Latest news with #Otautahi
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Visual and sound artist Abigail Aroha Jensen
music te ao Maori 22 minutes ago A bootleg is something illegally made, copied or distributed. The term originated in the prohibition practice of hiding illicit liquor in your boot, next to your leg. But it's more familiar in recent decades in regards to music and film. Bootleg is the name of an exhibition by Ngaruwahia visual and sound artist Abigail Aroha Jensen with Tamsen Hopkinson at Otautahi Christchurch gallery The Physics Room. Bootleg - the gallery say - deals with how theft relates to the land and materials abandoned to it. And in the case of Jensen's work materials used range from old baby toys and artificial muka fibre to boxes of hair dye. Bootleg is on at The Physics Room until the 24th of August. Meanwhile Abigail has recently been awarded a much sought-after contemporary art residency. In October she will travel to South London to spend three months with the organisation and gallery Gasworks. They give artists from outside the UK studio time in the English capital. Fair to day Abigail Aroha Jensen often pushes the conventions in use of any media or practice she works with. At the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt recently she installed vacuum-packed objects in the museum's elevator. For the celebrated album Tupiki, each of 12 tracks is 3 minutes and 33 seconds long, representing the story of Maui's spiritual journey ascending the 12 steps of heaven. Jensen plays everything from shells and taonga puoro to cello and water gongs. We welcome Abigail in the Kirirkiriroa studio to Culture 101
RNZ News
3 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
One wahine's mission to uplift the homelessness crisis in Ōtautahi
Florence Waaka hugs 65-year-old Ngawai Timu, who spent years living rough in Christchurch's red zone. Photo: Layla Bailey-McDowell / RNZ With the rise in homelessness across Aotearoa, one wāhine in Ōtautahi is taking matters into her own hands. Florence Waaka (Te Arawa, Ngāi Tahu), known as Flow on TikTok, has spent close to 11 years dedicating herself to feeding and supporting people experiencing homelessness. She started her grassroots kaupapa Feed a Bro after finding herself on the receiving end of judgement while seeking free kai for her whānau over a decade ago. "I was looking after two of my moko, and I had a 14-year-old son. And I was struggling on a benefit," she said. "One of my friends said to me, 'Hey Flow, come into town, there's some free feeds.' So I went in, and all I could hear was people saying, 'What's that lady doing here? She shouldn't be here. She's pulled up in a van'. "After that, I said, that's it. I'm going to start my own free feeds and I haven't stopped since." Waaka isn't aligned to any charity or organisation. She's doing it solo, with tautoko from the community. "I'm always reaching out. So, it's the community that are supporting me and helping me to feed the people." Waaka has built a strong online following, using social media to spread awareness and encourage others to do the same in their own towns. "I'm seeing a lot of homelessness, especially with our people, our Māori people," she said. "It really hurts seeing our people, so that's why I'm out here, to help our people." Waaka said some of the individuals experiencing homelessness have no choice but to live in their cars because it's cheaper than paying rent. "Everything is just skyrocketing. People are losing their jobs, food prices are going up, and some people can't even afford the rents in their houses." Florence Waaka (right), known as Flow Feeds on TikTok, has spent close to 11 years dedicating herself to feeding and supporting people experiencing homelessness in Christchurch. Photo: Supplied / Flow Waaka Waaka told RNZ that she believes systemic issues and government inaction are contributing to the growing crisis. "All they do is talk. Talk, talk, talk, no action. That's why I'm out here on my own, doing it, I'm feeding the people. I'm an action person, not a talking person. If I see a need, I'm out here doing it." She said much of the country still lacks compassion or understanding around the causes of homelessness. "Yes, some choose it, but for many, it's circumstance, whether that's losing a job or rent going up," she said. "A lot of people don't want to be here. They're better off out here living in the elements than paying all this rent." Raised in a whānau of nine siblings, Waaka's feed a bro kaupapa extends beyond just handing out kai. "I don't just feed and go. I sit with them. I talk. That's when they start trusting me, sharing their story. And if I can help, I do," she said. She sets up in central Christchurch at Margaret Mahy Park every Monday and responds to tips from locals about where unhoused people are sleeping. "It's never really planned. It's wherever there's a need." Waaka saw a need in Christchurch's redzone, which in recent years, has become a place where some of the city's homeless have set up, sleeping in cars, vans, and tents. Photo: Layla Bailey-McDowell / RNZ With a He Whakaputanga flag flying and bonfire lit each night, those living rough in the red zone share waiata, kōrero and kai. One of those helped by Flow is 65-year-old Ngawai Timu, who spent years sleeping rough in Christchurch's red zone. "She just makes our dreams come true," Timu told RNZ. "There's sadness, there's a lot of hurting out here. But then Flow came into our lives. We've got much love for her, we really do. She's not in it for show, she's real." Originally from Dannevirke and raised in Hamilton, Timu worked for years in nursing before a car accident took part of her leg. "A drunk driver took my foot off," she said. "That was it. I knew I couldn't work anymore. I went on ACC." She moved to Christchurch to be closer to her mokopuna but when her son lost his housing, Ngawai made a tough call. "I chose to go homeless," she said. "I didn't want to be a burden. I'd rather be out here than watch them struggle." She ended up sleeping rough in the red zone alongside others in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, often single, their kids and mokopuna long gone across the ditch. "We realised wow, we're all over 40. And we're alone. Just waiting." Some, including Timu, even chose to delay accepting housing to prioritise children on the street. "There were three-year-old twins, an eight-year-old, a ten-year-old. So, some of us said no to houses. We said, 'Take the kids first.' That was more important." She turned 65 at the end of July, a milestone that finally allows her to access the pension and apply for public housing. With support from Emerge Aotearoa, she now has temporary accommodation in Woolston. "It's beautiful. But that first night, I slept on the couch in the lounge. I didn't know how to be inside. I was sweating, in and out of the shower. I'm traumatised. I've been living outside too long. It's going to take time." Even now, she still goes back to visit her street whānau in the red zone. "We're tight. We all know each other's stories. Our hearts, our pain. We formed a family out there." Photo: Layla Bailey-McDowell / RNZ Timu wants people to understand how broken the system is and how hard it is to even get seen, let alone helped. "I had to go through media, Stuff, Channel One, TikTok just to get acknowledged. Two years I was out there. Two years. And you can't even get your name on the list until you hit 65. You go from ACC to MSD and fall through the cracks in between." She said the most painful part is how many kaumātua are in the same position. "It's sad. We've worked our whole lives. Raised our tamariki, and now we're out here, sleeping in vans. Meanwhile, two-storey homes sit empty and get sold off." Asked what gives her hope, she said "aroha". "That's what keeps us going. The love we have for each other, we've got that." Florence Waaka (Te Arawa, Ngāi Tahu) with John Aramakatu, who has spent the past few months sleeping in the boot of his car in Christchurch's red zone. Photo: Layla Bailey-McDowell / RNZ Another member of that street whānau is 63-year-old John Aramakatu, who has spent the past five months sleeping in the back of his small car. A former shearer, he was forced to stop working after what he calls a "funny, but not funny" accident, being run over by a sheep, which destroyed his hips. "I had one hip operation thanks to ACC, but I still haven't had the second. That's the one that'll get me back to work." With no income and rising rents, he had no choice but to live in his car. "I'm living in my car because economics say that's my cheapest option," he said. "At least I'm not in a tent or under a bush. And the car is mine." He's been on the Kāinga Ora waiting list for months, number 2800 by his count, and said it's been a tough five months sleeping "crunched up in the boot" of his car. "It don't help that I'm six foot tall," he said. Aramakatu moved to Christchurch to be closer to his son, but is now grieving his death by suicide. "What I would give to talk to one of my sons again... But they're gone now," he said. "Nobody understands unless you lose a child." "The grief and what comes with that and how easy it is for them to walk into the dark. Because they don't believe that anyone wants to listen to them or help them." He said there's little to no support for grieving parents and many fall through the cracks. "A big percentage of this country is on that slippery slope to being like us," Aramakatu said. "A couple mortgage payments missed... you've just lost your house. You've just lost your job because you don't have a house. And you're in the same sort of situation as we are. It's just too easy." Despite everything, he's found a sense of whānau in the red zone. "It's like a marae out here... not by building, but by spirit," "We look after each other," Aramakatu said, adding that Flow has been a massive help. "She humbles us. She sees us as people... That's aroha." Waaka has built a strong online following, using social media to spread awareness, uplift her kaupapa and encourage others to do the same in their own towns. Photo: Layla Bailey-McDowell / RNZ Waaka's long-term hope is for more people across the motu to step up in their own communities. "Even if it's something little," she said. She encouraged New Zealanders to not just "walk away" when seeing people struggle. "Jump in and try and do something for them. It doesn't matter even if it's just making a pot of food and taking it down to them, because the more people out throughout New Zealand that are doing it, it's going to help a lot of homeless people out there." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
4 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
More detail on gene tech regulations to come, as industry mulls opportunities
The Gene Technology Bill seeks to overhaul current law that restricts the use of gene technologies in New Zealand. Photo: 123RF The Gene Technology Bill was discussed at length at the second annual Plant Breeders' Forum in Ōtautahi Christchurch on Thursday, hosted by the New Zealand Plant Breeders and Research Association (NZPBRA). The bill sought to overhaul current legislation that restricted the use of gene technologies in New Zealand, the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act (HSNO) from 1996. The risks, opportunities and challenges of gene technologies were debated by hundreds during the select committee process, which drew 15,000 submissions. Many scientists said the effective near 30-year ban on the use of gene technologies like gene editing, transgenic breeding or other new breeding techniques used outside the laboratory held them back from progress, leaving them with the slower traditional breeding techniques. However critics - including conventional and organic farming and anti-genetic engineering (GE) movements - raised concerns about the co-existence of genetically-modified (GM) and non-GM crops on farms, market access, human and environmental health concerns from GM foods and via animal feed, and the controls and requirements for the use of these technologies outside the laboratory. Read more about the Gene Technology Bill: Biological chemist Professor Emily Parker chaired the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment's gene technology technical advisory group. Speaking at the Plant Breeders' Forum, she said there had been significant scientific and technological advances since 1996 when the HSNO Act first came into force, and the current regulatory system was seen as a "significant barrier" to getting approval for genetic technology projects. "Primary legislation which is what is before the House at the moment, is the scaffold" she said. "But it will be underpinned by secondary legislation. This is regulations, notices, standards, things that are issued under secondary legislation. "That has a lot of detail about exactly how different activities are managed and there's a lot of technical detail in that, but I know that there will be a lot of interest by this community in that secondary legislation." Parker said the regulations, that were expected in the fourth quarter of the year, would go out for full public consultation. "It sets up a stand-alone regulatory regime; it creates what we call an authorisation framework to manage the risks of gene tech and enable their safe use," Parker said. "And we have international obligations, such as we're signatories to the Cartagena Protocol that we need to make sure we manage within that legislation." In 2000, New Zealand signed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity, an international treaty which aimed to protect biological diversity and human health from the possible risks of importing or exporting living modified organism, including GMOs. Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard and his Australian counterparts have agreed to update the definitions for GM food in Australia and New Zealand. Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes Parker said the new approach was modelled very closely to Australia's Gene Technology Act (2002) that was now under its third review. She said requirements for the use of new breeding techniques like gene editing would be specified, and whether they would be notified or non-notified with the public, based on where they fell in risk categories. "What will not be regulated is some organisms and gene technologies can be exempted under the regulations and there will be a set of non-regulated organisms and technology." Parker said she was unable to answer questions asked by a GE-Free New Zealand spokesperson at the forum, if activities exempted from the regulations would be required to feature on a public register, cover liability, or feature on the label . Last month, Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard and his Australian counterparts agreed to update the definitions for GM food in Australia and New Zealand, which saw food made with the addition of new or novel DNA no longer being required to state that on the food label. Parker said the public would be able to have their say on the upcoming details. "There will be a lot more opportunity to comment and to have feedback on how the scheme is being used, how this framework is going to be populated, and whether that appropriately manages to be suitable for human health and for the environment." The roll-out of the legislation, if it was accepted by Cabinet, will be a multi-government agency effort. The Ministry for Business and Innovation was the lead government agency, the Environmental Protection Authority will be the regulator, and the Ministry for Primary Industries will be the enforcer. The gene-editing technique CRISPR, was launched by the forestry institute Scion in May last year. Photo: 123RF One technique of interest that arose among many scientists at the event was gene-editing technique CRISPR, that forestry institute Scion launched in May last year. Geneticist Sai Arojju of the Radiata Pine Breeding Company - the only one in New Zealand - said CRISPR and RNA techniques were of interest to the industry - that started using genomic selection in 2022. "In terms of accelerated genetic gain, we feel like adopting new technologies is the way to go," he said at the forum. "Genomics is one example that I've shown you and the remote sensing is the other way that we can sort of accelerate those genetic gains in our breeding programme. "We are keeping an eye on the new technologies as well, for example, CRISPR, how does it fit into our breeding programme, and RNA is the other technology which can be used as a disease control, basically." However, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Board abandoned discussions around genetic engineering in forestry in 2023, and decided not to investigate GM trees. "The decision considered the different views in FSC's membership around the learning process, the division this brings to FSC as well as the potential risk to FSC's mission and reputation. The decision was made by consensus, with two board members expressing reservations about the process," it said in a statement in March 2023. Null segregants descended from genetically modified organisms (GMO) that were considered transgenes, but do not contain those modifications anymore, were no longer considered GMO. Jazz apples took around 15 years to come to market, using traditional breeding techniques cross-breeding Braeburn and Royal Gala cultivars. Photo: CC 1.0 BY-SA / Daderot Molecular biologist Dr Revel Drummond of Plant and Food Research - now the Bioeconomy Institute - said conventional breeding was done in multi-year stages for apples, which took a "a very long time". He said using null segregants could accelerate one stage of the breeding process, from around five years for apples, to just one. "A null segregant is simply something that used to be transgenic and no longer is, so we've taken the transgenic part out of the equation by crossing it away," he said. He said the method was useful, like a "trick" where instead of waiting four or five years for an apple through traditional breeding, it could be cut down to one year. "Now you could do a breeding cycle per year in a fruit tree," he said. "Annual breeding makes a lot of sense here." Jazz apples, for example, were considered one of New Zealand's relatively faster genetic developments taking around 15 years to come to market, using traditional breeding techniques cross-breeding Braeburn and Royal Gala cultivars. Forage breeding was a significant sector that contributed hugely to agricultural success, and had been developed in Aotearoa for the past century. Germplasm - or genetic resources such as seeds, tissues or DNA sequences - was described as "the lifeblood of our industry," by Dr Derek Woodfield, the now retired general manager at PGG Wrightson Seeds. Woodfield said ryegrass and associated endophytes made up around 60-70 percent of the overall forage breeding effort in New Zealand, driven by the need to increase livestock production. "Animals cannot compensate by eating more poor quality forage, they will just grow slower and so the aim of forage breeding is to have high quality forage and high amounts of it to drive animal performance." He said consolidation and rationalisation of the sector had concentrated breeding efforts, listing three of the four main forage breeders as internationally-owned. CropMark, the event sponsor, was the only one that remained New Zealand-owned, he said. "I think we have a huge risk in our forage industry from overseas ownership of our core breeding programmes," Woodfield said. "We are susceptible to overseas investors deciding we are not profitable enough or they're reducing their investment or changing the way in which we do it. "Now they'll only do that for sensible reasons, economic reasons, we hope. But you know we do have to work out what that means long-term for New Zealand." The Health Select Committee declined to comment on how the 15,000 Gene Technology Bill submissions were split in terms of support or opposition, ahead of the release of its report to Cabinet due on 22 August. The second and third reading of the bill was expected later this year, before the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator was tipped to go live in 2026. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
National Post
22-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
Dawn Aerospace Begins Taking Orders for Aurora Spaceplane: A Breakthrough Rocket-Powered Aircraft
Article content Article content ŌTAUTAHI CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Dawn Aerospace today announced that its Aurora spaceplane is now available for purchase, with first deliveries expected in 2027. This marks a historic milestone: the first time a space-capable vehicle – designed to fly beyond the Kármán line (100 km – 328,000 ft) – has been offered for direct sale to customers. Article content Aurora is set to become the fastest and highest-flying aircraft ever to take off from a conventional runway, blending the extreme performance of rocket propulsion with the reusability and operational simplicity of traditional aviation. This breakthrough enables high-frequency, low-cost access to both high-altitudes and space. Article content Aurora introduces a business model akin to commercial airlines, where operators can purchase aircraft and deliver services independently of the manufacturer. Dawn's suborbital spaceplane is engineered for high-frequency operations from traditional airports and spaceports worldwide. Capable of horizontal takeoff and landing, rapid refueling, and multiple flights per day, Aurora offers aircraft-like simplicity, cost-efficiency, and flexibility – enabling local operators to access high-altitudes and space from local runways on demand. Article content 'For the first time, customers have the opportunity to own an aircraft capable of reaching the edge of space,' said Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace. 'Aurora is a game-changing platform for governments, spaceports, and new spaceplane operators to access extreme altitudes and deliver vital services and programs. It's been over a century since commercial airlines began—now it's time to launch the first spaceline.' Article content Aurora enables a new class of missions across defense, signals intelligence, surveillance, hypersonics, maritime patrol, and atmospheric research. It provides microgravity access for the semiconductor and life sciences industries, making it a powerful platform for advancing scientific discovery and national security. Article content LIFE SCIENCES: Investigate cellular biology, regenerative medicine, and space health in microgravity conditions. SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY: Test next-gen chips and materials under near-space radiation and thermal extremes. DEFENSE APPLICATIONS: Validate communications and sensing payloads in high-altitude environments. Article content In November 2024, on the 57th flight of Aurora, it reached supersonic speeds, Mach 1.12, and climbed to 82,500 feet / 25.1 km. In doing so, Aurora set a record for the fastest climb from runway to above 20km, breaking a nearly 50-year-old record previously held by the modified F-15 Streak Eagle. Article content AURORA SPACEPLANE – KEY SPECIFICATIONS Article content Dawn Aerospace is now coordinating inaugural deliveries of Aurora with early adopters across research, commercial, and government sectors. Article content Dawn Aerospace is developing the fastest and highest-flying aircraft ever to take off from a runway, combining the extreme performance of rocket propulsion with the reusability of conventional airplanes to enable high-frequency, low-cost access to high-altitudes and space. Article content Dawn's remotely piloted aircraft are certified under New Zealand's CAA Part 102 and the New Zealand Space Agency's High-Altitude License, allowing flight from the ground to beyond 60,000 feet—well above conventional airspace limits. Article content Dawn's founders recognized the potential of applying aviation-style operations to spaceflight —delivering routine, runway-based access to space with rocket-powered aircraft. In addition to its spaceplane program, Dawn Aerospace is a leading provider of propulsion systems for satellite developers, with its technology currently on 25 operational satellites. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
