Country star claims racism rife at festival
The 50th anniversary of the MLT Gold Guitar Awards held in Gore two weeks ago had the town packed with country music fans.
But last year's winner Amy Maynard was left singing the blues, after what she called the worst festival experience of her life.
The Māori musician told the Otago Daily Times she noticed multiple incidents of being treated differently than her partner, who is white, and between her sons who have different complexions, as well as reactions to te reo Māori.
"It's the eye rolls you see when people start using Māori on stage, people looking and projecting their anger and frustration just at me, not my partner.
"Security would go to my middle kid, who is of a darker complexion, and not my eldest, just the discrepancy between the two," she said.
Ms Maynard said she was not alone in these thoughts and said many people shared similar sentiments about their experiences in Southland.
"I have had multiple people reaching out to me [various sound engineers, musicians, wonderful people], who have all in some way been affected, either micro or macro, aggressively from people down south," she said.
"Being in Gore this year and out of my stage attire, I must have presented a very different picture to the general public.
"As a result, they treated me as such," she said.
Ms Maynard said she was warned to avoid speaking te reo Māori or face an immediate disqualification, which she disregarded when winning last year.
She said although there was positive movement with more te reo spoken and sung in the event, inclusivity had not been wholeheartedly embraced.
MLT Gold Guitar Awards convener Phillip Geary said the event had a zero tolerance policy for racism of any kind.
"We always aim to create a safe and inclusive space at our event and we were deeply disheartened and disappointed to hear of Amy's experience," he said.
Mr Geary denied there were any disqualifications for speaking te reo, as the language has always been encouraged and welcome on their stage.
"Māori have always had a home in country music in New Zealand, and te reo has always featured in the Gold Guitar finals, right through the 50 years," he said.
Advice would be sought from Soundcheck Aotearoa, a music industry group dedicated to safety and inclusivity, to help address potential issues, he said.
Mr Geary said they were taking Ms Maynard's grievances and the issues raised very seriously.
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Otago Daily Times
2 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
The Big Show: Remembering Dunedin's 1925 exhibition
It was a blockbuster show with a cast of thousands and crowds of millions. Paul Gorman looks back 100 years to the New Zealand International South Seas Exhibition. It was a "perfect summer's day, with cloudless skies and blazing sunshine" for the official opening of Dunedin's biggest-ever event — which would in time be visited by the equivalent of almost three times the population of New Zealand. At midday on Tuesday November 17, 1925, the gates of the New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition of 1925-26 were unbolted and people began streaming in to the newly drained Logan Park. The Official Record of the exhibition could be forgiven for some hyperbole about the weather amidst all the excitement, but conditions were pretty much as it stated on that special day. The Otago Daily Times the following morning confirmed benign weather across the city on Tuesday: "Bright and fine. Fresh south-west wind. Max 67°F [19°C]." According to the Official Record, "an hour before the time fixed for the beginning of the ceremony [2.30pm], the greatest public assemblage ever seen in the history of Dunedin had already filled the Public Grand Stand and was rapidly occupying every vantage point in the enclosures". "The scene outside the Exhibition gates at about 2 o-clock was one not easily forgotten." The Times' editorial that morning put the exhibition in perspective, saying it would "signalise a very striking landmark in the history of the city of Dunedin, the Otago province and indeed the Dominion as a whole". "Not many people are alive today who remember the opening of the first Exhibition in King Street, though the building, happily devoted ever since to humanitarian purposes, still stands as a memorial of an enterprise which was very creditable in view of the fact that the Otago settlement was only in its eighteenth year at the time. "Memories of the second Exhibition are more vivid, though a large proportion of the prominent personages of 1889-90 are no longer with us, and the school children of that period have now reached middle-age. "The third Exhibition in Dunedin will naturally be on a much larger scale, symbolising the industrial, commercial, and social progress of three and a-half decades. "The external features of the city may not have changed during the last thirty-six years so much as they changed between 1864 and 1889, but there has been an enormous development of business activity and commercial life, which will be fully exemplified at Logan Park during the next few months." As the 100th anniversary ticks closer, the Southern Heritage Trust, volunteers and supporters are preparing to mark the exhibition's centenary with a series of events throughout October at the Ōtepoti Dunedin Heritage Festival. Festival co-ordinator Jonathan Cweorth says the occasion will also celebrate the 160th anniversary of the 1865 New Zealand Exhibition. Among the plans are science tours of the Logan Park site. "We hope to include some IT resources to bring it alive, because there's not much physically surviving there at the moment, and that could include things like a QR-code treasure hunt, where people can go around parts of the site and read information on what used to be there. "We're also working with the IT department at the [Otago] Polytech on some sort of virtual-reality experience in which people could go there and physically see, in virtual reality, what was there before." There will also be talks about the exhibition, including one from Heritage New Zealand adviser Alison Breese on what it took to build and develop the site, "an extraordinary feat of engineering and construction". "We will also look at the broader cultural impact of the exhibition. For instance, the artworks that were shown there then fed into the city's public art collection and also the collection at Olveston. And we'll be looking at how the funds from the trams helped to build the Town Hall." The demolition of most of the buildings at the end of the event was part of the culture of such exhibitions, Cweorth says. But where did all that wood go? According to a display board in Toitū, more than five million feet of New Zealand imported timber was used — "specifically 4,624,624 feet (1410km) of red pine and 751,170 feet (229km) of Douglas fir". "It would be interesting to know," he says. "No doubt it was reused, so there's probably a few houses around Dunedin that aren't aware that they're built out of the remnants of the exhibition." There were strong socioeconomic reason for the exhibitions. "We feel there's a relevance to the present day too, that this is a good time for Dunedin to be reminding itself of its strengths as a city, and to be using that commemoration of the great exhibition as a source of civic pride, both in the past and in the present." The 1925-26 exhibition was huge for Dunedin and huge for the entire country. Yet all that remains, apart from souvenirs, are the former Dunedin (Exhibition) Art Gallery brick building, Logan Park itself (drained from the lake of the same name to provide the grounds for the event), and part of the tennis pavilion believed to have been a slice of the exhibition's aquarium. The other structures, including the impressive Edmund Anscombe-designed domed Festival Hall which linked with his seven pavilions on the more than 6ha site, as well as the amusement park, have long since gone, dismantled after the exhibition's six-month run. Many families in Dunedin and around the country still have mementoes from the exhibition, especially engraved items or pieces of cut glass, bought as keepsakes. Dunedin author and publisher Brian Miller has a deep family connection to the 1925 event. He has written about it and given lectures on the Bazaar and Industrial Exhibition of 1862 and on all the city's three subsequent great exhibitions. The first, the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865, ran for five months, with about 800 exhibitors and a total attendance of close to 30,000 people. The 1889-90 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition also ran for five months. Its 300 imported artworks from Europe became the basis of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Total attendance was around 625,500. The 1925-26 exhibition attracted 3,200,498 visitors, many of whom would have had a season ticket, at a time when the population of New Zealand was about 1.25 million. "This was a huge undertaking, involving support from business, local authority, government and the community. It was an opportunity for Dunedin companies to show off their products to an international audience, and included numerous attractions, including a huge amusement park," he says. Miller's grandfather Oswald Miller was one of the exhibition's leading signwriters. "He grew up in a family of tradesmen. His father was a coachbuilder, of hansom cabs and cable cars, and his grandfather built houses. "In 1911, Oswald set up a signwriting business on his own. He was soon recognised as the highest quality signwriter in Dunedin — the saying in Dunedin was that 'Oswald set the standard'. "There is no official record of Oswald getting a contract for the Logan Park exhibition, but his reputation was such by then that it is 'assumed' by the family that he was the leading signwriter. He bought a house to live in a block away from Logan Park, but even set-up and lived in a tent inside Logan Park at times, so he was available at any time." After the exhibition, his grandfather built a new house in Dundas St, bought an American car and put up a crib at Brighton. "He also set up new premises in Rattray St — next to Robert Fraser, the first stained-glass artist in Australasia, who Oswald probably worked alongside at the exhibition. "Oswald's sons Roy and Ralph became involved in the business. It was certainly the leading signwriting business in Dunedin and remained that way until it folded during Covid." A lot of signwriters from those days died early due to the chemicals they had used and the lack of protective gear, Miller says. "Oswald got dementia in his 60s and died in Seacliff hospital, probably due to mixing white lead paint by hand every morning as a basis for the day's sign painting. There were no ready-made coloured paints — you had to mix in the colours every day you thought you would need." Miller heard his great uncles and aunts talking a lot about the exhibition and the family's links to it. His aunt, Doris Inglis, who died in April, had her first birthday on the day the exhibition opened. The three exhibitions all took place on the back of significant, wider socioeconomic events, he says. The 1865 event was organised in the flush of confidence following the 1861 gold rush, while the 1889-90 exhibition was held in an attempt to revitalise the city and region after the end of a long decline during the depression of the 1880s. By the mid-1920s, there was again a feeling that other cities were progressing faster than Dunedin, which was being left in the doldrums as a financial centre as business drifted further north. With a gobsmacking 20,000 people a day on average visiting the exhibition, Dunedin faced considerable logistical challenges, especially around transport and accommodation. Visitors from around the country travelled by rail to Dunedin, while those from overseas, notably Australia and Europe, arrived by ship. Well-to-do locals came by car, but most used trams on a new line running along Albany St right to the gates of the exhibition venue, Miller says. Anzac Ave was constructed especially for the exhibition, as the highway taking visitors directly from the Dunedin Railway Station to Logan Park. One of the remaining puzzles is where all the visitors stayed. "That's what nobody really seems to know. But it would be interesting to find out." In those days, the Otago Daily Times ran regular columns listing the names of all those who disembarked from ships and those who were "visitors to the city" staying in hotels (no privacy for people having secret liaisons back then). On opening day, the Times said guests at the Grand Hotel included prime minister the Hon J G Coates and Mrs Coates, Mr and Mrs Andrew Fleming from Gore, and Mr and Mrs Simpson from Melbourne. The Carlton Hotel had among its residents a Mr and Mrs le Patourel from Guernsey and Mr A J Tanner from Sydney. At the Excelsior Hotel was Mr H P Ritchie from Samoa, and Mr J W Calder and Mr W T Evans from Lincoln College, among others. Mr P W Truesdale from Vancouver was one guest staying at Wain's Hotel, while Mr L Pavletich of Hakataramea was one of five at the City Hotel. All good things come to an end. Unlike the sunny summery day which greeted crowds when the exhibition was opened, the closing ceremony on Saturday, May 1, 1926 took place amidst "steady rain and heavy skies", according to the Official Record. "It had been intended to hold the closing ceremony in the afternoon on the sports ground, and to have troops and city bands in attendance; but the well-arranged programme had to be modified. "The ceremony was held in the Festival Hall, which was packed to the doors within a few minutes of their opening ... outside in the Grand Court another huge crowd stood under their umbrellas around the rotunda, where 'loud speakers' broadcasted the speeches." The ODT of Monday reported that on that rather grey closing day, the city had a maximum temperature of just 46°F, about 8°C. The Times also published the attendance register for all 24 weeks of the exhibition. In the first week, 114,411 people visited and in the last week there were 265,357 who went through the gates. The largest attendance of 83,935 was on closing day, while the smallest of 9087 was on December 7, 1925. Among the many poignant words in Monday's paper was the lead story: "The end of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, 1925-26, has come at last. During the past five and a-half months the great enterprise has gained such a place in the lives of the people that many have come unconsciously to accept it as a permanent part of their existence. It was only a week ago that they suddenly awoke to the realisation that the inevitable end was at hand. Then they began to crowd down with renewed eagerness in their tens of thousands till the great climax was reached on Saturday. "If the weather for the opening of the Exhibition on November 17 was as propitious as it well could be, the conditions for the closing Saturday could hardly have been worse. Rain fell heavily the night before and all Saturday a steady drizzle saturated the air and turned the paths of Logan Park into chains of muddy pools. But what matter? The success of the Exhibition was long ago placed beyond any doubt, and no rain could deter the people from paying their last tribute to the great achievement in which they, too, have had their part." The passion carried on in the editorial: "The transformation of Logan Park into an environment worthy of its purpose has been in itself an object lesson. The New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition has been an event in the life of the Dominion. It has made history. That, as a landmark in the story of the country's progress, it should be made a stepping-stone to higher things is not more than should be reasonably expected." So, was the editorial right? What was the enduring legacy of the event? Jonathan Cweorth says the paper's assessment wasn't entirely misplaced. "The exhibition had a lasting physical and cultural impact, insofar as it left as a legacy Anzac Avenue, Logan Park, the city's first public art gallery building (and much of its collection), and funds to build the Town Hall," he says. "At the time, it was the biggest event in New Zealand history, and was regarded as a major cultural and financial success, retaining visitor interest until its very last days, which still drew record crowds. "If we think of the civic pride Dunedin currently gains from a major international act appearing at Forsyth Barr stadium, I'm going to hazard a guess that the exhibition had the morale-boosting effect of six months' worth of Ed Sheeran concerts."
Scoop
2 hours ago
- Scoop
TE WHATU STARDOME: A New Dawn For Tāmaki Makaurau's Planetarium
Press Release – Elephant Publicity It reflects a bold new direction for the observatory as it deepens its commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, honours its role as leaseholder on this sacred maunga, and shows how Indigenous knowledge and cosmological science can walk hand in hand to … At the first light of dawn on Monday 18 August, Auckland's Stardome unveiled its new name: Te Whatu Stardome, in a special ceremony held in partnership with mana whenua, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, on Maungakiekie. The renaming marks a major milestone in Stardome's five-year strategic journey to embrace biculturalism and embed mātauranga Māori into every part of its work. It reflects a bold new direction for the observatory as it deepens its commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, honours its role as leaseholder on this sacred maunga, and shows how Indigenous knowledge and cosmological science can walk hand in hand to educate and inspire. 'Te Whatu is more than a name — it's a commitment,' says Stardome Chief Executive, Kelly Bewley. 'It invites us to honour the knowledge systems that have long guided people across land and sea, and to create a space where Indigenous perspectives and scientific exploration sit side by side. This is about how we see the universe — and how we see each other.' Te Whatu links the concept of 'the eye' to the phases of the maramataka, the cycle of life death and renewal within the cosmos and on Earth, planetary orbit, and has physical connections to an aerial view looking down upon Maungakiekie, and the telescope dome on the roof of Stardome itself. The new visual identity and tohu were created by artist Graham Tipene (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Haua, Ngāti Manu), whose work across Tāmaki Makaurau is known for seamlessly weaving Māori values into the built environment. The design draws on the puhoro pattern, a motif that represents movement, water, and navigation. The symbolism of the puhoro acknowledges waka journeys guided by the stars and the twin harbours visible from the summit of Maungakiekie. Te Whatu Stardome is now one of only a handful of planetariums in the world to carry a name that reflects a meaningful and ongoing partnership with Indigenous knowledge systems. Other examples include the Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hawai'i, which means 'exploring new knowledge'; the Waasa Debaabing Observatory in Ontario, Canada, meaning 'seeing far'; and the Rapanui Planetarium on Easter Island, whose name translates to 'Eyes that Look to the Heavens'. From its home on Maungakiekie, Te Whatu Stardome stands proudly as a bicultural organisation delivering inspiring, relevant experiences that reflect many ways of knowing. Visitors will be invited to explore the cosmos through a variety of lenses – from the maramataka to modern astrophysics, from traditional navigation to cutting-edge telescope technology, creating connections between people, the planet, and the universe.
Newsroom
10 hours ago
- Newsroom
Authors call out Stanford's ‘racism'
Authors and key figures in New Zealand publishing have slammed government minister Erica Stanford's controversial decision to remove words in te reo Māori in new additions to a series of books used to teach five-year-olds to read. As reported by Radio New Zealand, a ministry document showed Stanford decided on the near-ban last October because she was worried five-year-olds would be confused by Māori words in the Education Ministry's Ready to Read Phonics Plus series. ReadingRoom reached out to 10 writers, publishers and booksellers for comment. Their response was not unanimous. Some were cautious in their replies, and some pointed to other, literacy-adjacent issues they felt were more important than the heat generated by an apparent culture war. But the majority felt plain disgusted. Catherine Chidgey has twice won the national fiction prize (The Wish Child in 2017, The Axeman's Carnival in 2023) and her latest novel The Book of Guilt has topped the number 1 position at the NielsenIQ BookScan bestseller chart for 14 weeks. She said, 'I'm appalled by Minister Stanford's decision to strip Māori words from children's books – a move cloaked in the spurious claim that it impedes English literacy, but reeking of racism and dragging us back to the 1950s. My own daughter has had no trouble reading and pronouncing both Māori and English in the same text, and this retrograde step is as needless as it is shameful.' Steph Matuku was a finalist at this week's New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults for her YA novel Migration, a dystopian space odyssey set 3,000 years into our possible future. She said, 'You know that cartoon with the pirate telling the mermaid not to play the thing because he doesn't like it? And she glares at him and says, 'I WILL FUCKING INCREASE THE FUCKING THING!' Yeah, well, I am increasing the reo Māori thing in all my books, so there. Toitū te Tiriti.' A striking feature of the children's book awards was the number of books which made significant use of te reo Maori. The judges included Stacy Gregg, who graduated Level 6 Aupikitanga at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa last year, and has sold over a million copies worldwide of her middle-grade fiction. She won the supreme award at the 2024 awards for her novel about growing up in Ngāruawāhia, Nine Girls, which has a five-page glossary at the front of Māori words in the text. She said, 'This Government made it quite clear from the day they took power and prioritised deleting all signage in te reo as the first thing on their to-do list that they are focused on elimination of the Māori language as a cultural powerplay. At every opportunity they have undermined the use of te reo and ignored their Treaty partner obligations. 'What I find astonishing is the sass of Erica Stanford's racism – I mean she's just so blatant with it. I guess that's what growing up on the North Shore does to you.' Rachael King is also a successful middle-grade writer. She referred ReadingRoom to her comments on Instagram: 'In New Zealand many Māori words are part of our lexicon and need to be taught just as much as English words FFS.' Shilo Kino has written fiction for kids and adults; her 2024 debut novel All That We Know was inspired by Māori and Pasifika students who held an Auckland schoolgirl to account for posing in blackface in a Snapchat photo. She said, 'Can I echo the words of Te Akatea, the Māori Principals' Association, associate president Bruce Jepson? 'It's an act of racism. It's a determined act to recolonise our education system, and it sends a very dangerous message and is immensely harmful and it's utterly shameful.' 'I would add that this is another blatant, aggressive, and ongoing attack on te reo Māori by the government. It is the deliberate and ongoing erasure of te reo Māori. When does it end?' She emailed again 13 minutes later, and wrote, 'Also for more than 1,000 years, the various dialects of te reo Māori were the only language spoken in Aotearoa. It took less than 100 years for the almost erasure of te reo Māori. So many of our elders, activists, pioneers fought for te reo Māori to thrive today, so it is more than infuriating to think the Government can get away with casually erasing te reo from all aspects of life, and in particular the most important, education.' ReadingRoom also contacted a prominent publisher who was happy to be named, objected to the education minister's decision, but their most expressive quote was the first thing they said and was off the record: 'It's madness.' Helen Wardsworth, co-owner of one of the most beautiful bookstores in New Zealand, Dorothy Butler Childrens Books in Jervois Rd, Auckland, also objected—but felt that it distracted from another issue. She said, 'We're not in favour of the change but would rather be talking about the fact that only 30% of schools have libraries and that lots of experienced Resource teachers of literacy and Māori will be losing their jobs soon.' The attack on libraries was also of chief concern to the great New Zealand novelist Lloyd Jones. He said, 'I don't think it is the end of the world. 'There may be sound pedagogical reasons for separating out Maori and English vowel sounds at that point of a child's learning. However, in my experience, we make a mistake when we under-estimate a child's capacity. Set the bar low and a child won't disappoint you. Set the bar high and the same child won't disappoint you (with some exceptions, those with learning disabilities etc…). 'For a true crisis, shift your eyes to Gaza, where the world and its most useless agency the UN looks on helplessly as a captive population is systematically starved to death. 'For a local crisis, look at the outrageous amount of money spent on linking Archives and the National Library by some needless and pointless internal route. Millions that could have been spent making the national library look like – a National Library.' Nicola Legat, publisher at Massey University Press and chair of the the New Zealand Book Awards Trust, distanced herself from the furore. She said, 'I'm not at all an expert on structured literacy and was interested to hear the views of various reading experts. Perhaps everyone has got a bit overexcited and has raced to conclusions, but that's the climate we are in and that has been created: tempers are hot and passions are inflamed and everything, even early readers, have become part of a culture war.' Final word to one of the guv'nors of New Zealand books for kids, David Hill. His first teenage novel, See Ya, Simon (1992), is a YA classic. He has published more than 50 titles over four decades and received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction. He said, 'Erica is a well-meaning pupil who tries hard in class. 'Unfortunately, her progress is currently impeded by an inability to grasp certain concepts. These include: '1. Maori is one of Aotearoa New Zealand's official languages. It seems perverse to exclude it from any resource aimed at developing the language skills of young New Zealanders. '2. In the new, miraculous world of reading skills that places so much emphasis on phonics, it's worth noting that Maori words are spelt more phonetically than many English equivalents. (Try 'arero' and 'waka' against 'tongue' and 'yacht'.) '3. Knowledge of more than one language is universally accepted as enhancing memory, cognitive abilities and cultural understanding. 'If Erica pays attention to these and related issues, there remains a good chance that her next report card will be more positive.'
