the mean we should examine the contemporary stress of climate-induced migration, including ways displacement in our region could occur. cultural loss. “Salinification of the water, rising sea level, “If they move to New Zealand, our health drying out of land. We need to consider at system needs to be prepared to deal with that,” what point these things cross the threshold she says. and create a danger to life? What point do If border restrictions are ongoing as a result we ascertain that there aren’t solutions within of Covid-19, that will add an extra level of a country to respond to it?” stress to those wanting to flee the effects of Jay says when people start crossing borders, cyclones, floods or drought. or even within borders, it creates political “Climate change has a direct impact on the tension. He says countries such as Fiji are mental health of those in the Pacific. With the taking proactive steps to anticipate how, if increased frequency and severity of natural coastal communities have to move, it can be disasters, there’s a compounding effect. done in a way that doesn’t create conflict. “Natural disasters also disrupt access to In 2019, the United Nations recognised public health services and can obstruct access to that in situations where sending people back medication and care. to their own country would violate their “Take, for example, Cyclone Heta in 2004, lives, receiving states have an obligation to the impact of which is still being felt by protect them. Niueans. There’s the historical trauma of loss “But it’s just been far too easy to kick the for some, as well as people’s livelihoods and the can down the road. We’re coming to the infrastructure that was destroyed.” point where we can’t just keep kicking the “It’s also important to frame research in a way can, there are too many cans in front of us that makes sense to Pacific peoples. and we need to start picking them up.” “For instance, if there is climate change- induced migration, and a family must uproot, EFFECTS ON MENTAL HEALTH they would be leaving behind their loved ones One issue still being picked up is the effect of and the burial grounds of their blood, their climate change on mental health. being, their everything. Dr Jemaima Tiatia-Seath is Co-head of “Their being is completely embedded in School, Te Wānanga o Waipapa, School the land and with their ancestors … for most, of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies. She there’s spiritual and historical connection. began a three-year project in 2019, funded “That’s important to most Pacific peoples by the Health Research Council, looking at and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to how best New Zealand can help support the establish that there will be an impact upon mental health and well-being needs of Pacific people’s well-being in relation to such climate-change migrants. disconnection and loss.”

10 | Ingenio magazine “Climate change has a direct impact on the mental health of those in the Pacific.” – Dr Jemaima Tiatia-Seath, Co-head of School, Te Wānanga o Waipapa, School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies

WATER RESOURCES DELICATE CONNECTIONS Another issue in the Pacific is access to water. David Noone’s research focuses on the David Noone says there are “a couple of really water cycle and how land surfaces and dominant areas where there’s a critical need for the atmosphere work together – a deep work, and actionable outcomes are needed”. connection that he says is still poorly Climate change is already being felt not just understood. on low-lying islands and atolls of the Pacific In turn, there’s a delicate connection region, but also on higher mountainous islands. between the water moving between land and “Water availability is remarkably scarce, atmosphere and various other greenhouse and the quality of water therefore becomes gases, including carbon dioxide and methane. important,” says David. Better understanding of these interactions “There’s inundation by seawater, which will mean better data on which to base influences water supplies, variability in rainfall climate models, and therefore our ability to and shifting rainfall patterns. There are predict and mitigate the impact of change. issues associated with all of that. Ecosystems Richard Easther points out that climate themselves tend to filter clean water. If those models are not, as some may believe, simply have been degraded by all sorts of different best guesses about what will happen in the uses or lack of ability of ecosystems to adapt future. They are built on the kind of deep to the new environment, again the water is scientific research already underway, and threatened.” which the Climate Science Initiative and The other critical area for research is close to the various disciplines it embraces aim to home – commercial agriculture and the likely accelerate. impact of drought and water shortages, at the “What you’re doing is fundamental Interesting same time as the population is increasing and, physics,” he says. “Equations that describe with it, the demand for food. fluids and radiation, the way the radiation tree fact As with sea-level rise and weather events impinges on the atmosphere, how it interacts in the Pacific, we are already witnessing the with the molecules it finds there. Associate Professor tangible impact of climate change. David “There’s quantum mechanics, there’s Anthony Fowler, recalls a lake near his hometown of Ballarat, thermodynamics, there’s fluid mechanics. from the School of north-west of Melbourne, that dried up a few These are part of the bedrock understanding Environment, says kauri years ago. Similarly, Cape Town in South Africa of the world that physics provides … The trees can tell us a lot essentially ran out of water in 2018. challenge is being able to implement those as about past droughts. “These are quite shocking events,” David computer code in a way that’s tractable, that “I started looking at says. “How we use water has to become allows us to get granular information that’s kauri tree rings as a increasingly more efficient – despite the fact reliable over a long period of time.” proxy for drought in that as temperatures rise, evaporation rates rise Take clouds, for instance. We know that Auckland as a masters very quickly. There are real challenges there.” as the world heats, water is picked up from student,” he says. “Kauri Associate Professor Anthony Fowler, from the the oceans more quickly, which forms clouds, tend to lay down quite School of Environment, agrees but cautions which reflect radiation back into space … wide rings in dry years, against attributing Auckland’s current water how do these feedback loops affect rainfall but if the drought goes shortage entirely to climate change. He says patterns, regional temperature variation and over two years then you few lessons have been learned since Auckland’s sea-level rise? The uncertainties inherent have severe stress. drought of 1994. (See sidebar, page 13.) within these interactions, and indeed “As well as examining “I’m not saying that we shouldn’t panic at within the differences between an average the rings of trees [a all. I did my PhD on climate change impacts 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees Celsius warming, field known as dendro- on water resources in the Auckland region mean the entire concept of climate change climatology] I look at the some time ago, so it’s been a concern of mine must be seen in the round, not as some anatomy of their cells. for a long time. The climate-change scenarios inevitable linear process. Cell structure can reveal are for a decrease in rainfall and the record Working at this crossroads of radiation, a history of drought over for the past few decades is consistent with that. clouds, atmospheric and oceanic circulation the last several thousand In addition, we have increasing temperatures, and the hydrological cycle is Dr Tra Dinh, years.” which increases evaporation. We’re right to be also of the Physics Department, whose concerned.” primary fields of research include cloud

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 11 behaviour – specifically what are known as guide planning and policy. Melissa has led the Dr Melissa Bowen says over “cloud-resolving models” or CRMs. These oceanographic project, a key component of 90 percent of the heat going are relatively high-resolution models used to which is measuring ocean temperatures. into the climate system ends up in the ocean. describe cloud properties, and are useful on a “The ocean is really the flywheel in the climate Photo: Billy Wong regional, but not global, scale. system because it holds so much heat,” she says. Global climate models (GCMs) differ “Over 90 percent of the heat that’s going into in that they are lower resolution but have the climate system ends up in the ocean, and been invaluable in advancing our ability to we’re actually able to measure that now.” understand and predict the Earth’s climate over Key to those measurements are robotic longer time scales. floats that can be programmed to descend to Says Tra: “Given that GCMs cannot resolve depths of up to 2,000 metres – roughly half clouds explicitly, the impacts of clouds on the overall distance to the ocean floor, and the atmospheric radiation remain the largest source half that is changing the fastest as a result of of uncertainty across our predictions of global global warming. It is also, logically, the section warming.” of ocean most in contact with the atmosphere, Using a combination of both models, from where it is drawing the heat. Within ten Tra studies how atmospheric radiation and years, says Melissa, there will be floats that can circulation affect clouds (and vice versa) at go to the bottom to measure the darkest part of both cloud scales and global scales. Ultimately, the abyss, too. her research will lead to improvements in the Melissa’s focus is oceanic circulation – the representation of clouds within the global large waves within the ocean, not the kind on model. At the same time, she is studying how top that you surf on – and how they influence the water cycle changes in response to global the interaction of heat between the atmosphere warming – using theoretical and mathematical and the water, and how that affects climate tools to quantify how atmospheric radiation variability. “We focus a lot on trends,” she governs the strength of atmospheric circulation, says. “But actually there are some really big which drives condensation of water vapour and fluctuations that happen too.” subsequent precipitation. Aside from the oceans’ overall warming, there “Once such physical and mathematical are specific changes occurring. frameworks are established, they can be used to “What we’ve seen with the waves is that as predict with confidence how precipitation and they are coming across, they speed up the East our water resources will change with warming,” Australian Current, which is putting warm she explains. water into the Tasman, so preconditioning us Dr Melissa Bowen, from the School of for marine heatwaves. Environment, has been immersed in the Deep “But we do also think the ocean is modulating South Challenge, a government initiative the heat transferred to the atmosphere through bringing together physical science, predictive the dynamics of ocean circulation.” climate modelling and social science to help Melissa says Auckland (and New Zealand in

12 | Ingenio magazine general) is ideally placed to make significant AUCKLAND’S WATER SHORTAGE contributions to the global network of research in the field. “It’s great because the core group of us rom November 2019 to May 2020 can get together and discuss physical climate Auckland received 40 percent less processes. There is so much climate research rainfall than normal. The long-range going on at the University, everyone has it as a forecast predicts well below average strand within their different disciplines because Frainfall for spring and bans on outdoor use it is so integral now, and I really see the Climate of water may remain until mid-2021. Science Initiative as a forum to facilitate Associate Professor Anthony Fowler says communication and collaboration.” there are a number of factors that have led Tra Dinh echoes that sentiment. to Auckland’s water crisis. Climate change “Collaboration among scientists in climate is a contributor, but it’s complex. science and related fields will allow us to “I get a little annoyed by people talking accelerate progress in research and promote our about 200-year droughts. Yes, there was an research in New Zealand and worldwide.” intense drought this summer, but it was Richard Easther also sees the importance about three months. The water supply of the centre as a conduit for much-needed system is supposed to cope with two years expertise as climate science becomes central to of dryness, not fall over when you have three planning and management at national, regional months of drought.” and international levels. He says in the 1980s there was a major “There’s no other big university between study done that presented options on how us and the equator,” he points out. “As a best to maintain Auckland’s water supply. Pacific country, we engage with a large slice “We were going to build another of the world. And so part of our brief is that reservoir in the Hunua Ranges, in the lower we generate the people – for example, every Mangatāwhiri, but that’s never been built. local council in New Zealand is going to need There was also a scheme planned for the people who understand climate science. They’re west of Auckland, where riverflows in not necessarily going to be researchers, but winter would be pumped into storage for we’re going to be generating a deeper pool of use over summer. That scheme was quite expertise to draw on.” a revolutionary idea for Auckland, but then As Richard puts it, we have already “cooked” the 1994 drought came along.” a certain amount of change into the climate He says that’s when a lower-ranked option system, so we need to accept the world as it now from the study – drawing on the Waikato is and will be. It’s one of the reasons he rides a River – was elevated to the top of the list. bike – partly because it makes sense in Auckland “When you have a water crisis like in and keeps him fit, but also because it’s “my 1994, you look for emergency solutions. The reminder to myself that in fact the climate is Waikato river was the emergency solution. changing”. “Then the drought broke and we had an The more urgent questions now revolve absolute deluge, yet politicians still wanted around adaptation and preparation, and to build the pipeline to the Waikato river. It what kind of world we want our children and was a fait accompli even though it wasn’t on grandchildren to inhabit. One of the dangers, top of the recommended list previously.” he agrees, is the sense of pessimism – the In 2002, the pipeline to Waikato was put in. “doomerism” – that arises from relentless “That’s where Council wants to go again. negative reportage about worst-case-scenario Summer-time pumping of the Waikato is a predictions. bad idea for Auckland as well as Waikato ... “Because all of this doesn’t mean there aren’t and will cause political angst in the future.” solvable problems,” says Richard. Three years ago Anthony, a hydro- Science is innately optimistic, anyway, at least climatologist, warned Auckland could in the sense that seeking solutions to problems expect a decade of dry summers. He is its essence. And, as David Noone suggests, says the care of water requires careful if blanket coverage of climate change inspires assessment of historical records and the young people to stick with science at school and creation of contingency plans. into tertiary study, that would be a good thing. “Auckland is a growing city. We’re always “It sometimes seems that science is somehow needing more supplies. You have to build external to the human psyche,” he says. “I think capacity. This city shouldn’t have a water we’re all scientists, it’s just that some people get supply problem related to climate change.” degrees in it. Everybody is inquisitive. We’re all He says if supply keeps well ahead of the in this together. That’s one blue marble that we demand curve, and people keep conserving stare at from space. It’s not the scientific Earth water, it partly buys insurance for any future and the other Earth. It’s one.” climate surprises.

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 13 News with transport costs and family commitments. “Students are happy to finally have their own dedicated space, which they know is all theirs. Many don’t have study spaces at home.” But just as the students were getting to know each other and their lecturers, along came lockdown in March and again mid-August. “To be honest my new South Campus role hasn’t turned out quite how I envisioned it,” laughs Rennie. “Covid-19 has meant I can’t PRIDE OF go out into the South Auckland community, connect with people and host them on campus. THE SOUTH But the opportunities will come soon, I hope.” The opening gala planned for April didn’t Fits and starts for Tai Tonga in 2020 happen, but Rennie is looking ahead to 2021. Head of the South Auckland “We’ll do a one-year anniversary,” he says. Campus Rennie Atfield- but already a lot of love Douglas says Te Papa As well as EDSW students, Tai Tonga has Ako o Tai Tonga is a very he opening of the South Auckland New Start learners and those doing the Tertiary welcoming place. campus, Te Papa Ako o Tai Tonga, Foundation Certificate in preparation for Photo: Billy Wong in Semester One was a big moment university. “The goal is to offer other courses for the University. It’s the first time it here when the time is right,” says Rennie. Thas had a dedicated campus for the community, He says there’s been real benefit in the after offering the Education and Social Work campus being small, with shared facilities. (EDSW) programme on the Manukau Institute “That’s been a blessing in disguise because of Technology (MIT) campus for 20 years. students and staff interact daily in the kitchen Head of the South Auckland campus Rennie space, for example, and it seems to have really Atfield-Douglas says the Manukau location helped embed the welcoming culture we have has been great for students, who may struggle there. We have a very whānau feel.”

vice-chancellors, the senior leaders from each NEW ROLE FOR university, and other key groups. “The Provost is responsible for the JENNY DIXON secretariat, which is housed at the University A familiar face to many alumni is of Birmingham, UK,” she explains. “There taking on a new challenge are multiple time zones to navigate for virtual meetings which will be quite a challenge to rofessor Jenny Dixon, Deputy Vice- manage from Aotearoa.” Chancellor (Strategic Engagement) is Jenny’s role at the University for the past eight Professor Jenny Dixon is leaving the University. years has been to lead international, alumni and the new Provost for Jenny is taking up the role of Provost development, government and city relations. Universitas 21. Pfor Universitas 21, which is a global network More recently her portfolio has been extended Photo: Elise Manahan of 27 research-intensive universities, to include marketing and communications. including Auckland. The role of She has also had oversight of the North Asia Provost is similar to that of a chief Centre for Asia Pacific Excellence and Auckland executive. Jenny is replacing Confucius Institute. She has represented Professor Bairbre Redmond the University in a number of international (University College Dublin), networks including the Association of Pacific who was the first Provost of Rim Universities, and knows Universitas 21 Universitas 21. well, having chaired the U21 Senior Leaders’ The aim of the network Group for four years. But 2021 will bring a new is to share and collaborate set of challenges. “It’s a very unusual time to be across borders, among the taking over as Provost, given current and likely universities’ 1 million future restrictions on travel,” she says. students and 200,000 “Like its member universities, the operation staff. Jenny will of the network has been really challenged by work closely recent events. But U21 is engaged in a number with the Chair of creative responses and looking ahead to and executive facilitating new activities and business.” committee of Jenny takes up the role in January 2021 for a presidents and term of three years, based in Auckland. TOP TEACHER ‘OUTSTANDING’ Rhys Jones teaches Māori health to Auckland medical students

he Prime Minister’s Supreme Award in the 2020 National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards went to Dr Rhys Jones T(Ngāti Kahungunu) from the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences in September. It’s the second year in a row a University of Auckland educator has won; Andrew Eberhard (Business) did in 2019. Rhys, Co-Director of Teaching at Te Kupenga Hauora Māori, was described as an “outstanding champion of teaching and learning who weaves values from te ao Māori, kaupapa Māori frameworks, Indigenous peoples’ human rights and medicine”. But Rhys says teaching didn’t come naturally. “I’m an introvert, so it was a Dr Rhys Jones won the Prime Minister’s 2020 National challenge for me in the early days. I’m not Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award at an online someone who likes the limelight.” ceremony in September. Photo: Elise Manahan

The research has been adopted around the ANOTHER world and Jane now leads a major research MORE NEWS & programme into the school-age outcomes RESEARCH HONOUR FOR of babies at risk of low blood-sugar levels. Keep up to date “We’re assessing the long-term outcomes after with University news JANE HARDING randomised trials of treatments given around auckland.ac.nz/all- the time of birth, from two years to as long as The 2019 Rutherford Medal winner UOA-news-stories adds Dame to her title 50 years later.” Jane takes great joy in her work. nternationally renowned neonatologist “It’s rewarding to watch Distinguished Professor Jane Harding the next generation of became a Dame Companion of the New researchers grow and Zealand Order of Merit in the 2020 develop and, of course, IQueen’s Birthday Honours. to know that our work Jane’s research at the Liggins Institute has led will help babies and to paradigm changes in the care and treatment their families in the of babies before and after birth, across the future. globe. “There are many “Jane has always been a trailblazer,” says the great up-and-coming Distinguished Professor Dame director of the Liggins Insitute, Professor Frank researchers at the Jane Harding: a trailblazer in neonatal health. Bloomfield. Liggins Institute. I’m “Her reputation means she is in great demand sure they will be much around the world as the leader in her field.” better than me.” Jane’s research on the impact on brain development of low blood sugar in premature babies led to a simple, inexpensive oral treatment with dextrose gel that has kept many babies with their mothers rather than sending them to neonatal nurseries. It has improved breastfeeding rates, with potential benefits for long-term well-being.

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 15 News PROVEN NURSING QUALITY University awarded $18.6m to train nurse practitioners he quality of the School of Nursing has been acknowledged with a sector. They can deliver the full range $18.6 million contract from the of primary care services in a similar way Dr Julia Slark, Head of the Ministry of Health to lead the to general practitioners (GPs), including School of Nursing. Ttraining and placement of nurse practitioners prescribing medication and making referrals (NPs) in New Zealand. The contract replaces an to medical specialists. Their role contributes to existing pilot due to end in December. addressing the shortfall of GPs, particularly in The new funding enables the programme to parts of rural and regional New Zealand. support the transition of nurse practitioners into “With the additional funding to train more employment. The programme will be delivered Nurse Practitioners over the next four years, in partnership with the University of Otago, and an emphasis on equity, we expect the Northland primary health entity Mahitahi opportunity to deliver healthcare back in the Hauora and Auckland Pacific health provider community will be particularly attractive to The Fono. Māori and Pacific students,” says Dr Julia Slark, “This is an acknowledgment of the high Head of the School of Nursing. “There are so standard of teaching and calibre of graduates many employment opportunities in health for delivered by our School of Nursing,” says anyone with strong connections or a desire to Professor John Fraser, Dean of the Faculty of serve communities outside of the main centres.” Medical and Health Sciences. Read the full story: auckland.ac.nz/ Nurse practitioners work across the health nurse-practitioners-contract

is the CCRC’s Chief Commissioner. SET TO TACKLE Morag, whose legal practice has had a strong focus on healthcare law, says being IMPORTANT TASKS the Health and Disability Commissioner aligns closely with her passion for health Alumnae both add ‘commissioner’ and disability law. “I’m excited and to their CVs privileged to take on the role and I’m fully committed to promoting and protecting wo University of Auckland the rights of the users of health and alumnae have been appointed disability services.” to significant government roles. She says her past roles sit well with Professor of Indigenous Studies her latest at the Health and Disability TTracey McIntosh (Ngāi Tūhoe) has Commission. “They’ve taught me the become a commissioner for the Criminal importance of fair, timely, transparent Professor Tracey McIntosh, Cases Review Commission (CCRC). and culturally appropriate processes, left, and former law lecturer Morag McDowell (LLM, 1997), a coroner where people are engaged and given the Morag McDowell: a focus in the Auckland region since 2007, is the opportunity to be heard.” on justice in their roles. new Health and Disability Commissioner. Tracey is co-head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa in the Faculty of Arts and is also the Chief Science Advisor for the Ministry of Social Development. Her research field includes incarceration, particularly of Māori and Indigenous peoples, inequality and social justice. Tracey has been appointed as one of five inaugural commissioners to the CCRC, an independent Crown Entity set up to investigate possible miscarriages of justice and will serve a four-year term. Colin Carruthers QC, also an alumnus,

16 | Ingenio magazine IN THE DEEP END Ōtāhuhu opera singer’s artistry rewarded with a rare opportunity

enor Manase Latu is set to join the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Programme in New York. The TSchool of Music graduate is the first singer of Tongan heritage – and one of just two of New Zealand or Pacific origins – to gain a place on the prestigious two-year programme, which attracts world-class applicants from around the globe. Manase will be joined on the programme’s 2020-21 roster by another former University of Auckland student, New Zealand-born Samoan bass-baritone Samson Setu. The singers have been friends since they met as voice students at the University and performed together in Auckland-based quartet The Shades. “I was offered the place within an hour of auditioning and … I was shocked,” Manase says. “I took about a month to accept because I was just trying to come to grips with how big this opportunity was. Then I told myself to jump in the deep end.” Manase Latu has been studying at the He has been studying at the Royal College Royal College of Music in London, but came of Music in London, but came home ahead of home because of the pandemic. the borders closing. “My time there gave me the chance to concentrate on languages as well as the singing. It’s a demanding course vocally and physically, but so worthwhile. At Auckland there “I was going to buy a chicken panini from the school was a lot of academic writing, which is beneficial, tuck shop and the choir conductor pointed to me and but being in a conservatory model at the Royal said, ‘Hey, you look like you can sing!’” College hones in on performance, language and diction, and it was great to be immersed in that.” “I saw these people sing and was inspired to get He says he knows this opportunity will involved. That snowball effect is driving the next open doors. The Metropolitan Opera, aka generation of Pacific singers,” he says. “Being ‘the Met’, is North America’s largest classical Tongan, I grew up in the church and music is music organisation. Founded in 1883, it brings so embedded in our culture. I grew up in a very together leading singers, conductors, composers musical background without really knowing it.” and musicians and has hosted performances by His first foray into formal singing was joining some of the greatest artists. It established the his school choir at Saint Kentigern College after Lindemann programme in 1980 to identify and a chance encounter with the conductor. “I was develop extraordinary young talent. walking around one lunchtime going to buy a He is “excited and nervous” about the chicken panini from the school tuck shop and the opportunity to mingle with leading opera figures choir conductor pointed to me and said, ‘Hey, and, in his second year, to perform on the Met’s you look like you can sing!’ main stage. It’s the latest achievement for the “I thought, ok, why not, lunch can wait. So I 24-year-old from Ōtāhuhu, who graduated in went with him into this music room and sang a 2018 with honours in classical performance couple of songs.” (voice) under the tutelage of Dr Te Oti Rakena. That led to an invitation to rehearsals and so “Manase came to work with me when he began his road to a singing career. was only 16,” says Te Oti. “He had a young “So that just popped out of nowhere and instrument with a beautiful free quality, but what changed the course of my life,” says Manase. distinguished him was his artistry, which was “Just being in the right place, at the right time, mature and refined for his age. It was clear he with the right people. was on a trajectory to the international stage.” “That’s what I think about getting into this Manase has drawn inspiration from the likes programme, too; everything aligned. It was luck. of Kiri Te Kanawa, Jonathan Lemalu and, more But luck is when opportunity meets preparation. recently, alumnus Moses Mackay and Pene and A lot of hard work has gone into this, too.” Amitai Pati of classical trio Sol3 Mio. Story: Pete Barnao

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 17 Feature “This has felt very much like living in history and having our team be a really key part of it.” Kate Hannah, executive director, Te Pūnaha Matatini

he written proposal to set up Te Pūnaha Matatini (TPM) has an eerie prescience to it. The national Centre of Research Excellence, Thosted by the University of Auckland, is a transdisciplinary centre whose name means ‘the place where many faces meet’. It was founded to apply complexity science ‘to the critical issues of our time’, with a focus on communication and connection to government and the private sector, and launched in 2015. “You could have added ‘and then we’ll tackle Covid-19’ to the end of the first paragraph,” jokes TPM’s director, Professor Shaun Hendy. Shaun and his colleague, Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles, have become household names thanks to their science communication in the media during the Covid-19 pandemic. But they haven’t been working alone. Around two dozen TPM researchers from this University and around New Zealand have worked across multiple areas in response to Covid-19. That includes PhD students who suspended their studies to be involved in the project and postgraduate students whose employment had been put on hold. Their models predicting the spread of the virus contributed to the swift initial lockdown in March and informed the alert levels used in response to the outbreak in August. They have also contributed to modelling hospital capacity, genome sequencing and tracking the spread of disinformation. “This has felt very, very much like living DOING THE in history and having our team be a really key part of it,” says TPM executive director Kate Hannah. TPM’s involvement with Covid-19 began NUMBERS early in the year. “Siouxsie Wiles is one of our superstars, and The faces of Shaun Hendy and Siouxsie Wiles have she’d been talking about Covid-19 in the media become very familiar since March. They’re just two since January,” explains Shaun. Siouxsie and names in a national group of dedicated scientists Professor Michael Baker of the University of working on the Covid-19 crisis. Jonathan Burgess Otago had been fronting the Government’s talks to some of those behind the scenes at Te Pūnaha communication about the pandemic, and Shaun wanted to ensure they had good information. Matatini, a Centre of Research Excellence. He put Siouxsie in touch with the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Professor Juliet Gerrard (Faculty of Science), and was pulled into the middle of the whole response.

| 18 | Ingenio magazine Listening to Siouxsie talk about the epidemic, for the healthcare system. Associate Professor Shaun started to wonder whether TPM’s annual in Statistics Ilze Ziedins worked with Dr Mike hui planned for April would go ahead. O’Sullivan and Associate Professor Cameron “I put some data from Italy into a basic Walker from the Faculty of Engineering to epidemic model,” says Shaun. “I went ‘okay … model the effect on hospitals if the virus spread we’re not going to be holding our hui in April’.” through New Zealand. “It was this one moment TPM’s catchphrase of “data, knowledge, where you bring all your knowledge and insight” couldn’t have been more relevant. expertise to bear,” Ilze says. “At that point I realised this was going to be something really serious. What I’d calculated – if it was anywhere near right – was an important thing to start communicating.” “More complex models allow Peter-Lucas Jones from northern iwi Te Aupōuri was present at the TPM board you to answer specif ic policy meeting at which Shaun presented his modelling and communicated the decision for questions, like what if we shut down TPM to focus its work on Covid-19. “Peter-Lucas told the story of Te Aupōuri’s Ponsonby?” – Dr Oliver Maclaren, Faculty of Engineering experience in the 1918 influenza pandemic and the mass graves,” remembers Kate. “It was “We looked at what the loads would be on really profound to be reminded of it. We came intensive care units and in wards.” away from hearing that, knowing this was the Ilze is thankful that we haven’t reached only thing we needed to be working on.” the point where their work has been needed. Far left: Professor Shaun Statistician Andrew Sporle (Ngāti Apa, Intensive care specialists advised the team that Hendy has led the Covid-19 Rangitāne, Te Rarawa) was brought in to co- the surge capacity that they had modelled was modelling. Below: Members of Te Pūnaha Matatini. lead work focusing on at-risk communities. not sustainable for extended periods. Back, from L to R: Dr Emily “This research directly informed the iwi-led During lockdown, questions were arriving Harvey, Dr Oliver Maclaren, pandemic response that kept Covid-19 out of from the Government with one-hour deadlines. Associate Professor Ilze at-risk communities during the first outbreak,” “The first question was around breaking Ziedins, Andrew Sporle. says Kate. “Because as soon as Shaun said we things into waves,” says Shaun. Front L to R: Professor Shaun Hendy, Kate Hannah, could have tens of thousands of people die in “There had been some work done in the Associate Professor Siouxsie New Zealand, I knew it would be vastly more United Kingdom about mitigation versus Wiles, Dr Dion O’Neale. impactful on Māori and Pacific peoples.” suppression. Suppression is basically going hard Photo: Billy Wong This prediction also had big implications to try to contain things. Mitigation is going

Dr Oliver Maclaren is in a group using network- based models to help answer questions that can’t be answered with simple models.

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 19 TPM’s work had previously predicted a much higher infection fatality rate for Māori and “It was this one moment where Pacific peoples, and a new infection in South you bring all your knowledge and Auckland was cause for concern. Alongside getting prompt projections to the expertise to bear.” Government, their more complex models were quickly fired up again, and work began on – Ilze Ziedins, Associate Professor in Statistics genomic sequencing to see whether community transmission was from the same or different just hard enough to keep things within your strains of the virus. hospital capacity. Shaun says TPM’s involvement in the “We got asked if we could produce the Covid-19 response demonstrated the value of New Zealand version of that in an hour. It turns having a rapid-response team of scientists ready out we could, with about a minute to spare.” to go at short notice. As a New Zealand-wide In order to respond to more nuanced centre, it was equipped to handle a complex and questions, a team led by Dr Dion O’Neale, a fast-moving national challenge. lecturer in physics in the Faculty of Science, has “On the one hand, you can tell the sort of built a statistical network of everyone in New Forrest Gump-like story of how we just had the Zealand, linking people by dwelling, workplace right conversations at the right time and then and school, and with attributes such as age, found ourselves in this position,” reflects Shaun. ethnicity and sex. Their data was drawn mainly “On the other hand, we’ve been building a from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) national community at Te Pūnaha Matatini research database created by Stats NZ. to do exactly this and we’ve put emphasis on “Individuals are different,” says Dr Emily communicating our work and working with Harvey, an honorary academic in physics who policymakers.” is also part of TPM. “They have quite different Shaun says the Covid-19 crisis has shown ways that they’re getting exposed to things, and the Government and its agencies need to have different people they’d interact with.” access to trusted expertise. Dion, Emily, Dr Oliver Maclaren and “Some of us will be working on Covid-19 Steven Turnbull have used the computing power until March 2021 and beyond, so we’ll keep the of the New Zealand eScience Infrastructure models active and going. (NeSI) to run contagion processes on their “I’m hoping that’ll be in perpetuity so that if five-million-node network. in the next 20 years we have another pandemic, “Network-based models help you answer there is a set of New Zealand-specific modelling questions that you can’t address with simple tools. We didn’t have that when we started this models,” says Oliver, a lecturer in engineering time round.” science and the James & Hazel Lord Emerging Faculty Fellow. “For rapid-response stuff, simple models are UNI-WIDE EFFORTS very useful, but more complex models allow you As well as the significant work to answer specific policy questions, like what if done by scientists at Te Pūnaha we shut down Ponsonby?” Matatini, there are many others at the University helping battle the pandemic. For example, thousands of AUGUST CLUSTER Covid-19 tests have been conducted The call that came on Tuesday 11 August in partnership with the Auckland was the one they had been standing by for: a District Health Board as part of the positive case with no known link to the border Auckland Academic Health Alliance. had been found. TPM was back on the job Seven projects from the University by 6pm, with Associate Professor Alex James were also awarded funding from of the University of Canterbury getting the the MBIE Covid-19 Innovation first modelling results back to officials by Acceleration Fund, one of which was 7.30pm. Alex’s initial estimates of the size of to Professor Shaun Hendy. Others the outbreak were used directly in the Cabinet include Dr Yvonne Anderson in meeting that evening. the Faculty of Medical and Health “We were prepared for this,” says Shaun. “We Sciences (reuse of PPE), Dr Nikki had recently held a workshop in Wellington Moreland for Covid-19 antibody between the key government agencies in the testing, and Associate Professor Nick Covid-19 response and our modelling teams. Gant for monitoring large groups of There was a period where both Alex and I were people, such as in rest homes. hoping it was a drill, because this was one of the Read more: auckland.ac.nz/MB-Covid- worst-case scenarios that we’d considered.” projects

20 | Ingenio magazine Guest Columnist Sir Anand Satyanand FUTURE OF LEARNING n seven months, our world has been moving beyond the primary industries into transformed by a global pandemic – a the greener areas of design, healthcare threat that was previously the stuff of innovation and technology. Universities can science fiction. More than 33 million cases be a fundamentally important player in this Iof Covid-19 have been recorded around the reset – potentially forming hybrid relationships world, and the number of deaths globally by early with employers to create experiential learning October was 1 million. Many more are probable. opportunities for students retraining. Informed by Taiwan and South Korea’s But the university sector continues to face two reaction to the virus, the Government here key challenges posed by Covid-19. First, a need applied restrictions directly, closing the borders to adapt and innovate with learning programmes and restricting movement to protect the that provide students with safe, high-quality population. This approach had an immediate outcomes. The second is the challenge to adapt effect on more than half a million students in university business models that have relied heavily tertiary education, 40,000 of whom were from on income from international students. overseas, and three-quarters connected with The eight New Zealand universities generated university courses around the country. nearly $500 million in aggregated revenue in As we know, by the time Semester One was 2018, and the university sector provides the under way, restrictions at the border meant largest amount of international student fee overseas students couldn’t gain entry to the revenue within the New Zealand education country, and the ability of universities to deliver sector. Black ink will be replaced by red in more face-to-face learning programmes was affected than one institution in the times ahead, and Sir Anand Satyanand, by the restrictions imposed to break the chain of universities need to shift their business models to GNZM, QSO, is an alumnus of the University Covid-19 transmission. respond to this new operating environment, along (Law), former Co- As a result, coronavirus catalysed a rapid with every other affected sector. Patron of the University reinvention of New Zealand universities’ teaching There is a need for action at a number of of Auckland Society and learning programmes. Tertiary institutions levels. First, the Government could collaborate and former Governor- quickly shifted learning online for students and with universities to plan to welcome international General. He is Chancellor of the University of planning began to support robust assessment students back to Aotearoa, including such Waikato. processes for coursework. strategies as proactive quarantine on top of Sectors of the economy were placed students’ pre-clearance before travel here. This article reflects the on life support through the Government’s Secondly, all universities need to keep working opinion of the author and is unprecedented wage-subsidy scheme. The on plans to provide entry and managed isolation not necessarily that of the University of Auckland. Director-General of Health became a celebrity for incoming students so that we can assist them in his own right, championing a view that into study – whether new or resumed – at the “leadership is a call to collective action”. We first available time. Thirdly, the community needs became familiar with the new language of to see students as stakeholders in new systems epidemiology, and the action undertaken by of high-quality learning and pastoral care, New Zealanders in order to keep vulnerable that blends kanohi ki te kanohi or face-to-face communities safe from Covid-19 has been engagement with digital channels. remarkable, and this includes the efforts of the With the pandemic likely to increase inequity Student Volunteer Army assisting communities. and inequality, many students will face greater As restrictions have eased, New Zealand academic, social and financial obstacles to tertiary has found itself able to return to something study. In the course of a week, universities proved resembling normality while the pandemic they could be agile by finding ways to enable staff rages elsewhere. But many people have lost to work remotely, teach students online, provide employment, with tourism, retail and hospitality pastoral care for mental health via technology hit hard. Unemployment in young people and financial support for students experiencing has risen, with young women making up a hardship. disproportionate number of those affected. But the work is not yet complete. Around the The need to provide retraining opportunities world, universities are talking about the hybrid for people repositioning themselves in a rapidly flexible, or HyFlex, course format that combines evolving economy is a crucial national challenge face-to-face (F2F) and online learning. Hybrid facing New Zealand. and HyFlex are words and ideas that must be People have spoken about the need for a reset added to all universities’ lexicon. and reimagining of a knowledge economy, 2020 has changed everything.

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 21 Research second most common neurodegenerative disorder. The leading journal on Parkinson’s disease, Movement Disorders, has highlighted the findings. “We believe we’ve come up with a plausible understanding of how GBA contributes to the disease, that opens new approaches to treating Parkinson’s and delaying its onset,” says Associate Professor Justin O’Sullivan. Justin and his colleagues, who specialise in research into gene control, looked closely at the gene GBA, which is associated with a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s and is used as a biomarker for the disease. “The question we are asking is why do some people with GBA Brain cells affected by Lewy PARKINSON’S mutations develop Parkinson’s and others don’t?” Bodies or protein clumps in PhD candidates Sophie Farrow (Auckland), a person with Parkinson’s PUZZLE PIECES Oscar Graham (Otago) and Dr William disease. Schierding from Liggins looked for answers in Genetic clues could lead to the non-coding parts of the GBA gene, once treatment or delay of disease thought of as ‘junk DNA’. The team screened 128 sites and found that if they had a particular iggins Institute researchers are part combination of three short non-coding DNA of a group who have decoded a gene sequences, the result is a delay of the onset of that plays a major role in regulating Parkinson’s by five years. They also identified six and delaying the onset of Parkinson’s other regions that act as ‘switches’ to control how Research into GBA’s role in Parkinson’s was made Ldisease. Working with the Garvan Institute of the GBA gene is turned on or off in the brain. possible by funding from the Medical Research and the University of Otago, The idea is to discover the molecular basis for Michael J. Fox Foundation they discovered that components of the gene GBA the delay in Parkinson’s onset, which could provide for Parkinson’s Research and the Silverstein Foundation for have a significant role in regulating and delaying a target for therapies to delay its progression. Parkinson’s with GBA. the onset of Parkinson’s disease, the world’s Full story: auckland.ac.nz/parkinsons-key

ABI modelling shows that one degree or one THE AI KEY TO millimetre makes a difference, and the software allows for a level of precision that can’t be KNEE OPERATIONS achieved with the naked eye. After being used for Modelling software creates greater hips, the prototype is now being used in high- precision for orthopaedic surgeons tibial osteotomies (HTO), a realignment of the knee that involves cutting the tibia and shifting urgeons are using ground-breaking the weight of the leg away from worn tissue on software based on research by the to healthier tissue. It’s a procedure undertaken Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) on people showing early stages of arthritis, as an to greatly improve knee operations. alternative to a knee replacement. SAssociate Professor Paul Monk, an orthopaedic “It has revolutionised our approach to this surgeon at Auckland Hospital who also works at operation,” says Paul. “Our first few patients the ABI, says the operation-planning software is were back walking independently within a few “game-changing”. The technology arose from weeks. Usually, this procedure requires six weeks years of research by the ABI’s Musculoskeletal on crutches before a patient is able to walk. Surgeons can perform ‘virtual osteotomies’ using Atlas Project (MAP), which creates computational “We use MRI scans and x-rays of the patient models of the patient’s models to show and predict the form and and the software creates a clear picture of an actual knee. function of a person’s musculoskeletal system. individual patient’s loading pattern – where This has led to a cloud-based software platform pressure passes through their knee. Based on their by FormusLabs, a loading pattern, we perform ‘virtual osteotomies’ spinout of ABI. It’s first to identify the optimal correction,” says Paul. an AI-automated 3D “Then we 3D-print patient-specific instruments, planner for joint- creating a bespoke wedge that we insert into a replacement surgeries patient’s leg, and then apply a fixation plate. The that creates fully process realigns the leg and takes the weight off interactive models of a the area of worn cartilage, moving it to a better patient’s joint ahead of part of the knee, taking the pain away.” the operation. See more: youtu.be/yNQ7govm1rs New eruption alert system A system that analyses past data could have saved lives at Whakaari

cientists have developed an alert system that could have given 16 hours’ warning of the fatal 2019 eruption at Whakaari White Island. It was created by Drs David Dempsey and Andreas Kempa- resulting explosion was like a pressure cooker S Whakaari White Island Liehr (Engineering) and Professor Shane Cronin blasting its lid off. The early seismic burst is the erupted on 9 December, (Science) with funding from the Ministry of most common indication of imminent eruption. 2019, killing 21 people. Business, Innovation and Employment. It’s a warning sign that could have been detected Photo: Professor Shane In line with international best practice, GNS almost instantly by our new forecasting system.” Cronin Science operates a Volcano Alert Level (VAL) The new system uses algorithms to ‘teach itself ’ system, which reports the status of a volcano from data fed into it. It learns from patterns in every few weeks or months. It relies on human that data so it can signal almost instantly when a judgement and consensus among scientists to pattern matches that of a build-up to a previous spot activity that could signal a pending eruption. eruption. With data from the past ten years at Three weeks before the eruption at Whakaari, Whakaari, the system has ‘predicted’ four out the VAL was lifted to Level 2, indicating of five past eruptions, missing only one, in 2016, heightened unrest. Post-eruption it was Level 4. that showed a different data pattern. But David says Whakaari was preceded by a The development team is working with GNS strong burst of seismic energy 17 hours earlier. to implement it alongside its systems and ‘teach’ “This was a sign that fresh magmatic fluid was the new system about the eruption history of rising, pressurised water was trapped in shallow volcanoes including Tongariro and Ruapehu. rock and loose deposits were filling the vent. The Full story: auckland.ac.nz/whakaari-alert

activity, but because Lockdown creates seismographs are so sensitive, they can also the quiet Earth pick up vibrations from With no buzz of normal life, humans at the surface seismologists say Earth was stilled as we drive cars or simply walk around. s noisy activities came to a halt during Heavy industry and Level Four lockdown, the Earth construction work also itself became quiet. Seismologists generate seismic noise. analysed datasets from more than Lockdown meant a A300 international seismic stations – including lack of anthropogenic several in New Zealand – and found the “buzz” seismic noise was of human activity, called anthropogenic noise, detected at places like Eden Park where a dropped dramatically. They dubbed this period seismograph is buried 380m beneath the sports Dr Kasper van Wijk in his lab the ‘anthropause’ – the longest, most prominent grounds, and even on Motutapu Island. at the University. anthropogenic noise reduction on record. There are 12 seismographs around Auckland, University of Auckland seismologist Dr Kasper monitoring for even the weakest signs of van Wijk (Faculty of Science) was busy looking earthquakes or volcanic unrest. “One day a at seismic data from the tragic eruption at volcano in Auckland’s volcanic field will erupt, Whakaari White Island when colleague but it will create seismic signals beforehand and Dr Thomas Lecocq of the Royal Observatory of this study reminds us that if humans made less Belgium got in touch. “I used the computer code noise, we’d get an earlier warning,” Kasper says. for White Island to analyse Auckland’s seismic The findings, published in Science, show data and within an hour could confirm that 50 percent less seismic noise around the world Auckland was not only quiet above ground but from early to mid-2020. Lead authors were based also underground,” he says. in New Zealand, Belgium, the UK and Mexico Traditionally, measuring seismic waves is and 76 scientists from 27 countries were involved. focused on detecting earthquakes and volcanic Full story: auckland.ac.nz/the-quiet-earth

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 23 Feature

By Denise LESSONS FROM HISTORY Montgomery Political journalist Norman Cousins once said: “History is a vast early warning Dr Felicity Barnes and system.” Historian Dr Felicity Barnes would agree with that and hopes to help her husband, Michael Whitehead, hope their more academics shed light on the present. History Innovation Fund will strengthen history research. r Felicity Barnes says she was the “The sale is the background to the gift,” says Photo: Elise Manahan kid picked last for school sports Felicity. “It was around that time we decided teams. “If I was playing netball and to think about the whole idea of philanthropy you threw the ball at me, it would and giving back. We have other work to do, but Dlikely smack me in the head,” she laughs. the first thing that came to mind was to support Now, in the Faculty of Arts where she is a learning. We’re aware that we’re both products senior lecturer in New Zealand history, she’d very of the old-fashioned free education system.” much be considered a good sport and certainly a Felicity had taken time off teaching in 2019, team player. and part of that was spent doing research. Felicity and husband Michael Whitehead have “Because I work in the history department, I gifted $500,000 to set up the Barnes Whitehead understand where a bit of money might make a History Innovation Fund, aimed at improving lot of difference in boosting research,” she says. the research outputs of the University’s history “That’s really what we’re hoping the fund will department, especially for New Zealand history. help – supporting great research outputs – and The fund will start by paying for a postdoctoral that also aligns with the University’s goals.” fellow in New Zealand history for 2021. The gift was a joint decision. “In a long-term Felicity has taught at her alma mater, the relationship, it’s what you both put in. Michael’s University of Auckland, since 2012. The former international business meant he was away a Avondale College student had started out mixing lot and we’ve worked around it, raising two science and arts before settling on English and daughters for 20 years,” says Felicity. “He’d be History to complete her BA. She then worked the first to say it’s been a mutual effort.” outside academia, returning to complete a Felicity says as well as this funding to her Diploma in Management at the Business School, pet subject, Michael gives in other areas. “He before completing her PhD in history. gives a lot of time to IT start-ups through his Michael, who did a BCom at Auckland in organisation Tap-In Ventures, and works with management studies and computer science, some companies pro bono to get them on track.” went on to co-found global software company She says he’s also been a great support to her WhereScape and New Zealand services firm while she’s been researching or writing books. Now Consulting. A Prime Minister’s business “It’s fair to say this gift to fund history was an scholarship winner, he has also been a category initiative I was particularly enthusiastic about winner in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year and he just gladly joined in with it.” Awards, and WhereScape was the supreme Michael says there was good reason. winner at the 2016 NZ International Business “Having spent years as an employer, the thing Awards. He sold two of his companies in 2019. we most looked for in employees was the ability

24 | Ingenio magazine to problem-solve and communicate. So, while When she won a doctoral scholarship, she never it may look counter-intuitive for me to back the looked back. “What the scholarship told me was arts, actually they’re directly relevant to the kinds ‘we’ve got faith that you’ll do a good job’. When of things I think will make New Zealand, and you’re studying with twentysomethings who are New Zealand business, better.” focused and determined, you kind of think ‘am Felicity says the goal is to fund five postdoctoral I in the right place’? You have self-doubt. The fellows for one academic year each as well as scholarship helped me overcome that.” allow academics to get on with research by Felicity would like to raise the profile paying students to help with marking. of historians and says Covid-19 is a good “Research is affected when you’re juggling the opportunity. “We’ve heard from scientists about workload, so someone who could be writing a Covid-19 but few historians. Chief historian paper is marking stage-one essays. Let’s get them Neill Atkinson and people like Linda Bryder and back to producing research. That’s my thinking.” Charlotte Bennett can tell us a lot about past Felicity says one of the research areas close to pandemics. For example, how did people deal her heart is New Zealand history. with the impact of the ’flu pandemic in 1918? “There is so much more to learn about it. For We can learn a lot from how humans behaved in example, there’s terrific new work on the New similar circumstances in the past.” Zealand Wars. Our history is still being written She also highlights how ideas about teaching – it’s nowhere near complete – and that provides history have changed, from remembering huge scope for research. significant dates to exploring stories. “Many of the best-known historians had the “The old-fashioned way of teaching history luxury of time to do their research and the result was that it was a memory game. You were good has included books that are essential reading. So, at history if you could recall the order in which hopefully our fund can help with this a little.” the kings ruled. If that’s what makes a good She says New Zealand has a wealth of historian, I’m a terrible historian! accessible historians. She was taught by the likes “For me, it’s about questioning. History of Keith Sinclair and James Belich. isn’t about dates so much as telling stories that “New Zealand is extremely fortunate in the enlighten us as to how people lived their lives in quality of its historians, and they’re high-calibre the past. People would be a lot more interested writers. Even though the Sinclair and Belich books are older now, those general histories are terrific reads. As are Vincent O’Malley’s 2016 landmark book The Great War for New Zealand: “Our history is still being written. Waikato 1800-2000 and Dancing with the King: The Rise and Fall of the King Country, 1864-1885 by That provides huge scope for Michael Belgrave. They’re accessible, lively and full of ideas.” research.” – Dr Felicity Barnes, history lecturer Her own book was released in 2012. New Zealand’s London: A Colony and Its Metropolis (AUP) if they thought about history not so much as a was based on her doctoral thesis, which had won series of facts but a series of stories to interpret, the University’s best doctoral dissertation. understand and shed light. That sparks curiosity.” Although New Zealand has always had more She says the Covid-19 pandemic may have one prominent male historians than female, Felicity silver lining. “It has given us a greater sense of points to some change. empathy and insight into the way events like war “As far as general histories, there’s Philippa completely disestablished people’s lives. Mein Smith’s A Concise History of New Zealand and “I’m thinking about my kids who are in their Giselle Byrnes edited the New Oxford History of twenties and trying to transition study and work New Zealand, which collected together some very and suddenly there’s this global catastrophe. innovative essays on our past. And there’s Tangata “When we look at events such as WWII, we Whenua: An Illustrated History, in which two of the sometimes forget people put their lives on hold three co-authors are women, Aroha Harris and for five or more years! So when I read stories Judith Binney. If you’re interested in the history of people saying ‘it’s so hard, our family can’t of New Zealand, it’s a must-read.” just jump on a plane and see each other’, I When she and Michael had children, study think about the people through the ages who seemed like a good alternative to full-time work, went to war or migrated with no real prospect so she began her masters. “I thought I was just of returning. It’s our version of that past and it going to do my masters and when the kids got makes me understand it more. older, I’d go back to work. I tried to do contract “There is a tendency for us to treat people in work, but it was too hard to juggle young children the past as somewhat lesser beings. They call it and meetings. I thought, if I could do anything in the condescension of posterity. ‘People foolishly the world now what would I do? The one thing I thought this in the past.’ Well, now we really get a wanted to do was read. And learn.” sense of how a disaster affects lives, don’t we?”

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 25 TIPS ... TO Challenge yourself LEARN TE REO Don’t be scared to put a bit of pressure 4 on! Whether you challenge yourself to learning a new Māori word a day, a new Start small kīwaha (idiom) a week or you’re going all the way There’s a misconception that we and committing to things such as the Mahuru 1 have to learn the most complex Māori initiative (speaking only te reo for all of of sentence structures and the most elaborate September), you’ll be sure to hit some language verbs, nouns and adjectives – but that’ll come ‘personal bests’ when you put yourself outside the in due course. Consider learning te reo as a warmth of that all-too-familiar comfort zone. lifelong marathon rather than a 100-metre sprint. Every marathon starts with one step – make that one step count! You could begin by Boost your job chances translating everyday objects you have at home It’s well known that learning another or in the office. How about tēpu (table) or tūru 5 language is good for your brain, but (chair) or pouaka whakaata (television) and, of studying te reo Māori could also improve your The University course, my favourite – wā kai, literally time to chances of finding a job in a variety of industries. has a language eat, or lunchtime! Upskilling online or in classes could help you find plan to revitalise an exciting role in education, health, government, Build your community social services or, of course, the ‘booming Māori te reo Māori. They most certainly weren’t pulling economy’. It aims to have 2 your tail when they told you there is 50 percent of strength in numbers. Surround yourself with Enter a new world people on the same journey or who understand No, that’s not a reference to Aladdin, staff demonstrate yours. It’s like when you begin going to the 6 it’s a reference to a direct quote from basic competence gym – it doesn’t take long and you find yourself the revered Lieutenant Colonel of the 28th by 2040. Recent hanging out with gym bunnies talking about Māori Battalion, Sir James Henare, who said bench press, seated row and calisthenics. “Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Māori” meaning initiatives include Te reo Māori is exactly the same. We are a “the language is the life force of Māori prestige”. the launch of an reflection of the people we choose to surround Consider your newly acquired language the 7ourselves with. Even if it’s for an hour a week, ‘window’ to the Māori worldview or te ao Māori. app, Te Kūaha, make time to connect with like-minded te reo You begin to understand a lot more about Māori and a glossary of Māori soldiers in the battle for language culture once you’ve attained a certain level of te reo Māori terms revitalisation. Māori fluency. Enjoy the journey, grasshopper! used on campus, Check your pronunciation Fly! the Kuputaka. ‘Keke’ means cake in te reo Māori, There’s a saying in Māori: “mā 3 while ‘kēkē’ means armpit. ‘Wētā’ 7 te kahukura, ka rere te manu”, is the Māori classification for the New Zealand literally “the feathers allow the bird to soar to Raniera Harrison invertebrate, and weta, well, weta is one word lofty heights”. Consider your newly acquired offers seven for faeces. The macron is a clue to short or long vocabulary the ‘feathers’ to reach new heights sounds. What’s important to understand is that of your own. Learning te reo Māori will give tips to assist pronunciation is king when it comes to te reo. you – and ultimately our country – a competitive everyone in their There are numerous resources online that can advantage. Haramai tētahi āhua! Māori language take your pronunciation from zero to marae hero in the comfort and safety of your own acquisition. home. The Māori vowels – a, e, i, o, u – are a good starting point. The University has also created an app called Te Kūaha that will talk Raniera Harrison is a lecturer in the School of you through the sounds. Māori Studies, University of Auckland.

26 | Ingenio magazine 40 Under 40

2020 group Business Leaders Sara-Jane Elika Nurain Janah Sean Molloy Michael Quirke Ivan Ravlich Bridget Snelling Shana Malio-Satele leading Pacific Youth Navigators Talapo Uivaa at South Seas Healthcare Pacific. Disrupters/Innovators Tan Copsey Mahmood Hikmet Natalia Palamo Jimmy Chih-Hsien Peng 40 WISE HEADS Dmitry Selitskiy Arash Tayebi Engineers and artists, doctors and entrepreneurs, musicians and youth Kanaway Yusingco workers – so much talent in our 40 alumni under 40. Ingenio profiles five. Entrepreneurs Hamish Elmslie SHANA MALIO-SATELE Pacific Literature at the University in 2008. She Hannah Hong was admitted to the Auckland High Court as a Lydia Hascott Humanitarian: Youth well-being worker registered solicitor and barrister the same year. Alex Kendall “As much as learning at university is about William Lockie very weekend Shana Malio-Satele using your head, it’s also about having the heart Mike Moka leaves Wellington, where she is a for it when things get challenging. It’s your heart Julia Suh Partnered Delivery Manager with and the unteachable things you grow up with that Humanitarians ACC, and returns to her home help you get through.” Carl Adams (see pg 35) Ecommunity in Auckland. There she works In 2012, Shana joined the Great Potentials Edith Amituanai alongside a collective of Pacific youth who use Foundation, a charity helping children, young Howard Hunt their stories and experience to mobilise other people and families to realise potential, reduce Rosalie Stephens rangatahi around pressing issues. disparities and break the cycle of disadvantage. Shana Malio-Satele When Covid-19 hit Auckland in August, She was appointed the Mentoring and Tutoring Shruthi Vijayakumar she and South Seas Healthcare Pacific Youth Education Scheme (MATES) programme Influencers created the ‘Bubblegum – Let’s Stick Together’ manager. In 2015, she received a NZ Vodafone Melissa Ansell-Bridges campaign. They set up a call centre in Ōtara, Foundation World of Difference Award, which Kate Boylan as well as a digital platform to support young was extended to 2016 and enabled her to lead the Anand Chordia people. Among the helpers were University of expansion of MATES nationally. Isuru Fernando Auckland students packing up food parcels. Shana is also a committee member of the Jessica Pearless When Shana is out working in the community, J. R. McKenzie Trust’s Peter McKenzie Project, Tupe Solomon-Tanoa’i she always has at least one of her family’s three which is working towards reducing the number Ane Tonga grandchildren with her. “I want them growing up of children and whānau living in poverty. As the Performers knowing what is possible,” she says. “For them to recipient of a NEXT Foundation Scholarship, Jane Arthur understand that as Pacific children they can be she’s working on more youth-led community Emma Foy trail-blazers in New Zealand. initiatives. “Young Pacific people know their Malcolm Lakatani “I know in my life I have benefited from having potential and are mobilising themselves as Emil Mcavoy someone invest in and encourage me,” Shana a community,” Shana says. “They’re asking Tyla Amy Vaeau says. “That’s why I do this work.” themselves: ‘what does collective success look like Luke Versalko As a first-generation Samoan New Zealander, for my family?’ It’s a more informed outlook and Shana was encouraged to go to university. She with it they are empowered to succeed.” bold = featured in Ingenio remembers a critical moment at Auckland Law Shana’s ACC role in Wellington is to lead the School when an aunt suggested she take time development of Child and Youth Wellbeing out every Wednesday, away from the library and strategies in primary and injury prevention. “The Nominate more lecture theatres, to go to Rosary Service at the choice to take up a management role in a crown Know an Auckland Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Balmoral. entity was to enhance my knowledge so I could be graduate who’s doing “She said I needed to keep my spiritual cup full of more value to the community, based on what great things? Let us if I was going to be successful.” I learn and experience. I hope that in a couple know for the next list. Shana completed her Arts and Law degrees of years, I’ll be able to come back to serve in a alumni.auckland. and then masters in both Anthropology and community-based role again.” ac.nz/40under40 TAN COPSEY SARA-JANE ELIKA Disruptor/Innovator: Climate Nexus Business leader: Media consultant

an Copsey’s interest in the impact of ara-Jane Elika’s consultancy ECG climate change began at university, specialises in Indigenous leadership, where he did his masters on New the Pacific economy and media Zealand’s climate change policy. management. She draws on her T “It was 2005 and I got a real sense that it was Spractical and creative strengths in music, interesting, very vibrant and an area that would business, community, faith and leadership for be absolutely essential and, frankly, full of lots all that she does. With a foundation in music, of jobs for the next 20-30-40 years.” Sara-Jane was able to give full expression to Tan was right. Now he’s a senior director at her passions while studying a law and arts Climate Nexus, a US organisation focused on conjoint degree, then postgraduate honours communicating the effects in ethnomusicology. She says it made her of climate change. He ‘the different one’, but she wanted to do what has been in meetings with she enjoyed and the University was able to “I got a sense that global leaders, CEOs, two accommodate her when there were clashes. former US secretaries of Sara-Jane won Best Pacific Island Album at it was an area that the Treasury, one former the 2003 NZ Music Awards and also Best Pacific president, billionaire Female Artist at the inaugural Pacific Music would be absolutely philanthropists and Awards in 2005, with the first of her three solo politicians. After the albums, Sara-Jane. Other achievements include essential.” Trump administration managing an international sports agency and withdrew from the Paris a stint as production manager for TVNZ news Agreement, Climate and current affairs. Nexus created ‘We Are Still In’, signing up But it wasn’t just her career keeping her busy. politicians and business leaders across the US. “Being a mother to four children, including He says it’s possible to feel positive in the US twins, certainly built my resilience,” she says. because “what’s happening at the federal level As interim CEO of the Pacific Media isn’t always what’s happening at the state level”. Network, she negotiated to have the network’s As head of communications for the Global Pacific Divas tour, the best of Pacific female Commission on the Economy and Climate, he artists, screen on mainstream Prime TV. She sat down with economists Jeremy Oppenheim, also led a team of 70 through lockdown. “It was Michael Jacobs and Nicholas Stern to write very, very intense, so I’m really glad I’ve had the the influential reportBetter Growth, Better opportunity to be able to come through that.” Climate: The New Climate Economy. Tan has also She is chair of Community Law South worked with former New York City mayor Auckland and a director of charitable trusts Michael Bloomberg, former US Secretary of Good Shepherd NZ and Failoa Famili, which the Treasury Hank Paulson and billionaire both have a focus on women and girls. Her philanthropist Tom Steyer on the Risky Business advice: “Put yourself out there and be prepared Project, which examined the economic risks and if opportunities come along.” opportunities of climate change in the US. Sara-Jane says she would also like to have an He says his masters research was a great Oprah-style TV show one day. foundation. “Getting to know who thinks what “I’d love to be involved with like-minded and ringing them up or going to see them was people discussing global thought leadership with crucial for everything I did afterwards.” those in Indigenous spaces.”

28 | Ingenio magazine 40 Under 40

ROSALIE STEPHENS MIKE MOKA Humanitarian: oncologist, medical researcher Entrepreneur: Indigenous Growth Ltd

ncologist Dr Rosalie Stephens hen Michael Moka (Ngāpuhi, pushed for immunotherapy drugs Te Rarawa, Ngāti Hine and to be funded for melanoma patients Mangaia of Cook Islands) was and advocates for treatments in 15, he and girlfriend Toria lived ONew Zealand that are widely available overseas. Win their car, in garages and with relatives while The School of Medicine graduate (2004) has working multiple jobs to put themselves through studied tumour biology and evolution, achieving school. Michael became head prefect at Kelston a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Boys’ High and was involved in kapa haka and London. She works with cancer patients at the sport. He and Toria are now married and have Auckland DHB and in her private practice, and a baby son, Raukura o Te Huia. is a Melanoma NZ board member. Michael’s consultancy, “We need to focus on what we can do about Indigenous Growth the numbers of melanoma patients in New Limited, brings Indigenous Zealand,” she says. “Avoiding sunburn in values into organisations “If you didn’t go childhood is key.” to tap into the leadership She says medicine’s sense of vocation and potential of employees. to university, you lifelong learning appealed. She also fondly “Leadership consultancy remembers her time at the University. is mainly a Pākehā area. I better be a good “They took great care of us as people, as saw organisations that had 18-year-olds; they were really kind. It set an Māori leadership, but they networker.” example to us of compassion and kindness. go, ‘here’s a leadership “There were also top scientists, so the programme that works for academic side of things was very strong. A everyone, let’s just put Māori words in and call it sound academic learning experience gives you a Māori leadership programme’ and they would confidence when you go into jobs.” put in a Māori facilitator if you were lucky.” Completing her MD through the University Indigenous Growth starts with Indigenous of London in 2015 is her proudest achievement, principles and overlays relevant executive because by then she had returned home for a principles. “We just flipped it around. It did 50-hour per week consultant job. take a while to get the model, but now it’s there “I didn’t think I’d finish. I’d lost motivation, everyone’s going, ‘this is common sense’.” but I persisted, so I’m proud of that.” Michael works with big clients such as Another achievement is her private oncology SkyCity and Fletcher Building, which have both practice, established with colleagues in 2017, won diversity awards for the programme. 40 UNDER 40: which integrates services such as physiotherapy While studying at the Business School, he was FULL STORIES and exercise into patient care. involved with student association Ngā Tauira Rosalie was drawn to her career after Māori. It’s what he values most about his time These are excerpts from observing oncologists with their patients and at the University of Auckland. “This is what 40 Under 40 stories. realising it would allow her to have enduring I keep telling our people. ‘If you didn’t go to Read full versions at relationships and be part of something university, you better be good networkers.’ The alumni.auckland. significant for an individual and their family. greatest thing I got in those four years of study ac.nz/40under40 “The privilege of being part of something so was 50 lifelong friends. When we can help each along with the 35 other important, not fleeting, is what drew me to it, other out, it’s a lot easier to ask because you stories. even though it’s the worst and hardest bit, too.” have that connection.”

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 29 Taking Issue SOCIAL INEQUALITY THE REAL CRIME Dr David Mayeda

y definition, gangs are entities that engage in criminal behaviours. To this end, no, gangs are not good for society, and in most cases gangs end up being Bharmful to gang members themselves. While that is a definitive answer, it is also an easy answer and one that lacks adequate context. The more difficult question is, if gangs are not good for society and are not even good for those enmeshed in gang activities, why would people join them? The answer lies in understanding how social inequalities play out. Every society has inequalities. Relative to other OECD countries, Aotearoa New Zealand experiences some of widest gaps between rich and poor. What research has shown across multiple global contexts is that in communities lacking economic resources and opportunities, gang membership increases. The blocked opportunities that accompany economic strain include inadequate educational services, poor relationships with law enforcement and family fracturing. When a young person doesn’t see school as a place that provides the means to progress in society, gangs become a more CAN GANGS attractive mechanism to secure employment and earn the respect that work delivers. Likewise, in communities where there is heavy EVER BE GOOD tension with law enforcement and trust is hard to come by, young people will be more susceptible to finding alternative forms of protection. Thus, even if gangs are entities that encourage FOR SOCIETY? dangerous activities, they are perceived by many as organisations of protection in an environment Three experts from the University of Auckland where the formal institution assigned to protect – explore the question. the police – is viewed as (and often is) dangerous. You can see where we’re going with this. When there is family breakup and if a gang is in the mix, all of a sudden a young person may be inclined to see the gang as their new family. What do you think? Have your say. By themselves, lack of family cohesion, Facebook: UoAAlumni contentious relationships with police and poor Twitter: @AucklandAlumni schooling will not make gang membership Email: [email protected] appear a beneficial avenue. But when all three happen simultaneously, surrounded by a broader context of economic precarity, gang membership The writers’ views reflect personal opinions and can appear a positive option. Gangs also generate may not be those of the University of Auckland. a particular type of respect that resonates heavily with men and boys who have been ostracised by school, family and the police – a respect connected to physical toughness and aggression. So, no, gangs are not good for society. But what’s worse for society are the social inequalities and gendered norms that make gangs look good for those who lack equal opportunity.

Dr David Mayeda lectures in sociology

| 30 | Ingenio magazine LABELS ARE GOOD AND TOO SIMPLISTIC BAD ‘GANGS’ Associate Professor Tamasailau Suaalii Professor Ian Lambie

hether gangs are good for society gāi Te Rangi chief executive Paora is a complex question. It assumes Stanley told RNZ: “Gangs are a number of readings of what supported by accountants, lawyers, a we understand of gangs and also lot of different sectors feed off gangs Wwhat we understand constitutes good society. Nin this town – we need an appreciation that it is The word ‘gang’ has a stigma associated with everybody’s problem not just a gang problem, criminality – which negates any belief they can and not just a Māori problem.” contribute positively. Mention the word ‘gang’ and we typically think My research around Samoan and Māori patched gang members, drugs and violence. They’re experiences of the youth justice system dovetails ‘bad’, we’re ‘good’ and politicians must ‘crack down’ into the question because we stereotype Māori on them. But let’s remove the political headlines and and Pacific young offenders in the same way. have a look at the data. In 2019, of the crimes that They are collectively labelled early. had a specific offender identified, only 4.8 percent A lot has to do with media portrayal leading were linked to national ‘gang list’ members. to societal constructs of what is appropriate in We humans are social beings who form groups terms of social connections. Are they groups to be able to rear infants, feed and protect of like-minded social justice warriors or gangs? ourselves, and stay warm and dry. These groups Moral panic abounds with the word gang. flourish across generations with shared identities, What is considered newsworthy rarely considers histories, valued beliefs and cultural practices. “It’s a no- evidence. It is wholly simplistic to take a black Thus, the highest risk factor for being a doctor or brainer that and white perspective on any value of gangs. lawyer is intergenerational – passed down through If you delve into the broader narrative around warm houses and the high expectations of the economic criminality, gangs and delinquency, you get a private schools our fathers went to, and the first and social better sense of these complexities. A person’s job we’re given at a parent’s friend’s firm. Gang ethnic and gender group or class and identity principles operate across our groupings – though deprivation will frame their choices. the outfits look different. can lead Class is a major driver and it’s a no-brainer The ‘bad’ gangs arise out of social and that economic and social deprivation can lead economic hardship, poverty and entrenched people into people into so-called gangs. Māori have a long institutional racism. Violence and addiction so-called history struggling with colonisation and state within the nice homes of white-collar criminals abuse, which is now intergenerational and (family-violence perpetrators, tax criminals, gangs.” normalised. For Pacific young people who are sexual predators and people with alcohol, drug in gangs, many are still a part of their families. and gambling addictions that cause harm to all They still go to school and may even go to those around them) are less visible. church. They often haven’t lost their culture or Early intervention is the key to solving the suffered disconnection. ‘gang problem’. Children need good role models Kinship is a good word in terms of thinking in loving adults, who help them learn to manage about why people join and mobilise as a unit. their emotional pain without abusing drugs and It’s a fight for identity and space, and aligns well alcohol, show respect to intimate partners, to abide with the kaupapa of asserting your identity and by tax and other laws, and to cultivate decency and prominence in that space. As experienced by one kindness towards others. of our research team members, if you look at a New Zealand’s justice system has a history of gang like the King Cobras, it is structured in a ‘too little, too late’, with money going into building similar way to a Samoan aiga in terms of rank, prisons instead of schools and communities where seniority and roles played. the real solutions lie. I’m interested in the associations being made When any chance of early help is gone, some in which we, as a society, label particular groups, entrenched offenders need jail but, particularly for especially ethnic groups. Māori and Pacific are young people on the fringes of gangs, incarceration considered to have associations with criminality only compounds the problems. We cannot arrest and violence in the same way that gangs are and imprison our way out of the ‘gang problem’ associated with those traits. – especially when those who profit from gang But we are all in a gang of sorts. We say we business, selling flash cars and real estate, managing aren’t because we see ourselves as not being dodgy accounts and clever legal cover, earn far criminals. That’s because the words ‘gang’ and more than addiction workers, family violence ‘criminal’ have become interchangeable. advocates or early childcare workers ever will.

Associate Professor Tamasailau Suaalii lectures in criminology Professor Ian Lambie lectures in clinical psychology

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 31 Architecture a black and white façade built with 1.4 million Lego bricks, breaking with adult conventions that favour primary colours for children’s equipment. He also incorporated artworks by each of the school’s 400 pupils. “The architect acted as builder while the children played architect,” Anthony says. “It was an example of role play.” Professor Anthony Hoete is back home to play a different role now. He has returned to the School of Architecture and Planning, from where he’d graduated in 1990 with honours in architecture, as Professor of Architecture (Māori). Anthony, a Kawerau College old boy, has spent three decades overseas building a reputation as a world-class teacher, researcher, entrepreneurial architect and developer. He set up WHAT_architecture in the UK in 2002 and a development company, Game of Architecture, in 2015. Accolades include a UK Prime Minister’s Award for Better Public Building and awards from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Civic Trust. He likens architecture to a game, and explores how architectural practice can be played better. “One way is to question how we interpret, manipulate, challenge and bend the myriad rules that inform architecture to produce better outcomes for the built environment,” he says. He says the architect’s role can be expanded to include that of the developer and builder. His OUT OF entrepreneurial side certainly embraced that idea around the time of the 2008 recession. “WHAT_architecture needed to reconfigure so THE BOX we set up WHAT_developments as well.” The company acquired land and developed By Pete Barnao sites. One acquisition was the old Shoreditch railway station in London, bought at auction. Unconventional award-winning “We didn’t win it at first, but the winner architect Anthony Hoete has didn’t produce a banker’s cheque. We’d taken brought his skills and vision home. the deposit with us, we had $70k in cash in a briefcase. Cash talks.” f you were ever trying to get a child While they were going through planning to Professor Anthony Hoete comes home interested in architecture, building develop the site, interest on the mortgage needed brimming with ideas. their school out of Lego is a sure- to be paid. “We started hiring out the building Photo: Elise Manahan fire way to pique young interest. for raves ... raves in the railway station… with Top right: The Lego facade That’s what Kiwi architect Anthony our Russian DJ Nina Kraviz. The raves could on the London school. I Hoete did for one of his many innovative bring in $50,000 on the bar and £10 a ticket. We projects. Pupils and parents at a covered the mortgage that way.” primary school in London were given Another temporary out-of-left-field idea for the 3,000 bricks so they could contribute site was a hot tub cinema. “That’s basically six to the design process for their school. people in an inflatable tub paying £35 a head for Anthony had wanted them to be part of champagne and movies. Millennials loved it.” the process, but knew they would feel He says those ideas are examples of an overwhelmed at having to draw a design. architect breaking out of the box. “When an “Lego bricks, rather than drawings, architect is a developer, they’re no longer the designed the school,” says Anthony. passive recipient of a brief,” says Anthony. “During the process we realised, instead “The architect can drive the project from the of just designing the school, why not outset when they’re involved in site acquisition… make the school out of Lego bricks?” you’re involved in the economic feasibility and Anthony sourced the bricks from empowered by setting the brief.” Legoland then coated them for fire Anthony has a masters in architecture compliance along with the usual tests from University College London (UCL) and for structural integrity. The result was a PhD from the Royal Melbourne Institute 32 | Ingenio magazine “When an architect is a developer, they’re no longer the passive recipient of a brief.” Professor Anthony Hoete, School of Architecture and Planning of Technology. Since 2013, he has been an time than I was in it,” he says. “You pass that honorary senior research scholar at UCL, threshold and sort of question whether you’re specialising in ‘future heritage’. a New Zealander still, although I do identify In the UK, Anthony worked with the UK strongly as a New Zealander – not least because National Trust and Heritage New Zealand I’m Māori. That gives me a strong connection to secure the future of the historic Hinemihi back to the land and iwi.” meeting house. Originally sited in the ‘buried He and the other judges travelled for nine days, village’ of Te Wairoa, where it sheltered covering 2,000km and visiting 47 projects. survivors of the 1886 Mount Tarawera “It was a great welcome mat and allowed me eruption, the building was relocated in 1892 to see the lay of the land.” by the Earl of Onslow to a park in Clandon, He says another factor drawing him home was Surrey. Anthony’s group brokered an exchange the opportunity to undertake research in Māori that will see Hinemihi returned to New Zealand and Indigenous architectural projects, including and a new pan-iwi whare constructed in the Māori social housing and “unlocking” Māori UK. The agreement is the culmination of land, even on his tūrangawaewae, Motiti Island. years of creative problem solving and delicate “It’s been bequeathed through successions of negotiations. But Hinemihi has also shaped generations, but it’s all locked up. Motiti is a bit Anthony’s ideas about buildings. lost in time; they haven’t even planted a tree. “The significance of these buildings lies not in That’s partly because they haven’t worked out a their material ‘bricks and mortar’ but in their use, good economic model and that’s happening with in the past, present and future.” a lot of Māori land.” Anthony says his Māori heritage is a factor He’s keen to supervise theses in what he calls in calling him home. He’s of Patuwai hapū, of Ngārchitecture, or new Māori architecture. He Ngāti Awa, from Motiti Island near Tauranga. will work with Professor Deidre Brown, head of He would like his 16-year-old son Māui Pehiamu the School of Architecture and Planning, and O Patuwai Roger – educated in the inner is teaching the design studio ‘Housing Puzzle’ London borough of Hackney – to learn its with Matilda Phillips. He is also co-director, with tikanga. Māui will arrive in New Zealand as soon Dr Karamia Muller, of a new hub called the as possible and also once an airline carrier agrees Sites Pacific Research Hub, looking at what’s to bring over the canine member of the family, specific about South Pacific architecture. He has an Akita dog named Chiba. an eye on high-density building solutions that Chiba now has his own Instagram account yield more affordable housing. @thebarkitect. “I arrived home and was asked “One model of interest could be instead of to be the international judge for the 2020 NZ individual houses, we build clustered rooms. I’ve Architecture Awards, the winners for which were noticed that older people, for example, don’t See Anthony Hoete in being announced on 5 November. NZIA wanted want to live by themselves. They want their mates the Dream Catchers me to get active on Instagram as we toured the around them. How can we achieve that? series tinyurl.com/ entries around the country.” “That’s one of the good things about being Hoete-Dream-Catcher He says the chance to see new architecture or back in an academic environment – you have (from 11 minutes in) restorations reconnected him with New Zealand. time to conduct important research that affects “I’ve been out of New Zealand for more people’s lives.” AROUND THE GLOBE Ingenio catches up with three alumni living overseas and finds out what impact they are having around the world. By Wendy Colville

CRAIG WHITE Boston, United States

ecision science is Craig White’s tech solutions to accelerate research and new speciality. It’s a science that focuses treatments in oncology. For example, predicting on making the best decision to which of the multitude of new cancer maximise the chance of achieving a treatments available will work best for individual Dparticular outcome, given limited resources and patients, or helping doctors understand whose a set of constraints. disease will progress quickly and whose slowly. He applies those skills every day across all Another example of how decision science facets of his role leading a research team of is used is the way New Zealand decides which 100+ people at a US-based healthcare start-up. medicines to fund, and which to restrict. It’s a science well informed by his University “The Government has finite resources, so it’s of Auckland engineering degree. saying, ‘how much of our budget are we willing “An engineering degree produces problem- to spend on healthcare versus infrastructure or solvers,” he says. education? What generates the best outcome for “It’s about solving problems in a reproducible the money?’ That’s the art of decision science.” and scalable way. You take the problem, break From his Boston home, Craig says New it down into small pieces and solve those. That Zealand has had good press for its handling foundation has been the single biggest thing in of the Covid-19 crisis, even with the August my career.” resurgence. Craig’s doctorate at Harvard University “The perception of New Zealand has been in Health Policy (Decision Science) is also a massively heightened as an example of how a Craig White specialises vital tool in a world of limited resources and government can operate collaboratively to get a in decision science, a skill that’s vital in a world with exponential choices. policy implemented across the country. limited resources but lots of Craig, 44, is senior vice president at “Yes, you are isolated, as an island, but you choices, such as in medicine. ConcertAI based in Boston, Massachusetts, in could easily have squandered that advantage the US. The company uses data and AI-enabled with short-sightedness, and others have.” At ConcertAI, employees across the globe all now work from home. Craig and his wife, Andrea, both spend their days at opposite ends of the house, online. “Everyone has to plan for the possibility that this could be here for a long time,” he says. “The benefit of New Zealand’s approach is that they’ve found a way to operate relatively normally. “The question is, how long can New Zealand go on and how well implemented is the solution to permit Kiwis to have normal lives?” As to whether he’s had any thoughts of bringing his skills home, he says: “If the right opportunity were to present itself, it would be hard not to come back home. “I’m hoping for a call from Ashley Bloomfield or the health minister at some point!”

34 | Ingenio magazine CARL ADAMS Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

orking in the world’s largest refugee camp has put Carl Adams squarely in the everyday reality of the Covid-19 pandemic.W “It’s been the challenge of an ‘emergency within an emergency’,” he says. AROUND THE GLOBE Carl, 28, has been working as Bangladesh country director for Medair, a Swiss relief and recovery agency serving close to a million Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar. “It’s a bamboo city carved out of the jungle in the middle of nowhere. We’ve had to retrofit everything, sanitation, drainage, roads … and all in a super-densely populated camp.” Carl lives a short drive from the camp, in Cox’s Bazar, a city that takes its name from the British East India Company era. His days are filled with meetings, many of them now online, as He says Bangladesh has a real hierarchy of he co-ordinates agencies, government and local age, status and gender. Carl Adams’ work has representatives. No day is the same, which suits “I’ve really thought about where to follow the involved the challenge of ‘an emergency within an the former Aucklander who completed a Master culture of the country and where to challenge emergency’ in Bangladesh. of Arts in Development Studies at this University. things. I’ve worked to elevate the voices of Carl is one of the University’s “My studies challenged and grew me to be team members, for instance having women in 40 Under 40 alumni (feature self-directed, to look at ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions. leadership roles which is pretty non-typical here.” page 27). Those skills are critical in my work where I look Cox’s Bazar has a long coastline, which is an for efficiencies when having limited resources.” asset, although going to the beach has cultural Living in Bangladesh has meant adjustments. differences, too. “Thousands of people come “Working cross-culturally is an interesting from other parts of the country – it’s a holiday dynamic. We’re from a non-hierarchical society experience and a photo opportunity. They come where people can have a voice, be listened to or dressed in their finest clothes, jeans and walking engage in politics without fear.” shoes while I’m there in jandals and shorts.”

CAT AUBURN Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, UK

eaving New Zealand brought a new lens to Cat Auburn’s creative practice. “It gave me perspective on my heritage, someone who is from a Pākehā and Lcolonial background, and what it means for me to be a New Zealander. And an understanding that every creative endeavour comes from that perspective,” says the multi-media artist. Cat completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts, then a Postgraduate Diploma (Hons) at Elam and her art ranges across sculpture, filmmaking and installations. She was awarded a British Arts Foundation studentship and is working on her PhD at Northumbria University. She also similar to those made from human hair in recently spent time working with celebrated Victorian times as memento mori. Cat Auburn has been British sculptor Antony Gormley. Her thesis examines Anzac stories from the exploring what it means to be a New Zealander in Investigating culture and identity is a constant WWI Sinai-Palestine campaign and the effect on her art. theme in her work. Her award-winning 2016 ideas of nationhood, although plans to research exhibition, The Horses Stayed Behind, was about in the Middle East have been shelved for now. the 10,000 horses that left New Zealand for the “I have to structure the work so it’s fluid and frontline in WWI, with only four returning. Cat can pivot at any point. But this project will be a created a five-metre work featuring 700 flower picture of its time. The thing is, it’s an absolute rosettes painstakingly crafted from horsehair, privilege to be working full-time on my art.”

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 35 Golden Graduate RADAR LOVE Golden Graduate Dr Alan Maxwell is an eminent physicist specialising in solar radio astronomy. Now, giving back is on his radar. By Louise Callan

hen Alan Maxwell set up twin Texas,” he says. “It was 1,609 metres above sea L–R: Alan with the Jodrell Yagi antennae on the roof of the level and 322 kilometres from the nearest town.” Bank telescope in Biology Building at the University, The station began operating in 1956 and its Manchester, 1950s; Alan, it signalled the beginning of a solar programme ran until 1982. That meant left, with Joe Taylor, at Harvard in 1994; Alan in Wstellar career. From mid-1947 until the second three decades of commuting between Fort Davis Auckland; the antennae half of 1948, the aerials tracked the sun at and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Alan’s atop the Biology Building 100 MHz in a solar radio astronomy project lecturing commitments at Harvard, where he at what was then Auckland for Alan’s Master of Science. He found that “in taught many future leaders in the field. University College, in 1947. general when solar noise was received, there were “One really stood out, Joseph Taylor, whose Photos: Maxwell Family Archive and Susan sunspots on, or near, the sun’s meridian”. doctorate I supervised. In 1993, he was awarded Maxwell Skinner The findings, linking radio signals with the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was a highlight in solar energy, formed one of the world’s first my career.” postgraduate theses on solar radio-astronomy Among Alan’s peers were British astronomers although, following the custom of the time, it and physicists Robert Hanbury Brown and was not published. “I was just a student and Richard Twiss, famous for the Hanbury Brown nobody would have been aware of my research,” and Twiss (HBT) effect in physics. Their work says Alan, now 93. “I only found out a number led to his Harvard colleague Roy Glauber’s of years later that similar work was under way experiment in quantum optics, which earned in Australia and under Wayne Orchiston at the Glauber a joint Nobel Prize in Physics in 2005. Carter Observatory in Wellington. For a number of years after his retirement, Alan “I’m not sure whether some kind of post-war kept an office at Harvard. secrecy played a role, but it would have been Alan grew up in Northcote, Auckland, where good to know about Orchiston’s work earlier.” he learned the piano and organ. He was 16 Alan’s pursuit of a rapidly developing scientific when he gave his first public organ recital in the field drew him overseas, to the University Auckland Town Hall and he regularly played of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory. at church services. Like science, music is a He undertook research for his PhD in radio- constant in his life as is, in his later years, travel. astronomy, under eminent physicist and radio Prior to Covid-19, he attended concerts and astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell, the observatory’s science seminars across the world, and returned first director. In 1953, Alan was awarded his home to New Zealand each summer to catch doctorate in physics. up with family, including Associate Professor His next move was to the US where he built an Scott Parkins from the Department of Physics. Golden international reputation in solar radio astronomy. Unfortunately, pandemic restrictions are unlikely Graduates He joined Harvard University and led a project to relax sufficiently to allow his annual Christmas Our Golden to establish the Harvard Radio Astronomy dinner with family in Auckland in 2020. Graduates are those Station. Alan’s practical experience as a solar Alan’s connection with home, and interest in who graduated from radio observer showed it was important to his alma mater, is behind a generous decision the University of avoid interference from man-made transmission to leave a gift to the University in his will. The Auckland 50 or more services, such as communications and broadcasts. Alan Maxwell Fund will support the Faculty of years ago, along with “Instead of siting the radio equipment on Science and he’s happy for it to be used as the graduates aged 70 the mountain top with the observatory at faculty sees fit. “I don’t have a philosophical and over. Sacramento Peak, I looked for a sheltered valley explanation for doing it,” he says. “It’s enough for and found an ideal location near Fort Davis in me to know the gift will be used appropriately.”

36 | Ingenio magazine RADAR LOVE Arts & Culture as “delicious little pictures”. The artist was in Shenley Psychiatric Hospital in Hertfordshire for the duration of the exhibition. Perhaps Kelly was inspired by John Gielgud’s 1936-37 production of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters at the Queen’s Theatre in London’s West End? Or did he admire the grim 1834 portrait of Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë by their brother Branwell, which hangs in London’s National Portrait Gallery? Kelly’s three sisters are Brontë lookalikes, clad in dark Victorian clothing with veiled heads like mourners in a procession. Above, lopsided leafless trees claw the sky, leaning away from the prevailing wind, branches broken on one side. The effect is to make the three sisters seem like apparitions, or sleepwalkers under a spell. Three Sisters, Felix Kelly Art historian William Gaunt pointed out (1915-94),1943, oil on A RIDDLE that Kelly’s figures do not inhabit the scenes in paper, 210 x 255mm which he places them, so much as haunt them. To Kelly’s delight, this painting was purchased PICTURE by the esteemed art critic Herbert Read (1893-1968). Kelly persuaded Read to write The University’s wintry, slightly surreal scene, this the introductory essay for the book Paintings by painting was gifted to the University Felix Kelly (which reproduced 41 of the artist’s Art Collection by the original owner’s daughter- works) by agreeing to put this work, which Read has more than in-law in 2014. How it got to New owned, on the cover. Kelly wrote to Read to 1,700 items AZealand is a story in itself, but its intriguing explain his approach to painting: “Firstly, before imagery is what draws me to it. Who are the commencing … I must realise the emotional spread across three sisters, and why are they wandering content of my subject. Secondly, whatever the five campuses separately out of a glass house down an arbour subject, either imaginative or otherwise, I like and 90 percent of spindly hoops towards the viewer? Are the to compose it not only of the visible but the wintry trees threatening or protecting them? invisible people or things once there. Thirdly, I of the collection The low red brick wall is an excellent dynamic suppose it is obvious that the classical symbols is on display device to define the rapid recession, and of the 18th century have the strongest appeal.” at all times. complements the chartreuse grass beautifully. In Three Sisters, this recipe is evident: the Somehow the glowering sky manages to balance mood is sombre, the figures ghost-like and Art historian the vertiginous slope of hill on the right, too. the architecture Georgian. Perhaps the whole Linda Tyler So it is a riddle picture, competently picture is a depiction of the struggle between showcases her composed but well-removed from New classical order and romanticism? Or just an Zealand painting traditions of the middle of imaginative reconfiguring of female figures on favourite piece. last century. Yet the artist was a Kiwi émigré, the route from the nurses’ home to the hospital Felix Kelly, who left Auckland at the height of during the wartime blackout? Interpretation the Depression in 1935, having won a coveted remains elusive, which is what makes this tiny position as a layout artist at Lintas in London, work so compelling. the advertising wing of Unilever. Highly skilled at networking, and with a fondness for sports cars, he had soon insinuated himself SEE MORE ARTWORKS into the English aristocracy, accepting many artcollection.auckland.ac.nz commissions to depict country houses. The online catalogue lists 1,200 works Kelly was an airman in the RAF during although the number is now 1,700. wartime but had a nervous breakdown and See the Felix Kelly piece at artcollection. was hospitalised twice in 1943, the year after auckland.ac.nz/record/605476 this painting was completed. Despite this, Watch more about the collection: he managed to produce six small paintings Linda Tyler holds the artcollection.auckland.ac.nz/video/ David and Corina Silich that were included in the summer exhibition Associate Professorship at the prestigious St James’s gallery, Alex Linda Tyler tours artworks in the Science in Museums and Reid and Lefevre Ltd in August 1943. The Building at auckland.ac.nz/ingenio Cultural Heritage. society magazine Tatler commented on these

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 37 Whakataukī for living

Dr Hinemoa Elder has lived an extraordinary life, in and out of the limelight. Now a respected psychiatrist, she has collated 52 proverbs in a powerful book to provide life lessons in stressful times. Janet McAllister talks to Hinemoa about how the Māori wisdom in Aroha can help us live contented lives in harmony with the planet and ourselves.

remember being told I was a ‘TV us believe in the sanctity of all parts of the body bimbo’ when I was training in being buried together,” says Hinemoa. “But as psychiatry, having already completed a whānau, we agreed to support her dying wish. my medical training,” writes It had a profound impact on me that my mother “IDr Hinemoa Elder, in one of the many lively had chosen to do this.” personal snippets she drops into Aroha, her new Sir Richard later became a supervisor for book of whakataukī (proverbs). Hinemoa’s PhD and encouraged her to join the “I was blindsided. Those words aimed to put brain research team. One of the most influential me in a box. Those words were designed to people in her career, he’s now her boss at Brain constrain and define me … preclude me from Research New Zealand. being anything else.” “My mum showed the way,” she says. Hinemoa is a child and adolescent, and youth When Hinemoa suffered another tragedy, her forensic, psychiatrist as well as Māori strategic younger brother taking his own life, she says the leader for Brain Research New Zealand, based whānau experience of loss and pain was part of in the Anatomy Department at the University. the reason she became a psychiatrist. She breaks constraints, opens boxes and defies “So I could work alongside those with suicidal assumptions – showing they’re irrelevant thoughts, and support them to stay alive and for everyone. Why shouldn’t a scientist be support their families,” she says in Aroha. “Some glamorous? Why wouldn’t a psychiatrist be might say that is ridiculously impossible. Well, concerned about climate change? Why don’t I am all for attempting the seemingly impossible.” more clinicians promote te reo Māori, given it That’s where a proverb like, “Ki te kotahi te protects against mental distress and addiction kākaho, ka whati; ki te kāpuia, e kore e whati” for Māori? And why shouldn’t a leading Māori resonates. It means, “If a reed stands alone, it child psychiatrist be proud of her past, presenting can be broken; if it is in a group, it cannot,” or children’s programmes? As she writes: “All the “When we stand alone we are vulnerable, but women I know who work in television are skilled together we are unbreakable”. and dedicated people.” These days she’s also a member of the NZ We talk via Zoom during Hinemoa’s lunch Mental Health Review Tribunal and occasionally break at a Milford clinic, under Level Three guest lectures at the Faculty of Medical and rāhui. Even under fluorescent lights in an Health Sciences. Her activities all seem to work anonymous office, Hinemoa has charisma, her towards a common goal, like strands woven to moko kauae framed with earrings of replica create one tapestry – one tukutuku panel. The white-tipped huia feathers, symbols of mana and pattern she’s weaving, her kaupapa, is perhaps leadership. She has described the moko process summed up by Aroha’s subtitle: Māori Wisdom for Aroha as “extraordinary”, telling an Auckland Women’s a Contented Life Lived in Harmony with Our Planet. Dr Hinemoa Elder, Centre audience earlier this year that the artist, The well-being of people and Earth are inter- Penguin Random “tohunga of karakia” James Webster, “sent me to connected – and she says we need to value House New Zealand, another realm. At one point I did feel like I was Indigenous knowledge to get there. $30 under the ocean … It was amazing.” Case in point: in her doctoral research, We have two copies This is what a Māori scientist looks like. Hinemoa developed a clinical tool, Te Waka to give away. Hinemoa’s path to becoming a scientist began Oranga, that recognises that cultural and Email: ingenio@ with tragedy. Her mother, Ina, had died of whānau knowledge – not just clinical knowledge auckland.ac.nz breast cancer in 1991 and Hinemoa took her – are essential for assisting children and rangatahi with your details by body to the Medical School. Sir Richard Faull, recovering from traumatic brain injury. 8 December. neuroscientist and director of Brain Research Hinemoa recorded Indigenous knowledge New Zealand, said it was “no small gift”. through wānanga (learning) on marae and was “It’s very uncommon in our culture as many of guided by whakapapa (in her case, Te Aupōuri,

38 | Ingenio magazine “I am all for attempting the seemingly impossible.”

Ngāti Kurī, Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi). “I went “She is still the takere, the hull, of my waka, home [to ancestral whenua in the Far North] canoe, and my journey is better for that.” Dr Hinemoa Elder wrote to ask permission to do research regarding the Like her fellow local physician writers – the stories in her book brain, the head, a sacred part of the body. playwright/paediatrician Renee Liang, poet/GP Aroha partly because “science alone is not going “One kaumatua said ‘yes, you can do that, Glenn Colquhoun and essayists Emma Espiner to save us”. but you have to bring it home first’. So I always (Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Porou) and Sylvia Giles, Photo: Elise Manahan brought it home.” Hinemoa offers stories because “science alone is The tool is now used by a rehabilitation centre not going to save us”. in Ranui, West Auckland, an impressive direct She says we need stories – the traditional translation from research to practice. vehicle of Indigenous wisdom, encompassing The book Aroha continues this centring of cause-and-effect, empathy and explanation – to mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge). It’s make us care. written partially to challenge the idea that Māori He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he culture “is some sort of relic that should just be kōrero, he kōrero. Good communication is left in a museum”, preserved and fixed, boxed required for good leadership. Doctoral candidate and labelled. Instead, the book promotes a living, By that – and any other measure – he rangatira Ashlea Gillon (Ngāti Awa) evolving culture, by including whakataukī written ia. Here is a true and remarkable leader. assisted with this kōrero. by Hinemoa’s own kaiako, her own teachers. Hinemoa’s hoped-for audience includes those who feel alienated from their own culture, labelling themselves as “plastic Māori”. She PERFECT PROVERB FOR 2020 describes such harmful terms as internalised colonisation. “It’s a different kind of infection, if Whakataukī: He iti hoki te mokoroa nāna i kakati te you will. A different kind of virus. The structures kahikatea/ While the mokoroa grub is small, it cuts through of the dominant culture are exquisitely attuned the white pine. to infecting us with ways to hurt ourselves, and There is power in small things. hurt each other.” “I’ve had days where it’s been tough,” says Hinemoa of the But Aroha is warm and perceptive, gently Covid-19 lockdowns. “Life can feel pretty overwhelming. I’ve making te ao Māori accessible and relevant to had to tell myself ‘get up, get out of bed, get dressed. Vacuum all – through tantalising and sometimes poignant the lounge. Put the kettle on, feed the dog’ and I can manage glimpses of her own life. to do those little things. “My mum continues to have the most critical “So, I have found this whakataukī really comforting, because impact on my life. I have a chat with her most it reminds me that little things matter.” days. She remains my yardstick.

auckland.ac.nz/ingenio | 39 Books Internal forces Delving into family history, you’re bound to uncover secrets. That’s what alumna Caroline Barron found in researching her memoir. She talks to Tess Redgrave.

here is a pivotal scene in Ripiro Beach when author Caroline Barron steps out of Fruit World in Richmond Road, Grey Lynn. TAs grocery bags crash against her calves, a woman in a Volvo station wagon speeds past in the carpark “so fast”. “It happens in an instant,” writes Caroline. “Rage springs from the pit of my stomach into my chest, constricting my throat. “ ‘Slow the f… down!’ I scream – actually scream – my vocal cords clanging.” The woman in the Volvo looks like she is about Ripiro Beach: A to cry. A roadworker in a high-vis vest looks on. Memoir of Life After “How could I have lost it like that?” Caroline Near Death, Bateman writes a few paragraphs later. But for many Publishing, $35 readers, there’s been a similar moment in our lives when we, too, might have asked ourselves: “How could I have been such a bitch?” As Caroline Barron’s words poured out, she drew In Ripiro Beach, Caroline doesn’t flinch from on skills learned in her Master of Creative Writing. telling her story – just as it is. That incident outside Fruit World came during a gruelling personal time for the author, trying to journals since she was 13 and has a degree in overcome the impact of a near-death experience journalism. In 2015, she won a coveted place on and loss of her uterus during childbirth; of the University of Auckland’s Master of Creative ongoing grief over her father’s death when she Writing (MCW) and worked on a fictionalised was 20, and of a close friend’s recent, untimely account of her father’s conception and adoption. death. She had also been exploring her father’s But it was only once the MCW year was over bloodline (he was adopted) uncovering suicide, that Caroline felt an “unbelievable internal force brain tumours, heart disease, early death and to write memoir”. As the words “poured out”, violence, and a Māori heritage she didn’t know she drew on skills learnt during the MCW. how to open. “We had been taught how to close the “There are too many things to process,” she narrative gap between the reader and the words writes, “so it is easier to remain buried beneath.” on the page, which means understanding and But she doesn’t. As Caroline seeks the medical going deeply into a character’s point of view. and wellness help she needs, she travels to “With memoir, I am the character.” Northland to untangle her Māori whakapapa As Ripiro Beach neared publication, Caroline and discovers a physical and spiritual home at admits she did “um and aah a lot” about taking Kaipara’s Ripiro (Baylys) Beach. Her journey, the Fruit World scene out, but felt it had “real and the memoir she is writing in ‘real time’, resonance”. Her approach was affirmed when turns into a story of healing and transformation. in 2018 she did a masterclass with Norwegian “I see memoir and books in general as a salve, memoirist Karl Ove Knausgård. to answer questions, to help me find a way “He said, remember, the closer you get to forward,” she says. yourself, the more universal it becomes.” If her full email inbox is anything to go by, “I realise this is the key,” writes Caroline at the readers from all around the country have found end of Ripiro Beach. “I must try my best to tell the aspects of her a story a ‘salve’, too. truth as deeply as I can. For perhaps this is the Tall and lean, Caroline was a teenage model thing that will connect to the outside world, to for Maysie Bestall-Cohen, and then in her other people whom life has also tripped up.” mid-twenties took over the management of Nova Models & Talent and ran the top agency WIN: We have two copies of Ripiro Beach to until 2009. give away. Email: [email protected] by But writing is her first love. She has kept 8 December.

40 | Ingenio magazine Shining Land The Telling Time Associate Professor This first novel by Pip (P. J.) McKay (Master of Paula Morris, who runs Creative Writing, 2017) won the 2020 First Pages the Master of Creative prize, judged by a panel including Sebastian Faulks. Writing programme, The Telling Time is the story of Gabrijela, a young and photographer Haru Croatian exiled to New Zealand from the town of Sameshima, explore the Korčula in the 1950s, who is harbouring a secret. world of New Zealand P.J. McKay, Polako Press, $35 journalist, poet, fiction writer and war correspondent Robin Hyde. They each visit locations important to her life and ground-breaking work, embarking on separate This Pākehā Life: an Unsettled Memoir road trips and then reporting back with words, Award-winning author Professor Alison Jones from pictures and different perspectives. the Faculty of Education and Social Work has Paula Morris and Haru Sameshima, Massey University written an account of a life spent traversing Pākehā Press, hardback, $45 (released 12 November) and Māori worlds. It’s also an insight into New Zealand’s social history of the past 60 years. WIN: We have one copy of Shining Land to give Read an interview with Alison: auckland.ac.nz/ away. Email: [email protected] with your alison-jones-memoir details by 8 December. Alison Jones, Bridget Williams Books, $40

Fake Baby The Girl from Revolution Road Amy McDaid, who has a The essays of Ghazaleh Golbakhsh, alumna, Fulbright Bachelor of Nursing and scholar and filmmaker, are based on her experience Master of Creative Writing as an Iranian immigrant. Subjects range from a night from Auckland, has had spent in prison as a six-year-old to learning English at great success with her darkly her Auckland primary school, and dating in the days funny satire, exploring of Covid-19. Hear Ghazaleh talk about the essays on resilience, mental health RNZ. tinyurl.com/RNZ-Revolution-Road and being real. Amy works Ghazaleh Golbakhsh, Allen & Unwin, $37 as a neonatal nurse at Starship and this was her first novel. It’s been out since April but was still in the top 10 NZ books (Nielsen) in September. The Girl in the Mirror Amy McDaid, Penguin Random House, $36 If you haven’t heard Rose Carlyle’s story, best Google it. Rose is another graduate of the Master of Creative Writing programme and was a Michael The Best of Times, King Writer in Residence in 2020. Her best-selling The Worst of Times debut novel is a thriller about identical twins. The Alumnus Dr Paul Behrens overseas rights to it were snapped up after a bidding (PhD physics) is an assistant war and the film rights have also been secured. professor of energy and Read more: tinyurl.com/Rose-Carlyle-Stuff environmental change at Rose Carlyle, Allen & Unwin, $33 Leiden University in the Netherlands. His book, subtitled Futures from the Mophead cleans up Frontiers of Climate Science, features climate hope as well as pessimism and chapters on subjects such as In August, Mophead: How Your Difference Makes a energy, food and economics. Difference, written and illustrated by Associate Professor Paul Behrens, Indigo Press (to be released 1 December) of English Selina Tusitala Marsh, won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year at the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. As well as top children’s How to Talk About book, the graphic memoir also Spiritual Encounters won the Elsie Locke Award Professor Peter Adams, for Non-Fiction. from the School of Popu- Selina’s next book is lation Health, probes the Mophead Tu: The Queen’s Poem to be published on language people use when 12 November. In Mophead Tu, Selina is crowned discussing their spiritual Commonwealth Poet and performs for the encounters. Written in the Queen at Westminster Abbey. style of café conversations. Selina Tusitala Marsh, Mophead Tu: The Queen’s Peter J. Adams, Palgrave McMillan, hardback, $150 Poem, Auckland University Press, $25 CONNECTION Facebook: UoAAlumni Linkedin: Auckland University Alumni and Friends Twitter: @AucklandAlumni POINTS Instagram: @AucklandAlumni

STAY SIGN UP SUMMER STAYS: RAISING THE BAR: CHEAP HOLIDAYS BACK IN 2021 Student accommodation becomes holiday accommodation in the summer months. From its launch in 2017 to its digital debut in 2020, the popular Raising the We have a limited number of places to stay Bar (RTB) event has regularly sold out across Auckland. RTB takes research at Carlaw Park and 55 Symonds Street, outside lecture theatres with a series of interesting subjects, speakers and offering excellent facilities at affordable prices. venues each year. In 2020, it became the ‘home edition’ online due to Summer Stays also gives back to the students lockdown, but all going to plan it will be back in the real world and online by subsidising their accommodation costs. in 2021. Twenty of the University’s academics will fill inner-city bars Use the code UOAAlumni for 10 percent for entertaining, thought-provoking discussions on topics affecting our off stays at Carlaw and 55 Symonds Street. everyday lives. Sign up to RTB e-news at rtbevent.com for updates. If Book your Auckland summer break today at you missed RTB 2020, see: rtbevent.com/rtb-auckland-home-edition summerstays.auckland.ac.nz

NOMINATE LEARN EXCEPTIONAL ALUMNI FOR 2022 EMBRACE TE REO Each year the University presents up to five Distinguished Alumni Awards Te Kūaha, meaning The Doorway, is an to honour people who have made outstanding contributions to their educational app for alumni, staff and students professions and their communities. (Pictured are 2019’s winners, from to learn basic te reo Māori and protocols left, young alumnus William Pike, Simon Talbot, Moana Maniapoto and including a few waiata. The app is part John Bongard.) The 2020 event was cancelled, but we’re hoping to create of a programme of work to inspire the double the magic in 2021. We’d also like nominations for 2022 and these revitalisation of te reo. Download Te Kūaha close on 30 June, 2021. If you would like to nominate an exceptional from Google Play, Apple and Windows stores. alumna or alumnus, visit auckland.ac.nz/daa. Find out more at: auckland.ac.nz/te-kuaha

42 | Ingenio magazine SHARE VOLUNTEER TELL US YOUR STORY

This year brought the need for volunteers to the LEND A HAND fore, despite restrictions on physical distancing Through our informal mentoring platform, Alumni Connect, you can now created by Covid-19. The pandemic has created share your career insights to support our students and exchange industry different kinds of needs in the community and advice with fellow alumni. Whether it’s a chat about career possibilities Volunteer Impact Week 2020 went ahead from in your industry, or what it’s like to work in your part of the world, it’s a 21-27 June during Level One. The University rewarding way to give back. Connections are made online but mentors community stepped in to help virtually and in and mentees can meet up if they wish. Volunteer your expertise today at projects in the real world around New Zealand. connect.auckland.ac.nz. We’d like to hear from people who’ve Volunteering doesn’t have to take a lot of your time and it can make done any volunteering this year, from a you feel part of your community, too. Our volunteers – be they alumni, little to a lot. Tell us your story by writing to students, or friends – have helped improve native bird habitats, lent a [email protected] with a hand to community organisations, assisted with special needs children in few sentences about your volunteering and the classrooms and much more. There’s usually a volunteering event that ties impact it had on you and others. It’d be great to in with your interests, too, so that makes it especially rewarding. Head to get a photo of you volunteering, too. auckland.ac.nz/volunteer to find a range of volunteering opportunities. UPDATE YOUR DETAILS: BE IN TO WIN A BOSE SPEAKER

Update your contact details to stay informed about your university’s news through our alumni publications, emails with exclusive offers, competitions and information CATCH UP about events happening near you. If you update your email NETWORKING and postal address at EVENTS alumni.auckland. University of Auckland events are always interesting and a chance to ac.nz/update before catch up with alumni or network with new people. There are mainstay 31 December 2020, events such as annual distinguished alumni celebrations and the Golden you’ll go in the Graduates lunch, to alumni and friends receptions including one in draw to win a Christchurch, 18 November and one in Wellington, 19 November. There Bose Wireless are also informal gatherings led by alumni. In these unusual times we are speaker worth finding ways to connect and engage online as well. Update your email $479. Or just fill address at alumni.auckland.ac.nz/update and we’ll make sure you out the form that stay informed of events or changes to events. Or visit our events section at came with this nvite.com/community/universityofauckland for the latest. magazine.

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