Turning Taupo green
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Spinoff
7 minutes ago
- The Spinoff
Pacific profiles: Pioneering health practitioner Aseta Redican
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Aseta Redican. All photos by Geoffery Matautia. Aseta Redican (ONZM) was the first Pacific person to become a New Zealand-qualified physiotherapist and went on to pioneer significant initiatives for Pacific peoples in the health sector, including being the first General Manager of Pacific Health for the Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) from 2001 until her retirement in 2009. Aseta, now in her eighties, is a proud great-grandparent who remains active and involved in her community. Please introduce yourself. My name is Aseta Redican. I was born in Samoa, and I'm one of 11 siblings. My father's name is Okesene which means oxygen because he was a breath of life for his community. My siblings' names are Karaponi (carbon), Naitorosene (nitrogen), Osone (ozone), Okesaita (oxide), Aseta (acid), Kuripitone (krypton), Sioutu (CO2 or carbon dioxide), Alakalini (alkaline), Atimosefia (atmosphere) and Neone (neon). I came to New Zealand in 1956 when I was just 14. I got a scholarship through the Samoan government along with a handful of other students. We left in January on Teal Airline and cried on the plane all the way to Auckland. We were all so overwhelmed! Early the next morning, another girl and I were dispatched to a boarding school in Stratford, Taranaki. Went down via train and cried all the way! We hardly spoke any English, and we weren't allowed to speak Samoan. I remember that everyone spoke so fast. Our teachers used to say, 'Why are these girls so slow?' but they didn't realise we were trying to interpret it all in real time. It was hard. We weren't allowed to go home to Samoa during the break, and we couldn't spend the holidays with any family in New Zealand. We had to go wherever they sent us. The only way to keep up the [Samoan] language was by writing letters. Were you interested in sports at school? I loved sports in Samoa, and I found that was the one thing I was good at here. I dedicated my time to sports. My schoolwork wasn't doing well, but I was in all the teams – tennis, basketball, hockey. Playing sports helped me gain confidence. What sparked your interest in pursuing physiotherapy? I can only assume it wasn't that mainstream back in the 1960s. As I came to New Zealand on a scholarship, the Samoan government had to approve what work we could pursue once we left school. They wanted us to become doctors, lawyers, accountants and teachers, but none of that was for me. I wanted to be in health because I saw my parents do that, but I didn't want to be a doctor or nurse. I asked if I could be a physical education teacher, and the Samoan government refused. I only discovered physiotherapy because a notice went up at the school that our former head girl had topped a physio course. I remembered her being a great sportswoman and that's when I decided to find out what physiotherapy was. It combined my two loves, sports and health. Physiotherapy had been around for some time, but it was definitely new for us as Pacific peoples. Tell me what it was like to study in Dunedin at the time. It was difficult. Everything was strange. You were on your own, and I always felt that everyone there was so much smarter than me. I was surrounded by all these farmers' daughters, lawyers' daughters and so on. There were no other Pacific Island students in my course, and only three non-Pākehā students. What happened once you graduated? When I graduated, I spent a year in Auckland Hospital, then I returned to Samoa. I thought I was going into a physio department but that didn't exist. No one was sure what to do with me. I didn't want to just be wandering around, so I got to work on creating my own space. I became friends with the matron, and she helped me find a room and team up with two ladies who had worked in the physiotherapy department in Hawaii. Together, we got ourselves some equipment and put systems in place. The problem was that everyone who came into the hospital was sent to me. You have to remember there were no GPs in the islands. If you fell sick, you went to the hospital. I had to put my foot down and say my department is not a dumping ground! So, I set up a referral system like we have in New Zealand. I got some kick back from the clinicians, but little by little they came round once they realised it was a good way of doing things. You were awarded an Order of the New Zealand Merit for your services to Pacific peoples and healthcare in 2020. Could you tell me about some of the initiatives and roles you helped spearhead? I worked at the National Women's Hospital in the antenatal unit, then at Cornwall Hospital, and then I set up my practice within a private hospital. In these spaces, I saw some of the wider issues affecting our Pacific peoples in the healthcare system. I'd often get asked why Pacific people would overrun our emergency departments, and I had to explain that in Samoa, and I'm sure in other islands, families didn't have GPs. I also saw that departments were getting our cleaners and orderlies to act as interpreters for Pacific patients. I took these issues to a Pasifika organisation to get them to follow through to get interpreting services in our hospitals. Physiotherapy allowed me to know how to navigate the system, and I wanted my community to know how to do that. I changed my focus from treating an individual to working with communities. Fortuitously, a role at the Heart Foundation came up to lead the Pacific Island Heartbeat programme. I got the role, and my team and I engaged with our community to talk to them about heart health, exercise and diet. Later on, there was another major healthcare restructuring, and I became the first General Manager of Pacific Health for the Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) when hospital boards were dismantled. I saw this as an opportunity to establish more Pacific providers in our healthcare system so that we could be in the driver's seat. We ran courses for people to come along and learn how to become a provider. Within that, we helped set up groups such as South Seas Healthcare, Fono Health, the Tongan Health Society and the Pacific Medical Association. I didn't want our people to be left behind. What's funny, though, is how much things still hadn't changed. When I got that role in 2001, I remember being in a senior management meeting and people asked why we needed a general manager for Pacific Health! You retired in 2009, but are you still involved in the healthcare space? Also, how do you like to keep active? I love walking, and I like to get out into the garden. I now have two great-grandchildren who keep me active because they're always running around. Having my family around helps a great deal. I'm still involved with the Pacific Physiotherapy Association, and I've been assisting them with their organisational strategy, building their visibility, and getting them a website so more people know about the work they do. It's given me a new lease of life and I thank the Lord for bringing me back to where I started. *After the interview, Aseta's granddaughter told me that their family is doing a step challenge and that Aseta regularly gets in more steps than anyone else. This is Public Interest Journalism funded by NZ On Air.
RNZ News
16 hours ago
- RNZ News
Navy enlisted in Zealandia lake survey effort
The survey is like mowing a lawn, traversing back and forth mapping the lakebed below. Photo: Kate Green / RNZ The Navy has descended on a Wellington eco-sanctuary - but it's not to prevent an invasion, pests or otherwise. Rather it is conducting a survey of the Zealandia lake, good practice for the crew and useful information for the sanctuary. Zealandia chief financial officer John Diggins watched on while the Navy crew set up their black, inflatable Zodiac with surveying equipment on Wednesday morning. "It's really exciting," he said. "It actually shows us how the lake sits underneath, you can see the old creak that runs through, the original creak from before the dam was actually built, and just shows us any submerged logs. "There's also potentially a little goldmine down there, a little goldmine shaft that they saw on the last survey." The Navy crew sets up their surveying equipment aboard the Zodiac on Wednesday morning. Photo: Kate Green / RNZ That survey was done in 2018, and since then, technology had advanced and would hopefully give them a better look. The results would make it safer to navigate Zealandia's electric boat, Ara Kawau, around the man-made lake, Diggins said. "It's a really cool trip, and it's just really good to know if there are submerged logs that are hazards for the boat so we can just stay away from them." The Navy crew would be on deck for the next couple of days, and Diggins hoped they might get time to map the Upper Dam as well, which had never been surveyed before. Chief petty officer Julie O'Hara of HMNZS Matataua and the Navy's search, survey and recovery team. Photo: Kate Green / RNZ Chief Petty Officer Julie O'Hara of HMNZS Matataua and the Navy's search, survey and recovery team explained the portable multi-beam surveying system could see down to depths of 300 metres - but she was not expecting anything deeper than 15 metres. Three crew members set out across the lake in the Zodiac just after 10am. The boat would traverse back and forth across the lake, mapping the floor below. "It's kind of like mowing the lawns," O'Hara explained. The end product would come in the form of a map, with different colours representing different depths, which Zealandia could use to steer clear of shallows and obstacles - and it could be ready as soon as Friday. Zealandia's chief financial officer John Diggins watches on, as the Navy crew sets up the boat for the lake survey. Photo: Kate Green / RNZ As well as being useful for Zealandia, O'Hara said it was good training. "We had a bit of an operational pause at the start of the year from the Manawanui sinking [in October 2024], so we came together as a trade and looked at how we can improve." "A lot of training, getting back into it, and then doing this training exercise here to really consolidate it." Zealandia's electric boat, Ara Kawau. Photo: Kate Green / RNZ The team carried out a huge variety of work - uncovering landmines, recovering vehicles, searching for missing people and surveying sea floors. "We never know where we're going to deploy in the world, and what's asked of us, so by doing different lakes it really gives us the training that we need to move from normally working salt water, to working in fresh water." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
20 hours ago
- RNZ News
Rotorua sleeping pods for homeless no longer being used
life and society housing 20 minutes ago The maker of sleeping pods being used to house some of the homeless in Rotorua has said it is disheartening to see the project just tossed to the side. Julie King of Love Soup came up with the idea to use some of Tuff Roto-Moulders' pods - which are insulated, lockable and traditionally used for camping to create her Village of Hope. Rotorua has been grappling with a large homeless population in recent years, and the project's aim was to keep people safe through a community-based solution. Issues with council and land have forced an end to the project. Maker of the pods, Hilton McLachlan spoke to Lisa Owen.
