14 hours ago
From whale vomit to Victorian mourning jewellery:
Topics: history, arts, books Ranging from whale vomit to Victorian mourning jewellery, Una Cruickshank's often astonishing book of essays The Chthonic Cycle meditates on the wonders of the earth and our use and abuse of them. In a time of calls of 'ecological crisis' - when many are trying to gain perspective on what they can and can't do - Una's is a fresh storytelling take on the Victorian cabinet of curiosities. Or, as the Germans aptly called it, a wunderkamma - a room of wonder. Objects and substances to hand, like pearls, coral, jet, amber, electricity and oil, lead to often funny and fascinating tales around their value and journey over epochs. Spiralling in and out of time, Cruickshank is governed by a cycle in which everything comes from, and ultimately returns to, the earth. Tamaki Makaurau raised and now Poneke based, Una Cruickshank is a graduate of the International Institute of Modern Letters and now works as an archivist at national archive Nga Taonga Sound and Vision. The Chthonic Cycle published by Te Herenga Waka University Press won a prize in the Best First Book category of this year's Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. And Una was also recently named in competition The New Voices of Aotearoa as one of "the country's ten best upcoming authors to read and follow" . Link: emails for thank you:
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