auckland.ac.nz/UniNews JULY 2021
ANDREAS NEEF
Why we should research our holiday destinations to avoid heading to the dark side
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GRADUATION SUCCESSES THE FACTS ABOUT GOUT GOING POSTAL Mother-of-six Paula Hughes is one of many Professor Nicola Dalbeth wants to dispel Associate Professor of Dance, Alys Longley, outstanding achievers in our latest cohort myths about a disease that attacks Māori felt like her hands were tied behind her of graduates and Pacific in high numbers back in lockdown, but delivered a creative solution
Page 3 Page 6 Page 10 IN THE NEWS THIS ISSUE Just a few of the University of Auckland staff and student achievements in the Graduation stories 3 media recently. Email: [email protected] Good to Know 4, 5 Nicola Dalbeth 6, 7 Andreas Neef 8, 9 Art & Culture Alys Longley 10
Suresh Muthukumaraswam Gus Fisher Art Gallery 11 Architecture Biennale 11 PSYCHEDELIC OPPORTUNITIES Dr Suresh Muthukumaraswam told Newsroom Books 11 that New Zealand has the scientific expertise to hold clinical trials of psychedelic drugs, which Māramatanga: Robert Bartholomew 12 are touted as a promising form of treatment for people living with mental illness. He said the other advantage would be to attract venture Melani Anae capital and boost the economy. Link: tinyurl.com/newsroom-psychedelic
HISTORY OF POLYNESIAN PANTHERS USEFUL Associate Professor Melani Anae and her early NEW APP experiences with the anti-racist group the Polynesian Panthers featured in a Stuff podcast The University to mark the Panthers’ 50th anniversary. Melani has a new app also commented widely on the government’s called UoA Alert dawn raids apology on RNZ, and in Canvas to keep staff and magazine, among others. students informed Links: tinyurl.com/RNZ-melani-anae of any incidents tinyurl.com/Canvas-Melani-Anae that may affect them. The app can Helen Murray send mobile notifications of emergency situations. Download it from the usual app stores by searching UoA Alert. BRAIN INJURY RESEARCH NEEDED Neuroscientist Dr Helen Murray told TVNZ a greater understanding of repetitive brain injuries is needed before a proper link between chronic EDITOR: Denise Montgomery traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and rugby [email protected] can be ascertained. CTE can ultimately cause PHOTOGRAPHY: Elise Manahan, Billy Wong dementia. DESIGN: Stephen Wang Link: tinyurl.com/TVNZ-helen-murray-CTE PRODUCTION: The University of Auckland Barkin Sertkaya Volume 51/Issue 5/July 2021 PUBLISHED BY: The University of Auckland Communications Office OLDEST MUSIC BROUGHT TO LIFE COVID-19 EXPERTS ON AIR Alfred Nathan House, 24 Princes Street Guitarist Barkin Sertkaya from the School Professor of Physics Shaun Hendy, a Covid-19 Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142 of Music talked to Jesse Mulligan on RNZ modelling expert from Te Pūnaha Matatini, talked Web: auckland.ac.nz/UniNews Afternoons about his recent recording of a to RNZ’s Checkpoint about the emergence of the composition inspired by the world’s oldest positive Covid-19 case in an Australian visitor to Something to share? Email: UniNews@ surviving piece of music, the Seikilos Epitaph, Wellington. And Professor Des Gorman (School auckland.ac.nz. Copy deadline is the 14th which is engraved on an ancient tombstone. He of Medicine) told TV3’s The AM Show that he of the month prior to publication. also gave a live performance of Koyunbaba, a believed the risks of keeping the Australian guitar suite named after a shepherd who lived in bubble open are great. When posted, UniNews is delivered in certified 15th-century Turkey. Des link: tinyurl.com/AMShow-Des-Gorman degradable EPI ‘plastic’ in keeping with this Link: tinyurl.com/RNZ-barkin-sertkaya Shaun link: tinyurl.com/RNZ-shaun-hendy University’s sustainability goals.
2 UNINEWS GRADUATION STORIES GRAD EXPECTATIONS The University’s June cohort of graduates is expected to play an important role in society using knowledge from their degrees. Here are a few of their stories.
international borders. Unable to travel home, she Catholic School in Manurewa, not far from where has had to watch helplessly as her country has she lives, and says it’s great to have been able to been ravaged by the disease. study and work in her own neighbourhood. Divya’s prize-winning dissertation was on the “The South Auckland Campus being close to legalisation of same-sex marriage in India and she’s home, especially as a mum, was a big influence now beginning her doctorate, specialising in family in my decision to return to study, and the law, with particular focus on forced marriages. environment was very family-friendly. It felt like a “I have experienced freedom in an altogether warm, close community.” new light,” she says of her time in New Zealand. ■ Full story: auckland.ac.nz/paula-hughes “While women’s rights have come a long way in the past few decades in India, ground still needs to Callum Tokorangi (Global Studies) be covered. Drafting good laws is usually the first At his graduation, Callum Tokorangi wore a step, but what is more important is to see them collection of special shell necklaces passed on being effectively implemented. What matters most from his Cook Island nana to honour her memory, for women is a change in societal mindsets that and that of his Aitutaki whānau. have evolved from strong patriarchal traditions.” Callum was in the first cohort to graduate with ■ Full story: auckland.ac.nz/divya-rathore a Bachelor of Global Studies from the University. The programme was founded by the the late Dr Hilary Chung, as “a degree for people who want to change the world”, an idea that connected strongly with Callum. Callum majored in global politics and human Hanna Davidson (Engineering/Arts) rights and as well as paying tribute to his mum, Hanna Davidson could find herself working on dedicated his graduation day to Hilary, the person a construction project in France one day, after whose vision and belief in her students led him on graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) this path. and Bachelor of Arts (French). “It was Hilary’s ability to see the potential in me “The work of the late British-Israeli architect and others and call it out that drove me to pursue Zaha Hadid was what first sparked my interest this degree to its end. I will always strive to be a in engineering, with her structures having such change in the world and follow my passions as a Paula Hughes (Education) natural forms despite being constructed from testament to her input into my life.” Mother of six and mature student, Paula Hughes robust materials,” says Hanna. “She was also ■ Full story: auckland.ac.nz/callum-tokorangi (pictured above with Dean of Education and a great inspiration as an example of a woman Social Work, Associate Professor Mark Barrow) is succeeding in the construction space.” the first in her family to attend university, and has Hanna credits her passion for French to an done it in style. enthusiastic high-school teacher, who inspired her Paula graduated with a Bachelor of Education to keep studying the language. She took a gap year (Primary) from the University’s South Auckland in Europe to immerse herself in the language. Campus, Te Papa Ako o Tai Tonga, with a senior Hanna initially focused on maths and physics scholar award, having also been the top Pacific with the option to cross over to Engineering student in her first year. should the opportunity present itself. Five years For such a milestone, it was important to Paula later, she has achieved her goals and is working that both her elderly parents, her siblings and at WSP Global, an engineering consultancy, as a nieces could attend her honouring ceremony. bridge engineer. It was held at Te Tai Tonga the night before the ■ Full story: auckland.ac.nz/hanna-davidson official event at Spark Arena, where she was Divya Rathore (Law) joined by her husband and some of her children, As Divya Rathore stepped on stage to receive her as well as her parents by livestream. CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS ONLINE Master of Laws, her proud family were watching “As a first generation Samoan New Zealander, Photos of the June graduation her triumph via livestream from the Indian state of it was a very proud day for my family because it’s ceremonies: auckland.ac.nz/winter- Madhya Pradesh, 12,000 kilometres away. a Samoan parents’ dream for their children to do grad-photos and graduation stories: Divya, an international student at the Auckland well, especially at tertiary level,” she says. auckland.ac.nz/graduation-stories Law School, arrived before Covid-19 closed Paula already has a job teaching at St Anne’s
auckland.ac.nz/UniNews 3 GOOD TO KNOW
ARTS KAIĀRAHI
Leanne Tamaki (Ngāi Tūhoe) becomes the new Faculty of Arts kaiārahi from 5 July. Leanne worked closely with the previous kaiārahi Hirini Kaa and Aroha Harris to embed te ao Māori into the Faculty. She has a decade of experience in the arts, culture and heritage sector, having worked on several national Vice-Chancellor Dawn Freshwater with Theresa Gattung (centre) projects before starting at Auckland in 2020. and Dean of the Business School, Professor Susan Watson.
by a desire to help make New Zealand the best NEW MIGRATION BOOST TO EQUITY place to do business, particularly for women. Theresa was the first woman CEO of Telecom THEORIES IN BUSINESS New Zealand and over the years she has held Early Polynesians are likely to have arrived Funding from one of New Zealand’s leading multiple governance positions. in the southern Pacific from a range of routes businesswomen will go towards empowering “Improving women’s economic empowerment through Island Southeast Asia, mixing and other women to excel in business. is crucial to gender equality,” says Theresa. mingling along the way, according to ground- The Theresa Gattung Chair of Women in “I’m a firm believer that through business we breaking new research at the University. Entrepreneurship is being set up at the Business can create a fairer world. I have seen it work first- The study analysed 193 Neolithic period School. The chair will helm a centre to foster hand. I see this chair as providing another arm (10,000 to 4,500 BCE) carbon dates on ceramics entrepreneurial women and equip graduates with of support for women’s business empowerment. from 20 archaeological sites in Island Southeast hard-pegged business skills, including how to Women need to know how to launch a business, Asia. It concluded there was an extraordinary assess and use financial information. The centre how to read a balance sheet, and what venture mixing of populations as people moved further will be a hub for high-impact postgraduate capital is and how to access it. south into the Pacific, rather than via two research to drive policy outcomes for women, “I want to encourage tertiary study that distinct routes that unfolded step by step. This as well as facilitating networks and mentoring is practical and grounded in real-world challenges established theories that suggest that programmes, and acting as an incubator for entrepreneurship and that will give women a either Polynesian migrants set out from Taiwan interdisciplinary collaborations. deep understanding of business,” she says. and moved into Island Southeast Asia before Theresa Gattung, who is gifting the University venturing further south (the ‘Out of Taiwan’ $2.5m over ten years, says her support is driven ■ Full story: auckland.ac.nz/theresa-gattung-gift hypothesis) or that these earliest farming and pottery-using populations came from mainland Southeast Asia in the west, before going further south (‘Western Route Migration’ hypothesis). verify a person’s health status and assess Study lead, archaeologist Associate Professor ALMOST INSTANT whether vaccines have been effective, in just Ethan Cochrane, says the research suggests this 15 minutes. The device can process about a period involved “mixing, matching and moving” IMMMUNITY TEST dozen samples simultaneously and provide of people around the region and that there were A healthtech venture developed by Science laboratory-grade results anywhere, such as in no clear linear routes south. staff could help people travel safely within airports and cruise ship terminals, supporting “It seems Island Southeast Asia was a huge communities and around the globe. the safe resumption of international travel. mixing pot of people rather than two clear Orbis Diagnostics, founded by Faculty of “The goal is that if you are vaccinated and routes, either from the north, or the west, and Science professors David Williams and Cather your immunity is high, you could be let through then down into the southern Pacific.” Simpson, is on a mission to allow safer movement the border without going into quarantine,” says ■ Full story: auckland.ac.nz/migration-research during a pandemic by making complex medical David, professor of chemical science. Newshub: tinyurl.com/newshub-cochrane testing accessible wherever it is needed. “Quantitative immunity testing implemented Orbis has developed an accurate, cost- at borders can be a vital tool to open up travel.” effective immunity test for Covid-19 that can The testing is done using an automated A 3,000-year-old portable lab designed for use in high-volume, fragment of Lapita non-laboratory environments. The prototype is in pottery from the development in collaboration with San Diego- Solomon Islands. based D&K Engineering. “We are working towards an operational trial in September where we aim to process a significant number of people through the system in a short time,” says Cather. “The pace of development is Professor David Williams both challenging and exhilarating.” Full story and video: tinyurl.com/orbis-portable-lab
4 UNINEWS GOOD TO KNOW
contaminants. Although making a start on FINALLY FACE TO her project from outside New Zealand was challenging, she received a lot of support from her FACE WITH FISH fellow doctoral candidates and academic staff. “My supervisor, Associate Professor Kevin When Nicole Hayton enrolled as a doctoral Simon, has been great. We have had weekly candidate in the School of Environment, she meetings over Zoom for the past year, and I also could not predict 2020’s curveball. attended lab meetings over Zoom.” Three days before her flight from Scotland to Nicole arrived in February as part of the New Zealand to commence her PhD last March, government’s border exception category for the Aotearoa New Zealand border closed because postgraduate students. She is one of 320 of the global pandemic and Nicole had to adapt international students so far approved for the quickly to her new reality. University, and around 90 have arrived. “Being in Scotland in 2020 was crazy. We were “I love that in Auckland you get the benefits of in a lockdown for almost a year. Starting my PhD living in a city while having easy access to so much remotely was a little daunting as I couldn’t be on nature – beaches, parks and nature reserves. campus and I couldn’t speak with my supervisor “It’s also great to be working on the practical or lab group face to face.” component of my research which I hope will Nicole’s research focuses on behavioural contribute towards understanding the impact of International doctoral student Nicole Hayton responses in fish, driven by emerging estrogenic pollution in freshwater ecosystems.” is happy to finally be on campus.
somewhere along the way I had removed ‘myself’ Aotearoa, although for a long time I did not have KAITA LEADING from my studies.” the tools to navigate these ideas on my own.” Kaita says the real strength of Leadership Leadership Through Learning starts up again Through Learning is its tuakana-teina approach. for Semester Two and runs for 12 weeks. It is THE WAY “It empowers students to step into their open to all Māori and Pacific students from any A leadership programme for Māori own brand of leadership and is reflected by faculty and at every level, and is delivered by and Pacific students helps ensure facilitators being students with important stories Māori and Pacific student leaders. every chance of success. to tell. It removes any barriers between teaching “Students are challenged in a safe space and learning.” to plot a course to achieve their goals at Applications for a powerful leadership Kaita, who is of Papua New Guinean, Cook University and beyond,” says Kaita. “It’s a really programme designed to help Māori and Islands, Niuean and Pākehā heritage, says while transformative process and means the success Pacific students achieve their potential his studies helped refine his understanding of our students becomes normalised.” close on 18 July. of the world, Leadership Through Learning The programme is in its eighth iteration in The flagship programme, through Te Tumu provided him with the tools and a community in 2021 but Kaita says it’s set to grow. “As well as Herenga Libraries and Learning Services, runs which to flourish. our three streams at the City Campus, we are each semester. Kaita Sem is a team leader “My research interests stem from a fascination launching new streams in partnership with working in Te Tumu Herenga. He was employed with the way our planet has been partitioned MAPAS in Grafton, for FMHS students, and at our in 2020 to run Leadership Through Learning, by borders and how this fundamentally affects Tai Tonga and Tai Tokerau campuses.” after completing his MA in Politics and working the way society is organised. With parents as ■ Find out more: library.auckland.ac.nz/services/ as a policy professional in Wellington. academics, I have been fortunate to see how this student-learning/leadership-through-learning or “I’m responsible for guiding our learning plays out in Europe, in the Pacific and here in contact Kaita on [email protected] support services for Māori and Pacific students, including the Leadership Through Learning programme. Having done it myself, I know first- hand the dedication and commitment required Kaita Sem runs the Leadership to succeed at the University. Through Learning programme for “This programme has a special kaupapa Māori and Pacific students. in that all teaching staff must have also first Photo: Billy Wong completed it, which I did as a student.” The programme builds leadership skills beginning with whakawhanaungatanga and reflection, where students identify personal values and aspirations before confronting self- doubt and vulnerability. “I recognised these challenges during my education. The programme really struck home for me and provided the missing pieces because
auckland.ac.nz/UniNews 5 FEATURE
MAKING THE FACTS CRYSTAL CLEAR ABOUT GOUT Professor Nicola Dalbeth is a respected gout specialist and researcher. She says it’s a disease with much misinformation about its causes.
A Dual Energy CT scan, showing uric acid crystals, Professor Nicola Dalbeth says it’s an in green, building up around the toe joints. exciting time to be a rheumatologist. “The really big breakthroughs in rheumatology have been in the past 20 years, particularly in autoimmune inflammatory arthritis like men and one third of older Pacific men in New Around 80 percent of gout is controlled by rheumatoid arthritis. The treatments that we have Zealand. medication, and less than 20 percent of control is now compared to in the late 1990s are incredible Gout occurs when there are high uric acid influenced by diet and exercise. – in fact, I think we’ve lived through medical levels in the blood which leads to crystals forming “We’ve published data looking at the effects history. in the joints, usually at the extremities such as of weight loss and various dietary interventions. “It was an exciting time to train and see these the feet. None of these interventions led to major therapies developed at around the time I was Nicola says medical conditions such as kidney reductions in uric acid to an acceptable level. going into practice.” disease and heart disease can contribute to gout. I’m not saying it’s not important to try to live a Nicola works as a Professor of Medicine at “If your kidneys hold on to excess uric acid, healthy life, but excessive focus on diet as the the University of Auckland and as a specialist that leads to an increase in uric acid levels. This major strategy for gout management is wrong.” rheumatologist at the Auckland District Health can also happen if you’re on certain medicines for Nicola says it’s important to understand there’s Board. She is also President of the New Zealand heart problems.” no shame around the condition and that effective Rheumatology Association. Nicola, who became a professor in 2015, treatment is available. The main drug used is Internationally renowned for research into has spent many years since her return to New called allopurinol, which reduces the uric acid gout, a form of arthritis, Nicola won the Gluckman Zealand researching the causes, impact and and helps dissolve the crystals in the joints. Medal in April for her distinguished contribution treatment of gout on people with the condition. Once a person has had a couple of gout to research on the disease. Her research in both “There are perceptions and beliefs about gout attacks, better results are achieved long-term if pharmacological and non-pharmacological that it is, for example, the ‘disease of kings’. they get treatment early. treatments has been incorporated into international gout management guidelines. Her interest in gout came while she was “Gout is not hilarious. It’s incredibly painful. It has a huge completing rheumatology training in Rotorua, Auckland and Middlemore, and then went on a impact on people’s quality of life.” – Professor Nicola Dalbeth fellowship to the UK, to do postgraduate research and training. “For some reason people think gout is really “But what we often see is people not getting “I noticed during my fellowship that there were hilarious. But the disease can have a huge impact access to treatment until really late, and also not very different presentations of gout that we were on people’s livelihood, on their quality of life, on getting support and understanding, which is the treating in the UK, compared to New Zealand. their whole family and community. role of the healthcare system. In New Zealand, we saw people who were badly “The fact is, it’s not usually because someone “What we’ve also seen in New Zealand is major affected and disabled by severe gout. It was is drinking or eating the wrong things. These are inequities around access to regular and effective totally different.” old-fashioned views about the disease which long-term therapies. We know that Māori and She returned to New Zealand in 2005 are really unhelpful. And these beliefs lead to Pacific peoples are much more likely to have gout. determined to help. embarrassment and stigma. Yet these groups are least likely to get regular “I wanted to make an impact by improving gout “I want people, including healthcare allopurinol, which is safe and the best treatment.” management.” professionals, to think about their assumptions “In my experience, when the underlying cause There are 41 million people around the world about gout. Because it’s not hilarious. It’s of gout is explained to people and they’re told with gout, and in New Zealand the prevalence is incredibly painful. It has a huge impact on there is effective long-term treatment, most one in 20. It affects one quarter of older Māori people’s quality of life.” people are very willing to take it.”
6 UNINEWS Professor Nicola Dalbeth says only around 20 percent of gout control comes through diet and exercise. Photo: Elise Manahan
She says issues can also arise once the treatment is prescribed. People get three months’ “It’s not usually because someone is drinking or eating the worth but may not continue it. “There’s something about the way our wrong things. These are old-fashioned views about gout that healthcare system works, which means that when are really unhelpful and lead to embarrassment and stigma.” people have an interaction with a healthcare – Nicola Dalbeth, Professor of Medicine and specialist rheumatologist provider, they’re given therapy but there’s not necessarily support to help people keep taking the medication regularly.” summer students every year here at Auckland. If they then get an action plan in place with Nicola says she sees this with other drugs too, Some of these students have now become treatment, they know what to do when they get including medications for autoimmune diseases rheumatologists so it’s an amazing opportunity an attack.” like rheumatoid arthritis. for students to get exposure to fields that they Most gout is managed by GPs but Nicola says “There’s been some interesting initiatives wouldn’t otherwise, as well as research training. there are a lot of interesting new models of care, looking at strategies to support patients in New As a student, that was a really important step for with nurse educators, as well as community Zealand … actually regular checking-in saying, me becoming a rheumatologist and researcher.” health workers and pharmacists. ‘let’s get your blood test’ or ‘do you need another Nicola was born in Kaeo, Northland, but “Gout is ultimately a chronic disease but we prescription?’, that sort of reinforcement. grew up and went to school in Rotorua. After often view it as a disease that can be managed “Allopurinol works by helping the body clear graduating from Otago Medical School, she acutely. I think what’s needed is a shift in our the crystals over time, but it can take a number of went back to Rotorua for a year, and worked understanding about gout as a chronic condition years to achieve this clearance.” at Queen Elizabeth Hospital which was the old and the imaging studies have been really Nicola likes to show patients the crystals in rheumatology hospital. She completed internal important to help us visualise the disease in a way their joints using ultrasound or dual energy CT medicine and rheumatology training in Auckland. we haven’t been able to. scanning to explain that, even if they’re not having She says there are huge social and economic “Some of the research we’ve done has been an attack, the crystals are there, ready to pounce. costs to gout. looking at how showing people medical images “Dual energy CT has also been very useful “We have the highest rate of gout in the world. helps them understand their illness better – it’s a because it has helped us to understand the best It’s not just about the disease itself but the powerful educational tool.” strategies to prevent and treat joint damage. severity and impact. When it’s affecting men in Her focus is on better outcomes for New Some of our recent trials have demonstrated that their 20s and 30s, they’re having time off work, Zealanders with gout and she says there is getting the uric acid level down and treating those they can’t do sport or play with their kids. increasing recognition by the Ministry of Health crystals can prevent progression of joint damage.” “If crystals form around their joints from that and Pharmac that gout is an important issue for Nicola has published more than 400 research time and are untreated, then they’ll have severe health equity. papers, working collaboratively with international joint damage into their 40s and 50s. This damage “There’s been some amazing work in the past or local researchers. is preventable”. few years looking at different models of care to “As a medical student in Dunedin years ago, Nicola says there are rarely warning signs of improve the quality of gout management. I think I did a summer studentship with an academic developing gout. we should be doing much more of that.” rheumatologist called Professor John Highton, “Mostly it’s just ‘bang’, a sudden onset of really who has now retired. That’s where I got interested severe joint pain. People will remember their first in rheumatology. Now I have one or two attack because it’s so dramatic and unpleasant. ■ Denise Montgomery
auckland.ac.nz/UniNews 7 FEATURE
“It should be a combined effort, a coalition of be shot’. But he took more risks than me. I could THE DARK SIDE academics, NGO workers, international human always leave the country. He was actually working rights advocates, and media. One of my students as a government official, and his own government OF TOURISM alerted me to a huge tourism development project didn’t know that he was doing this critical work.” in Indonesia on Lombok Island. Indigenous people There are even risks involved with putting your As parts of the world open up to are being driven off their land, violently, losing their name on academic research if you are from a livelihoods, all for this kind of ‘public good’.” country like Cambodia. At a conference in Chiang tourists, Professor Andreas Neef He says places that do tourism development Mai, a colleague of Andreas noticed someone in says it’s time to stop and think. well are where Indigenous land rights are the audience they believed could be a government respected and there is oversight as to where the spy, so the researcher requested to have his name Andreas Neef admits that sometimes he may money goes. He says Fiji usually has a good model taken off the presentation. depress his students. for development because there’s a native land trust Recently at the Asia Europe People’s Forum, “But at the end of the course, I pick them up that oversees leases to resorts and the money goes where Andreas gave a keynote speech, there was a again and say, ‘Well, I told you all this bad stuff to communities in some form. speaker who presented cases from Bangladesh on that’s happening around the world, but you can Andreas first encountered land grabbing in land-grabbing in the context of tourism. make a difference’.” Cambodia in 2008. “A poor farming community “She said she would have liked to have the Andreas is Professor of Development Studies, was waiting for land to be allocated to them that presentation done by an Indigenous person who a postgraduate programme in the Faculty of Arts. they’d been promised by the government through was displaced by the project but it was just too His research includes climate-change adaptation a German development project. dangerous for them to do it. and community resilience, climate-induced “But the little land they already had before “I admire people who report on those cases migration, displacement caused by tourism, and the project’s arrival was then taken away by the either as journalists or human rights advocates. land grabbing. government and given to a Vietnamese investor. “The Indonesian government, for example, “The research can be quite depressing and also The people ended up being given infertile, dry, is democratically elected, but they have this quite emotional,” the German-born professor says. barren land, after being told to ‘settle there and the utilitarian idea that they can sacrifice a few Andreas has been in New Zealand for almost eight Germans will take care of you’. Indigenous people for tourism development. If years, arriving from Kyoto University. “You could see the desperation in people’s there is money to be made in a post-Covid tourism “While I was in Japan, I had an opportunity to eyes because of being world, they want it.” visit Fiji several times to do fieldwork. I guess that robbed completely of He says it’s was a bit of an entry card to New Zealand because I their land.” disappointing that the had already done research in the Pacific.” Andreas says the “Tourism can be violent, Covid-19 lockdowns He’s well aware, having travelled to many German development extractive and exploitative.” haven’t triggered a countries over the course of his career, that he is agency had tried to do rethink on whether the in a position of privilege. “We have a passport that the right thing but had – Professor Andreas Neef, Development world has gone too gives us access to nearly all the places we want to acted naively, given the Studies, Faculty of Arts far with mass tourism. go. But if you have a passport from Afghanistan, political corruption in “If we could do slow you can travel to fewer than ten countries without Cambodia. “They didn’t realise the Cambodian tourism, and equitable tourism, then we’d be a visa. It takes forever to get a visa to a Western government was using them. The government sells turning this crisis into an opportunity.” country and costs an insane amount of money. these lands to local elites in the capital Phnom After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Andreas “Mobility injustice is ingrained in our global Penh or to international investors.” did research in Thailand on the sea-faring people system. It’s just luck where you are born and Andreas also encountered another case in badly affected by the destructive waves. therefore how mobile you can be.” Cambodia, a large Chinese tourism project. “These people lost their homes and some lost Andreas’s new book, Tourism, Land Grabs and “A developer wanted to construct a huge resort. their lives as well. When they were being moved Displacement: The Darker Side of the Feel-Good People were driven 20 kilometres inland from the to temporary shelters, the local government had Industry, covers this concept as well as an evolving coast where they’d lived, into a forested area in already started selling off their land to tourism field known as “violent tourism geographies”. the middle of a national park where you shouldn’t investors. They were like vultures.” Andreas says tourism is framed as a feel-good grow crops. Previously, as fishers, rice farmers and He says travellers should research holiday industry and many people don’t consider the cashew nut growers, they made a decent income. destinations to ensure locals are not being unfairly darker side, such as land grabbing, when they’re When they were moved inland, the government treated. “Tourism can be violent, it’s extractive and booking that getaway. didn’t even bother allocating them land.” it’s exploitative in many ways. I’m challenging this A recent case of land grabbing resulting Andreas first became interested in what was idea of tourism as the feel-good industry.” from tourism development in the Pacific was happening in Cambodia through one of his Mining is another industry ousting people from highlighted by journalists Melanie Reid and Mark students at Chiang Mai University in Thailand. their homes and land. Jennings from Newsroom. The pair went to Fiji “I was overseeing a large project working with “We’re looking into a case in the north-western to question developers Freesoul Real Estate over ethnic minority groups in the mountainous regions corner of Viti Levu in Fiji, where there is a large the environmental destruction on Malolo Island, of Southeast Asia. I was on the committee of a Australian-Chinese company doing iron-sand Fiji. The company was building a 350-bure resort Cambodian student who did his masters on one of mining in the Ba River Delta. without the requisite permits. Eventually Freesoul these cases. I went with the student to do follow- “The company did a quite murky environmental had its project approval revoked by the High Court. up research and we discovered two more cases.” impact assessment study, then a provincial officer Andreas says along with the media, academic He says the student’s research was incredibly went to the community at night and asked three researchers have a key role to play in raising risky. “It was risky for both of us. At one point chiefs to sign a document by thumbprint. They awareness of land grabbing. we were told, ‘Don’t go to that area, you might woke to find their fishing rights in the area gone.
8 UNINEWS “If we could do slow tourism and equitable tourism, we’d be turning this crisis into an opportunity.” – Professor Andreas Neef
Andreas Neef says the term ‘developed’ implies we are already there. Photo: Elise Manahan
“The company promised them a one-off huge plantations. But this is totally wrong. Those “Also, we still use fossil fuels and cause high compensation for the 20 years it would take to small farmers are efficient and productive. They’re emissions per capita. The people who suffer most extract iron sand. They claimed it would be non- not just feeding their families, they feed their are the people in the poorest countries, some of intrusive, that they would just use magnets to get communities and contribute to exports as well. which might not exist in 20 years, such as Kiribati the iron out and the Delta sand would be pumped “It’s a narrative trying to win over public opinion and Tuvalu. When these people want to come to back in. But these turbulences affect fish, shellfish and pretend that small-scale farming is not viable. New Zealand, we make them go through our court and crabs. Women in the area make good money It’s like the idea that community-based tourism system and then reject them as climate refugees!” catching crabs and collecting shellfish. Now those has no future; that we need mass tourism, in big He says some of his most-cited articles in livelihoods are at risk.” numbers, for economic growth. That’s wrong too.” journals are on the subject of land grabbing and The company also promised jobs, but recently Andreas says because capitalism is so pervasive development-induced displacement. The research laid off more than 100 workers. “Fijian academics in all spheres of life, it’s hard to challenge the falls under several Sustainable Development are looking into this situation and will hopefully system. He says the Development Studies Goals (SDGs), most obviously about reducing publish papers to make it more widely known. RNZ programme encourages students to look critically inequalities. He applauds the University’s improved has also just reported on the Ba River case.” at development that affects the four or five billion focus on sustainability, but does have an issue with Andreas did his PhD in West Africa on customary people who are still in poverty. the term ‘sustainable development’. land rights. “I was interested in how people have an “Most people live in the so-called developing “It has become a buzzword that has lost its attachment to land, how land rights are allocated countries or what we now call the Global South.” meaning. The concept has been appropriated in a customary way and what happens when The term ‘Global South’ arose in opposition to by many different actors, such as multi-national external forces come in to change those rights.” ‘Third World’. “Third World is a bit condescending. corporations signing up to the SDGs. In Niger, a Taiwanese development project came There’s only one world. Also ‘developing’ versus “I would try to find an alternative term … into an area where women had previously grown ‘developed’ implies the developed countries are something like ‘inclusive development’. By rice. The rice created a good income because it already there. ‘Developing countries’ have to catch inclusive, I mean genuinely inclusive. Inclusive was sold for ceremonial purposes but was back- up … which is condescending and patronising.” of Indigenous worldviews, inclusive of different breaking work. The Taiwanese project created He says the ‘developed’ world, with its reliance cultural perspectives on development, and rectangular plots with irrigation channels to make on fossil fuels and carbon-intensive lifestyle, could inclusive of environmental issues.” the work easier, then distributed land titles. learn a thing or two from Indigenous people who It’s an issue that’s as important in New Zealand “Problem was, it was the men not the women don’t use up resources in the same way. as it is all over the world. who got the land titles. In this part of Africa, men ‘Developed’ economies also benefit from ■ Denise Montgomery and women are quite distinct in their management exploitation. “When we buy a bag of mixed nuts, of money. Women have their own separate budget we don’t know whether child or slave labour was so it’s like a separated household economy. But involved. In New Zealand we have a label, ‘made Tourism, Land Grabs women were removed from that income stream.” from local and imported ingredients’, which means and Displacement: He says cases like this interest him because we don’t care where it comes from.” The Darker Side of the of the discourse about “improved” forms of Andreas says everyone can make a difference by Feel-Good Industry agriculture being the only way. questioning their consumption patterns. Andreas Neef (Routledge) “The discourse is that it’s all for public benefit, “Everything has an impact somewhere. Just as it’s for feeding the world. That farmers can’t grow where we travel has an impact, so does what we crops efficiently in small farms and you need eat and what we throw away.
auckland.ac.nz/UniNews 9 ART & CULTURE
Alys Longley created new ways to collaborate in a pandemic. Right: A map from the digital project, and an artistic envelope.
In the virtual exhibition, you enter a digital world months later. When it did, it felt like a miracle!” CREATIVE WAYS TO of maps and art and see your image along with Each artist photographs the envelope when it whoever else is in that part of the virtual world. If arrives and again before they send it, as well as FILL A VACUUM you move your cursor towards someone you can when they put it in the postbox. “We have all of Associate Professor Alys Longley didn’t talk to them. If you move away, they can’t hear this video documentation. It’s about asserting that let a little pandemic get in the way of you, much like if you were in an art gallery and art is an essential service in times of emergency.” collaborative global arts projects. chatting to people in different parts of the gallery. Since the first iteration, they’ve created On each screen, you can enter a portal that takes 14 envelopes that have reached 50 artists across We can all look fondly back on a few things you somewhere else in the world where you see all continents. from lockdown 2020. The slower life, the another artwork or map or hear sound effects, As well as the envelopes and the digital maps, peace and the creative output. music or poetry in different languages. Alys devised another project in which cardboard Even people who didn’t consider themselves “It’s about what I’d call sociality, bringing people and scores were sent to dancers to perform in creative found themselves knitting, painting, together from all over the world because we’d their communities, and then video. Parts of all playing music, creating Tik Tok videos and been left in a painful vacuum,” says Alys. “Online three projects are being collated on the digital site performing other such endeavours. we could move around fluidly, talking to all the Beberemos El Vino Nuevo, Juntos! (Let Us Drink For people who ‘do creativity’ for a living, artists or just being there. This artwork is unique.” the New Wine, Together) and planned for a major like Associate Professor Alys Longley from the When you accidentally fall into a portal and find exhibition through BienalSur – the South Biennial Dance Studies Programme in Creative Arts and no one in that room, technology again steps in. (bienalsur.org/en). Industries, lockdown forced them to think outside “We used WhatsApp to reconnect … asking Alys has a long-held affinity with Chile. the square if they wanted to collaborate with other people what room they were in. This is like being in “I’ve always been interested in Chile because of artists. “Like everyone else, there were things that an exhibition where there are 20 rooms, and then Isabel Allende, Pablo Neruda and Nicanor Parra. I I loved, but also aspects that I just found incredibly we lose each other and find each other.” also loved Mexican poetry as a teenager. hard about the lockdown, as an interdisciplinary Alys and Máximo are regular collaborators, At 22, she travelled alone to Brazil and Chile for creative practitioner.” despite her lack of Spanish and his lack of English. a dance education conference. “I love the people, That’s when Alys’s thought processes stepped “We’re both very international in our practice. the language, the literature, the graffiti. up a level, leading to a series of global projects in So to suddenly not be able to connect was like “I worked in Santiago in 2018, and made work collaboration with international artist peers. having your arms tied behind your back. It was at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. For one, she worked with DotDot Studio, set up like, well, how can we continue?” In 2019, I was in Chile for the Movimento Sociale by film studies alumni and Alys’s former student The first step was the bespoke artwork – it was amazing to experience the waking up Kate Stevenson, and Kate’s partner Chris White. envelopes that formed the analogue project. of Chile where suddenly people just refused to “They’ve been doing digital game design and “My partner, Jeffrey Holdaway, is a compromise with the neoliberal state. It was really working in museum spaces that move between watercolourist, so the envelopes were beautiful intense and powerful to be there.” the in-person, exhibition and digital. Digital works and themselves an artwork. But they also paid “I love how political the Chilean people are. co-exist alongside the material creations.” tribute to an essential service in the postal worker They really think about the basics of life every day When lockdown happened, Alys and her who could have a little moment of something and they fight for dignity.” Chilean collaborator Máximo Corvalán-Pincheira different as they’re sorting the post. Alys – a creative writer, director, dancer, decided to develop a three-part project to “Each envelope goes to five artists from New choreographer and poet – says the lockdown connect with artists around the world. Zealand, for example, to Thailand. Thailand to projects helped fill the void she felt by not being in “We started with an analogue postal project Berlin. Berlin to St Petersburg. St Petersburg to a physical space with her dance students. and then a digital mapping project, which Montreal. Montreal to Santiago.” “I learned a lot about the values underpinning branched into a performance project with The artist writes their name on the envelope my teaching; how I can reach people, despite a choreographer Macarena Campbell-Parra. But once they receive it and crosses out the previous lack of physical presence.” our plan to show the work at the Museum of name. “Each artist had the responsibility to Her interdisciplinary strengths are reflected Contemporary Art in Chile got more precarious adapt the envelope to make it correct for their in her teaching and PhD supervision, including because of Covid-19, so we developed a digital postal system. In the first iteration, some of the students in mathematics and education, exhibition site with DotDot.” envelopes got lost and finally turned up five environment, arts and fine arts. Her students are
10 UNINEWS ART & CULTURE also culturally diverse. Along with Māori, Pacific and Pākehā, she has recently had students from BIG MOMENTS Colombia, UK, Taiwan, Iran, Austria and Brazil. Alys says what we’re taught early on influences AT THE how we feel about dance and movement, but she believes dance is a human right. ART GALLERY “If your heart is beating and your blood is flowing, you can be dancing. Any movement can From Our Beautiful Square is an exhibition be dancing … even tapping your toe.” at the University’s Gus Fisher Art Gallery Rhythm isn’t a prerequisite. “You can make your running until 4 September. breathing a dance if you want to! The works in the exhibition reflect on “We become conditioned, from when we’re the global lockdowns and foreground the Jeremy Leatinu’u: ‘Building monuments and young, that to do something we should be good at importance of contemplation and responses folding forts upon a slippery ocean and a moving sky’. doing it or have a certain body shape or a certain through paint, sculpture, sound and moving level of coordination. image. The exhibition includes major new “Part of my work here at the University is to site-responsive commissions by artist Jeremy at tinyurl.com/story-time-gus-fisher. There’s really question that, and say we all have the right Leatinu’u, a professional teaching fellow at Elam, also a Monoprinting for Kids workshop on 17 and to experience our bodies with joy, and to derive Salome Tanuvasa and Amy Jean Barnett. 24 July. Spaces are limited. joy from the experience of moving. Jeremy will be in the gallery on Saturdays Also at the Gallery, for Matariki, is Heperi Mita’s “If the University recognises creativity, I think fortnightly reconfiguring his work on 10 and documentary about his mother Merata Mita, it’s a better university. We’re making space for all 24 July, 7 and 21 August. Other artists on show How Mum Decolonised the Screen. Heperi will the different kinds of ways people think and know are Józef Robakowski (Poland), Hiraki Sawa take part in a Q and A on Saturday 10 July at 4pm. in the world. Intelligence isn’t just people wearing (Japan) and Lucy Gunning (UK). Register (free): tinyurl.com/gus-fisher-merata lab coats and writing books. It’s being able to On 10 July there’s story time in the Gallery ■ More details about Gus Fisher events at: express an idea in a unique way.” for children aged between two and six. Register gusfishergallery.auckland.ac.nz/events-2/ ■ Denise Montgomery
Pavilion is ‘resilient communities’, which is reflected BOOKS WOODEN IT BE NICE in Learning from Trees. It was designed to showcase After a year of uncertainty, the 17th the opportunities offered by the use of timber as Adventures of International Architecture Exhibition of a building material, especially in terms of carbon a Psychologist: La Biennale di Venezia in 2021 is open. sequestration and earthquake resistance. Reflections on What La Biennale di Venezia, or Architecture Biennale, Learning from Trees is a complex lattice-like Made Up the Mind is the leading and longest-running architectural 35-square-metre wooden structure that looks as Emeritus Professor of event in the world, and runs in alternate years if it has been woven. It is comprised of 436 ‘sticks’, Psychology Michael to the Art Biennale, with more than 60 countries 287 brackets and, if the sticks were lined up end- Corballis tells how participating. It is an invitation for architects to-end, 1.2 kilometres of timber. Crossing through the field of cognitive and designers to explore questions and possible the enclosure is a long seating bench made from psychology evolved, in solutions to respond to social and environmental digitally tooled kauri, rescued from a former Housing this biographical work pressures. Each pavilion is curated in response to New Zealand house and which highlights the featuring stories of prominent pyschologists, an overall theme, which in 2021 is ‘how will we live potential of salvaged and refurbished timber. including himself and his research into brain together?’. Learning from Trees draws on New Zealand’s asymmetry and the evolution of language. This year it features the installation Learning history of building with timber, both our colonial and Author: Michael Corballis, Routledge, $83 from Trees: Transforming Timber Culture in well as Pacific architectural provenance, which is Aotearoa from the School of Architecture and sometimes described as ‘stick architecture’. The Future is Planning. Unusually, the School was invited to The 17th edition of the La Biennale di Venezia runs Feminine: Capitalism exhibit in the Italian Pavilion, which is curated from 22 May to 21 November 2021. and the Masculine by Professor Alessandro Melis, a former staff – Margo White Disorder member at the School. The theme for the Italian ■ Full story: auckland.ac.nz/learning-from-trees Dr Ciara Cremin (Sociology) believes traits associated with masculinity, particularly those that suppress tenderness and compassion in favour of aggression and dominance, are harmful to ourselves but perfectly suited to the needs of capitalist society. Read the full story: auckland.ac.nz/ciara-book The installation features 436 sticks Author: Ciara Cremin, Bloomsbury, $50 forming a lattice. Photo: Mary Gaudin
auckland.ac.nz/UniNews 11 MĀRAMATANGA LET’S NOT HIDE OUR HISTORY
Clockwise from far left: Robert Bartholomew; Shack on Pukekohe Hill, housing three adults and three children; Pukekohe Hill housing for a family of at least six. (Photos from Robert Bartholomew says it’s time to educate the 1929 Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry into people about a dark chapter of Māori racial the Employment of Māori segregation because while history may not on Market Gardens.) The repeat itself, it speaks to the present. People’s Voice newspaper, 27 February 1952, exposing New Zealand secondary schools do an excellent segregation at the King’s job of teaching about civil rights in the US and Arms Hotel (Auckland South Africa, but are reluctant to address similar Libraries Heritage Collection). issues in our own backyard. I know. For ten years I taught NCEA Level One History and, like most of my colleagues, I taught about civil rights in the US and South Africa. From 1945 to 1952, the local school had segregated 29 were infants and children aged 14 and under. There has never been a better time to correct bathrooms and swimming pools. Six years later, little had changed. A reporter for this situation, with the new history curriculum Racial segregation also occurred in other the Auckland Star wrote that: “One grower had 15 being phased in next year. While it is important to pockets across the country. In Hamilton in 1960, families totalling 50 people working for him and be knowledgeable on global topics, it should not some shops refused to let Māori try on trousers. most of them lived in old manure sheds.” be at the cost of local history. It is time that the In Waitara and Kaitaia, there was segregation in Another family of 12 was crammed into a two- history New Zealand schools teach reflects Māori the local theatres. At Broadwood District High room shack and the deaths continued into the history. School in Northland, Māori students could not early 1960s. One event that has been neglected is the use the tennis courts at the same time as Pākehā. Any discussion of the challenges faced by Māori apartheid-like racial segregation in a number of Segregated toilets were the rule of the day in today must include an understanding of how we places, including South Auckland. It is a powerful Kaikohe, Tauranga and Kaitāia. In some places, got here. What transpired during the segregation story that reminds us of just how recent and there were separate maternity wards and, in period is an integral part of that story. n profound discrimination against Māori was. one Northland hospital, Māori patients were From 1925 to 1962, Māori in the South Auckland given enamel mugs, while the Pākehā received * Smith, Lesley (1985). Segregation and Housing in town of Pukekohe endured racism on a pervasive chinaware. In 1959, Diana Thomas of Tokoroa Pukekohe. Master’s thesis, Anthropology, University of scale. For example, most barbers refused to cut wrote that while visiting the Papakura Hotel with Auckland, p. 43. Māori hair, they were segregated at the cinema her Māori husband four years earlier, they were ** Interview with Auckland Police Inspector F. Taylor and most bars would not serve them alcohol. In told: “Māoris are not served here.” who addressed a meeting of the Licensing Control the 1950s, the exceptional barber who would cut She also recalled that while driving across the Commission, April 1957. “Banned from Bar, Māori Māori hair had a special Māori-only chair for fear North Island, they “encountered many hotels Women Drink Outside.” The New Zealand Truth, 16 of offending Pākehā customers. In an interview where ‘Māoris’ were not admitted either to drink, April 1957, p. 19. Also referred to in Confidential – Race with University of Auckland researcher Lesley dine or stay overnight”. Relations in New Zealand, special report compiled by Smith for a 1985 thesis, one Māori elder said: “Even In Pukekohe, there was an unwritten rule not to Department of Maori Affairs, Wellington, May 1961, p. 12. if there was six of us waiting and no one in the rent to Māori, forcing them to live at the market Pākehā chairs and the other barber doing nothing, gardens on the outskirts of town in converted ■ Dr Robert Bartholomew we still had to wait our turn for the Māori chair.” * manure sheds, dilapidated shacks, lean-tos, and is an honorary In the late 1950s, one establishment forced tents with no running water or indoor plumbing. ** senior lecturer in Māori women to sit in a field while alcohol was This tragic saga occurred for many on what had the Department of carried to them. Māori were often relegated to the once been their ancestral lands and created a Psychological Medicine. back of the bus, and if the route from Pukekohe perfect storm for the spread of disease. From 1925 His books include No to Auckland was full and a Pākehā passenger to 1961, 73 percent of all Māori deaths in Pukekohe Māori Allowed (2020) boarded, the Māori passenger was forced to stand. were infants and children who succumbed to and We Don’t Serve At one point, milk bars banned Māori altogether. a host of preventable conditions tied to poor Māori Here (2021). A 1937 government report noted that not a single housing and malnutrition. Measles, diphtheria, business in town let Māori use their public toilets whooping cough and tuberculosis were the main The views in this article reflect personal opinion and are – a practice that persisted into the early 1950s. culprits. In 1938 alone, 30 deaths were recorded; not necessarily those of the University of Auckland.