Latest news with #GlennColquhoun
Scoop
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Phantom Billstickers Unveils 2025 Poem Poster Season And Celebrates National Poetry Day: A Nationwide Literary Feast
Press Release – Phantom Billstickers For decades, Phantom Billstickers has championed the accessibility of art, transforming urban landscapes into impromptu galleries and bringing the power of poetry out of books and into the public eye. Phantom Billstickers is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated 2025 season of poem posters, set to transform street poster sites across New Zealand over the coming months. This initiative, a cornerstone of Phantom Billstickers commitment to public art and literature, coincides with their ongoing dedication as a key sponsor of Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day, an annual countrywide celebration of words and creativity. The 2025 poem poster season will showcase works from a stellar line-up of New Zealand's poetic talent, including celebrated poets Ben Brown, Glenn Colquhoun, and newcomer Taylor Grace. Adding further prestige, the collection will also feature powerful contributions from the Ockham Book Awards finalists for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry, namely C.K. Stead, Richard von Sturmer, Robert Sullivan, and award winner Emma Neale. This diverse selection promises to offer a rich tapestry of perspectives and styles, ensuring there's a poem to resonate with every passerby. 'Poetry on the street is a simple, yet profound way to connect with people. It offers a moment of reflection, a flash of beauty, or a spark of thought in their daily lives,' says Robin McDonnell, CEO of Phantom Billstickers. He adds, 'As Phantom Billstickers founder and patron of the poems on poster initiative, Jim Wilson, aptly puts it: 'When you put a poem on the street, you're putting up words straight from the heart, you're sparking conversations and igniting imaginations.' We believe these poems will do just that.' Phantom Billstickers' passion for making poetry accessible extends beyond the posters. As the proud sponsor of Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day, held annually on the fourth Friday in August (this year, Friday, August 22nd, 2025), they play a vital role in unleashing the power of poetry across Aotearoa. Events ranging from open mic nights and school initiatives to public displays and live performances will take place nationwide, fostering a vibrant literary landscape. Phantom Billstickers actively supports and promotes these events, ensuring poetry truly pulses throughout our communities. For decades, Phantom Billstickers has championed the accessibility of art, transforming urban landscapes into impromptu galleries and bringing the power of poetry out of books and into the public eye. The 2025 poem poster season and their continued support of National Poetry Day underscore this enduring commitment, inviting New Zealanders to engage with the beauty and depth of their nation's poetic talent. Keep an eye out for these captivating poem posters appearing on Phantom Billstickers sites nationwide over the coming months, and mark your calendars for Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day on Friday, August 22nd, 2025, for a nationwide celebration of words.
Scoop
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Phantom Billstickers Unveils 2025 Poem Poster Season And Celebrates National Poetry Day: A Nationwide Literary Feast
Phantom Billstickers is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated 2025 season of poem posters, set to transform street poster sites across New Zealand over the coming months. This initiative, a cornerstone of Phantom Billstickers commitment to public art and literature, coincides with their ongoing dedication as a key sponsor of Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day, an annual countrywide celebration of words and creativity. The 2025 poem poster season will showcase works from a stellar line-up of New Zealand's poetic talent, including celebrated poets Ben Brown, Glenn Colquhoun, and newcomer Taylor Grace. Adding further prestige, the collection will also feature powerful contributions from the Ockham Book Awards finalists for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry, namely C.K. Stead, Richard von Sturmer, Robert Sullivan, and award winner Emma Neale. This diverse selection promises to offer a rich tapestry of perspectives and styles, ensuring there's a poem to resonate with every passerby. "Poetry on the street is a simple, yet profound way to connect with people. It offers a moment of reflection, a flash of beauty, or a spark of thought in their daily lives," says Robin McDonnell, CEO of Phantom Billstickers. He adds, "As Phantom Billstickers founder and patron of the poems on poster initiative, Jim Wilson, aptly puts it: 'When you put a poem on the street, you're putting up words straight from the heart, you're sparking conversations and igniting imaginations.' We believe these poems will do just that.' Phantom Billstickers' passion for making poetry accessible extends beyond the posters. As the proud sponsor of Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day, held annually on the fourth Friday in August (this year, Friday, August 22nd, 2025), they play a vital role in unleashing the power of poetry across Aotearoa. Events ranging from open mic nights and school initiatives to public displays and live performances will take place nationwide, fostering a vibrant literary landscape. Phantom Billstickers actively supports and promotes these events, ensuring poetry truly pulses throughout our communities. For decades, Phantom Billstickers has championed the accessibility of art, transforming urban landscapes into impromptu galleries and bringing the power of poetry out of books and into the public eye. The 2025 poem poster season and their continued support of National Poetry Day underscore this enduring commitment, inviting New Zealanders to engage with the beauty and depth of their nation's poetic talent. Keep an eye out for these captivating poem posters appearing on Phantom Billstickers sites nationwide over the coming months, and mark your calendars for Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day on Friday, August 22nd, 2025, for a nationwide celebration of words.
RNZ News
18-05-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Public worried about creeping health privatisation, lack of preventative care
Doctors Art Nahill, left, and Glenn Colquhoun in Kerikeri on the second stop of their 'Hīkoi for Health'. Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf Creeping privatisation and decades of neglect by successive governments are among the top concerns uncovered by doctors travelling the length of the North Island to hear people's views about the health system. Auckland hospital doctor Art Nahill and Horowhenua adolescent general practitioner Glenn Colquhoun spent two weeks on a 'Hīkoi for Health' from Kaitāia to Wellington, arriving in the capital on 8 May. Along the way, they tried to speak to as many people as possible about their healthcare experiences and their ideas about how the country's creaking health system could be fixed. Nahill said they were still working through the submissions and interviews they collected, but anger and frustration were common themes. "I know a hīkoi like this will self-select people who have had bad experiences, but we had a number of people who had very good healthcare experiences, but who are still angry and frustrated at the conditions under which healthcare workers are being asked to perform their roles," Nahill said. Another key theme to emerge was the need for a more robust public health system, focussed on keeping people healthy in the first place by ensuring access to good food, water and housing. "I think a lot of people realise that we have to turn off the tap of very unwell patients turning up to emergency rooms and other urgent care facilities," he said. Another common thread was the need for better access to health care providers. "There are people who have been waiting years to try to register with a GP, but all the books in the practices in that locale are all closed. There are lots and lots of people who are debilitated by things like arthritis in their hips or knees, who are waiting years to even be put on waiting lists, so people are getting very fed up with waiting." Nahill said many people wanted more funding for the healthcare system, although in his view, more investment on its own would not fix the problems. Simply training more doctors and nurses, for example, would not necessarily help, because there was nothing to keep them in a "broken healthcare system", when they could easily find work overseas. The Hīkoi for Health 'vanbulance' was transformed into a mobile work of art by painter Nigel Brown. Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf Many people they spoke to were angry about what they described as decades-long neglect of the health system and fearful of the way privatisation seemed to be occurring without public discussion. Nahill said he shared some of those concerns about privatisation, highlighted by a recent decision by Health New Zealand to outsource thousands of operations to private hospitals. "We only have a certain number of doctors in New Zealand, and if they work more and more in private, that means there are fewer and fewer of them available to do the same procedures in public, which means the waiting lists grow. We then have to outsource again to the private system, so it seems to me to be a silly way to deal with waiting lists." One of the stories that stood out for him from the two-week journey was from the father of a young girl who died in hospital, possibly due to a medical error, though that was unclear. "His only contact with the hospital after his daughter's death was a text several months later, offering him a few sessions of counselling to deal with his grief. He was incredibly angry and didn't know where to go." Another story was from a Kaitāia couple, who had tried to register with a GP for three years, but all practices in the town had closed their books. If they needed to see a doctor, they had to go to the emergency department or after-hours clinic at Kaitāia Hospital, or travel to Tauranga - an eight-hour drive each way - where their previous GP was based. However, Nahill said they also heard many positive stories about community organisations, iwi health providers especially, working creatively and cobbling together funding from various sources "to fill in the gaps that the broken healthcare system has left". "It struck us that, if we could scale up some of those small community services or find a way to allow more communities to manage their own healthcare, that might be the best healthcare system we could devise," he said. The next step in the project would be to assemble an expert thinktank to come up with a plan for a new kind of health system that addressed as many of the concerns raised during the hīkoi as possible. Nahill expected that would be completed in 8-12 months. Outside their day jobs in medicine, both Nahill and Colquhoun are known for their poetry. Nahill was not yet sure if the hīkoi would inspire any fresh writing, because he never intentionally set out to write poems. "Once an idea or an image marinates in my brain for long enough, poetry begins to form itself," he said. "I'm sure, at some point in time, some creative writing will come out of this hīkoi, it just needs a much longer period of time to marinate." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
03-05-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Hīkoi for Health Reaches Final Leg – Heading to Parliament for May 8th Arrival
Press Release – Hikoi for Health They invite everyone to join on May 8th at Parliament grounds to hear a summary of the findings from their 'Peoples Inquiry.' May 3, 2025 As the Hīkoi for Health approaches its conclusion, doctors Art Nahill and Glenn Colquhoun are proud to announce that their 'vanbulance' journey is in its final days. From New Plymouth, they will be travelling south to Wellington, arriving at Parliament grounds on May 8th, where they will hold a gathering to share the stories and ideas for healthcare reform collected along the way. Throughout the campaign, they have been overwhelmed by the incredible support from communities across the North Island who have provided food, petrol vouchers, and accommodation. They have received hundreds of submissions through their website, and spoken with more individuals who have shared their stories of pain, frustration, and hope for the future of healthcare in Aotearoa. The voices they have heard reveal the need for urgent systemic change, but also highlight how communities are filling the void left by a failing and increasingly privatized health system. It is clear that collective experiences and ideas are vital in shaping a better future. They invite everyone to join us on May 8th at Parliament grounds to hear a summary of the findings from their 'People's Inquiry.' They hope to amplify these voices and press for the comprehensive healthcare reform they believe our country desperately needs. They also remind supporters that they have declared May 8th 'Band-Aid Day' where those who want to protest government inaction and support the call for reform should wear a bandage or plaster(s) in a prominent place as a symbol of the approach of successive governments to the failures of our health care system.
Scoop
03-05-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Hīkoi for Health Reaches Final Leg – Heading to Parliament for May 8th Arrival
May 3, 2025 As the Hīkoi for Health approaches its conclusion, doctors Art Nahill and Glenn Colquhoun are proud to announce that their "vanbulance" journey is in its final days. From New Plymouth, they will be travelling south to Wellington, arriving at Parliament grounds on May 8th, where they will hold a gathering to share the stories and ideas for healthcare reform collected along the way. Throughout the campaign, they have been overwhelmed by the incredible support from communities across the North Island who have provided food, petrol vouchers, and accommodation. They have received hundreds of submissions through their website, and spoken with more individuals who have shared their stories of pain, frustration, and hope for the future of healthcare in Aotearoa. The voices they have heard reveal the need for urgent systemic change, but also highlight how communities are filling the void left by a failing and increasingly privatized health system. It is clear that collective experiences and ideas are vital in shaping a better future. They invite everyone to join us on May 8th at Parliament grounds to hear a summary of the findings from their "People's Inquiry." They hope to amplify these voices and press for the comprehensive healthcare reform they believe our country desperately needs. They also remind supporters that they have declared May 8th "Band-Aid Day" where those who want to protest government inaction and support the call for reform should wear a bandage or plaster(s) in a prominent place as a symbol of the approach of successive governments to the failures of our health care system.
