Pirates of Penzance
Adapted by Richard Carroll
Making waves in the Sydney theatre scene, Hayes Theatre Co captures the spirit of Off-Broadway in Australia and now they harness the irreverent, genre-busting spirit of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance
This brand-new, boisterously joyful adaptation is brought to life by five bold performers, playing all the roles!
Sail away in pure escapism with the Pirate King, Ruth, Mabel, and Frederic, as they navigate the high seas of romance, work-life balance, and irritating administrative errors. Plus, a motley crew of singing police, Major Generals and more!
At the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, from March 26-29. 1-30 April
We Mavericks in Concert
See them at the Fraternity Club tonight
The Illawarra Folk Club presents We Mavericks in Concert with Rusty & Marco We Mavericks.
Real-life troubadours and masters in the art of connection, Victoria Vigenser and Lindsay Martin interweave effortless strings, soulful vocals and driving rhythms to form a singular musical voice. Their original songs have an unexplainable, worldly
appeal – you might call it contempfolk, alt-country or acoustic-pop, but no words capture their musical kinship or the heartfelt way they relate to their audiences. They appear with a formidable string section comprising premier cellists/ multi-instrumentalists Rachel Johnston and Trent Arkleysmith. At the Fraternity Club on Friday, 7pm.
Sculpture in the Garden 3 April
Cellist Abel Selaocoe directs the ACO 6 April
Pete Denahy in Concert 6 April Bach to the Bush 7-9 April
David Lesslie’s At Work
Nuwa ganda (look up) to see handwoven flying foxes
By Amanda De George
There’s a breadth to Dr Virginia Keft’s work that I’ve had trouble condensing into a few hundred words. She’s a proud Muruwari woman, a multidisciplinary artist and the owner of Illawarra’s longest-running belly dance company, Cinnamon Twist. Her arts practice is wide ranging, and she is currently exhibiting her wearable artwork Women’s Business in Germany, while April will see her take part in Sculpture in the Garden.
Sculpture in the Garden opens on April 1
Virginia weaves and sculpts and paints and somehow finds time to lead the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program bangawarra Art Yarns. This is an important and culturally safe space for Elders and their families who are at risk
of developing or are living with dementia to create art, to yarn and to connect. And connection is at the heart of much of what Virginia does. Connection to her family from far north-west New South Wales and to Dharawal Country, a place she loves and where she has lived most of her life. Connection to culture and to community.“My work explores ideas of resilience, the persistence of cultural memory, connection to place and Country, and concepts of value, and belonging,” she said.
One of the things that really drew me to Virginia’s art was the colourful, intricately woven ‘matjam’, flying foxes, that feature in some of her work.
“Dharawal Country is home to tens of thousands of Grey-headed Flying Foxes,”
“When
I make these animals I try to give them each their own personality, each one is completely unique – I give them bright colours and feel joy every time I stitch their little black ears”
– Dr Virginia Keft
she said. “Here long before humans arrived, these vulnerable creatures are important to our ecosystems, pollinating and dispersing the seeds of many native trees.
“For me, the woven matjam celebrate connection to place and community. I’m using a weaving technique that has been passed down generationally. Threads of Culture are woven together through learning from Elders, listening to Country and engaging with knowledge.”
While preparing for Sculpture in the Garden, Virginia is also working to create connection within the wider community. Her newly established, soon-to-be named art space in Crown St Mall is already featuring belly dance classes of an evening and will be introducing workshops and art programs over the next few months. Think art for all levels and the program I’m most excited about: monthly weaving classes.
“I’m interested in driving social change through creative practices to create safe, inclusive communities and programs that promote understanding, respect and mutual learning,” Virginia said.
Without giving too much away, her 2025 exhibit for Sculpture in the Garden, Nuwa ganda (look up), features the
beautiful, handwoven flying foxes. Each matjam is unique and Virginia tries to give each its own personality. She said the work “pays homage to the intricate and complex nature of family through the symbol of the matjam”.
“Flying foxes thrive by maintaining communal bonds with each other that span generations,” Virginia said.
“I really enjoy watching the bats take flight in the early evening and head out across to the islands off Port Kembla. It feels special to witness this special journey, they are so deeply connected to the sky stories of this place.”
And maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to her woven depictions of the matjam: those flying foxes connect us, as I also stand out each night, watching a different colony of bats take to the sky.
More information
For updates on workshops and exhibitions, follow Virginia on Instagram and Facebook or head to her website. The new arts space is located at 3/128-134 Crown St, Wollongong (accessed via the escalators next to St George Bank).
Sculpture in the Garden is at Wollongong Botanic Garden from April 1-30. It’s free.
Award-winning mountain biker’s tip: use free council pick-ups
By Tyneesha Williams
Thevice-president of Wollongong Mountain Bike Club, Craig Morris loves riding in the beauty of the escarpment. So when he saw a stack of litter, the Horsley local decided to take action.
The result: a massive clean-up of Mt Keira and Mt Kembla that collected 237 tyres and the Rise & Shine Silver Award at Council’s 2024 Environment Volunteer Awards.
“I’ve been riding bikes all my life, and in the last 25 years or so, mountain biking has really kicked off and I’ve been riding the trails ever since,” Craig says.
“The mountain bike community is up in the escarpment all the time, and we see all the rubbish. It’s really sad that people think it’s okay to just dump their junk in the bush.
“All it takes is for someone to put it up on Facebook, suggest that we do a clean-up, someone puts their hand up to organise it and then we get 40 or 50 people up there to do a massive clean-up.”
More than 40 mountain biking enthusiasts pitched in at last August’s event, clearing five tonnes of waste. The volunteers divided the workload, gathering waste in groups along Mt Keira Road, Clive Bissell Drive and Harry Graham Drive.
“There’s furniture, there’s lots of litter but we also found miles and miles of electrical cabling, people dump cars up there, boats… some of it seems to be commercial equipment with businesses or tradies dumping their stuff,” Craig says.
“Then you’ve got a lot of domestic stuff as well, washing machines.
“We pulled out an incredible amount of car tyres, truck tyres, loads of car parts – it’s horrible.
“The council was really good with the Rise & Shine project. They gave us bags and first-aid kits, gloves, block-out, and some pickers, which made it much easier.”
Established in 1986, Rise & Shine is Wollongong City Council’s longestrunning environmental clean-up program. Now, Rise and Shine supports local volunteers to protect the environment.
Craig was surprised to receive his award from Rise & Shine.
“You don’t do it to expect awards,” Craig says.
“It’s humbling in many ways because I organised it, but there’s 40 or 50 people that do it. So I accept the award on behalf of the group and the mountain biking community.”
Craig suggests that locals coordinate with neighbours to better manage waste and junk.
“It’s pretty sad that for both of the clean-ups we’ve done, within a week, there’s more stuff dumped,” Craig says.
“You see people’s comments where they say the council charges too much for the tip, but that’s not an excuse to dump it in the bush.
“If you work with your neighbours, everyone gets two council pick-ups a year. Say you’ve got three houses involved, that’s a clean-up every two months.”
Craig and his group are excited for new mountain bike trails at Mt Kembla, set to open in the next few months.
“If you’re wanting to get into mountain biking, there’s always plenty of people willing to take you out on trails. It’s a great past-time, you get out in the bush, you’re exercising plenty and the community is really friendly and helpful.”
“The mountain bike community is up in the escarpment all the time, and we see all the rubbish. It’s really sad that people think it’s okay to just dump their junk in the bush.” – Craig Morris
Happy National Eucalypt Day to the Grey Ironbark and more
By Emma Rooksby of Growing Illawarra Natives
Above: large old Grey Ironbark in East Corrimal, where several specimens are used as street trees. Photo: Emma Rooksby. Main pic: A Grey Ironbark in the Berry area hosting a pair of Tawny Frogmouths. Photo: Bill Pigott.
LastSunday, March 23 was National Eucalypt Day. There are events being held throughout March, right around Australia, to celebrate this absolutely iconic Australian group of plants.
There are over 800 species of Eucalyptus, most of them only occurring in Australia, with a small number also (or only) occurring overseas. In addition to plants in the Eucalyptus genus, there are two other related genera, Columbia and Angophora, which are also widely called ‘eucalypts.’ Eucalypts include the tallest flowering plant on earth, the Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) that grows in Victoria and Tasmania, and also some small trees right down to the Varnished Gum (Eucalyptus vernicosa) of the Tasmanian mountains that grows as a mallee or even a shrub.
Almost wherever you look in the Illawarra, there are eucalypts growing. Whether it’s the massive Blackbutts (Eucalyptus pilularis) common on the spurs of the escarpment foothills, the rough-barked Swamp Mahogany (Eucalyptus robusta) down in the coastal sands, or the graceful Silver-top Ash (Eucalyptus sieberi) up on the nutrient-poor soils on the plateau, they’re all around us, with over 20 local species (depending on how you count them).
One beaut euc that can be fairly easily
seen around the place is the Grey Ironbark, or Eucalyptus paniculata. This graceful large tree is the Illawarra’s only ironbark, and is present on the coastal plain and escarpment slopes.
Grey Ironbarks can be distinguished from other local eucalypts by their very tough, hard bark, which persists to the upper branches. And Grey Ironbark flowers are creamy-coloured, unlike some of the out-of-area ironbarks such as the Mugga Ironbark (Eucalyptus sideroxylon), selectively cultivated for flowers that are pink or reddish. Some good places to see Grey Ironbark growing are Phil Adams Park in Corrimal (just east of the railway station) and Wiseman Park in Gwynneville. In both of these parks, which contain remnant Illawarra Lowlands Grassy Woodland, Grey Ironbark is dominant in the canopy.
Grey Ironbark is an outstanding habitat tree, with a wide range of birds enjoying the nectar produced by its flowers, insects munching on the leaves and insectivorous birds, such as the Spotted Pardalote, in turn eating those insects. Its branches make good places for birds to roost. Even the bark is good habitat, with its thick fissures and furrows, making homes for a multitude of insects, spiders and lizards.
Quality in the mode of Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates
A review by Brian Kelly
The variety style of entertainment that leaped from British music halls to 1970s prime-time TV hasn’t died, it has merely graduated in low-key form to a midweek slot – to Wollongong Town Hall, at least.
WHAT’S ON
Via the Merrigong website
Made From Scratch brings together a melange of entertainers, who, like the audience, you sense wouldn’t be doing much else on a mild Wednesday evening in March. The feel is extremely casual, and the quality is very much in the mode of Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, but the odd jewel is a thrill and worth the price of admission, which is left up to the happy or otherwise punter.
And you’d be called worse than a curmudgeon if you grumbled and didn’t pay up, the performers buoyant as they
are for a slice of spotlight rarer for some than others.
Having starred at a similar event last year, MC and comic Mariah Nickolas set the laidback atmosphere with observational humour touching on being introverted, poor luck with dating apps and tortuous Thai massage. Musician Oliver Shoebridge drew the short-straw opening slot but set all nerves at ease by unleashing his falsetto over selfproduced backing tracks, with droll keytar-based humour thrown in. Suddenly, Amelia Harding was prowling the stage in torn fishnets and puffing a (herbal) cigarette, in character as Rigby, a young woman accused of murder in an edgy excerpt from her show Bunny Boiler; the next minute,
Courtney Allerton was being borne aloft on the sure shoulders of fellow dancer Clayton Webb in an intense three minutes as tender in tone as it was suspended in dynamism.
The mood flipped again with the appearance in silver shoes and fuchsia jacket of Tiang Lim, whose gentle humour mused on the joys of ageing and recollections of getting lost in translation upon moving to Australia in the 1970s.
After the interval, Corey Pickett amused and engaged with multiple juggling skills and slick quips before musical sidekick Emma Price comically reworked the wholesome My Favourite Things into something that would make the kink set blush. Built on solid timing, teamwork and good old-fashioned
shtick, the act was the most engaging of the bill’s list of seven.
Keeping the chuckles coming, albeit from a fabulously obtuse angle, was seasoned performer Alicia Battestini, garnering laughs with an entrance through the audience, tossing popcorn, presumably for the poultry she proceeded to butcher off-stage (not for real) while taking occasional phone calls muttering in cod French. Much sublime face-pulling, bloodied aprons and squawking; it was as if someone had left SBS running after midnight.
Made From Scratch suits an ongoing format, and repeats with different artists will be held in June and September. Artists can apply through Merringong’s website.
“Corey Pickett amused and engaged with multiple juggling skills and slick quips before musical sidekick Emma Price comically reworked the wholesome My Favourite Things into something that would make the kink set blush.”
– Brian Kelly
Father raises risk of cricket ball injuries at playground
By Jeremy Lasek
“The situation could easily be rectified by Council putting high posts and netting outside the ground to protect the playground.”
– Mark Johnston
Aleading
Wollongong personal injury lawyer has questioned the location of a popular children’s playground in Gwynneville, located just metres from a cricket ground.
A long-term resident in the area, Mark Johnston says he speaks for a number of parents who share his concerns that the playground at Wiseman Park has been built too close to the ground. He regularly takes his five-year-old son Owen to the playground.
“It’s a great little playground. It’s just a shame it’s located so close to the cricket ground,” Mark said. “There is so much public space in this area that it should have been easy to locate it somewhere else on the site to obviate the risk.
“I’m not aware of anyone getting hit by a ball yet, but it will happen one day.”
Acting as a concerned father
While a life member of the Keira Cricket Club and former Illawarra Cricket president, Mark has emphasised that he is raising the issue only as a concerned father.
His concerns were supported by the captain of the Wests Illawarra captain, David Potts, speaking to the Illawarra Flame after the coin toss at Saturday’s semi final at Wiseman Park.
“I agree totally, balls get hit in that area all the time, Some kid’s going to get killed,” David said.
Warning signs are in place
Several warning signs about the danger of flying cricket balls have been erected independent of Wollongong City Council or Cricket Illawarra but Mark Johnston believes this isn’t enough.
“The situation could easily be rectified by Council putting high posts and netting outside the ground to protect the playground,” Mark said.
“There is a good example of this at the northern end of Dalton Park which protects balls from being kicked into the creek behind the goals.”
Mark has raised his concerns with community group Neighbour Forum 5 and the matter will be discussed at its April meeting in council’s library theatrette next Wednesday evening.
Questions over pending land sale
By Jeremy Lasek
“The Scouts was such a big organisation within the steelworks at that time but times have changed. It’s sad it won’t remain in community ownership.”
– Arnold McLean
TheScouts and Guiding movements in the region look set to reap a multi-million dollar windfall with the pending sale of two prime sites in Gwynneville. Questions are being asked, however, about whether the land, gifted to the organisations decades ago, should remain in community hands.
The adjoining sites in Foley Street close to the Beaton Park Leisure Centre and Weerona Lodge have been offered for sale as one lot with the proceeds of the sale to be split between the Scouts and Guides on a pro rata basis.
Measuring 2757 sq m, the site is being sold through an expression of interest process with the zoning permitting development of new housing on the land.
The EOI process concluded earlier this month, and it’s understood there are several parties interested in the purchase with negotiations currently underway.
While the Guide’s hall remains on site, the Scout’s building was removed three years ago. The vacant site was used to accommodate site sheds for the redevelopment and upgrade of the nearby Beaton Park tennis courts.
This is the second time the Scout’s site has been on the market. Exactly two years ago the sale of the Scout’s property fell through at the last minute.
At the time, in April 2023, Core Logic reported that the Scouts long-time base at 41 Foley Street, Gwynneville sold for
$2.86 million. Title deeds records showed the property was acquired by the Boy Scouts from Australian Iron and Steel in 1950. A spokesperson for Scouts confirmed that the sale to an out of area buyer fell through.
This provides the opportunity for both the Guides’ and Scout’s sites to be offered for sale together for the first time.
Local resident Arnold McLean believes the sale should never have proceeded, and the surplus land should remain in community hands as an extension to the neighbouring Beaton Park Leisure Centre complex.
Arnold says both the Scouts and Guides were effectively “gifted” the land more than 70 years ago “as a benefit to mine and steelworker children after the sale of the federal coke works and Kemira Colliery tramway.”
“The Scouts was such a big organisation within the steelworks at that time but times have changed. It’s sad it won’t remain in community ownership,” Arnold said.
In a joint statement from Scouts NSW and Girl Guides NSW, ACT and NT, it was confirmed there had been no sale of the properties to date. “There has not been an active Scout Group at the site for many years,” the statement said. “Girl Guides … are exploring the opportunity to relocate their unit to the Scout Hall in North Wollongong.”
Local resident Arnold McLean
Empowering every step
By Tyneesha Williams
“We exist because of people’s donations of time, money and clothing”
“I see these wonderful volunteers that give up their time to help these ladies, and sometimes that’s all it takes, and it’s transformative.”
– Rachel Dyer
Afterseven years in the Illawarra, global charity Dress for Success has its own success story to share. Their services – which range from providing a quality wardrobe to careers advice – have helped empower more than 3000 women a year to gain financial independence.
Rachel Dyer, operations manager at Dress for Success Illawarra, is proud to be a part of an organisation that has been supporting women since 1997.
“A young lady, Nancy Lublin, who was only 18 or 19, received $5000 inheritance from her great-grandfather, and she started Dress for Success with that money,” Rachel says.
“Now, we are all over the world. In NSW we have a branch in Sydney, in
Rachel Dyer and Dress for Success volunteers.
Photo: Tyneesha Williams
Summer Hill, we’re about to open one in Penrith, and we have a branch in Newcastle as well as here, in Warrawong.
“We’re affiliates, so the money we raise in New South Wales stays here, we just pay a licensing fee to New York.”
Fundraising is at the heart of what Dress for Success does; as a charity, they do not receive government funding.
“We exist because of people’s donations of time, money and clothing,” Rachel says.
Volunteers at Dress for Success welcome donations of clothing from the community and provide free styling services to clients.
“The clothing that’s donated – we curate very carefully, we make sure that
the clothing is new or nearly new, that there are no rips or tearing, stains, smells, that the zippers work, hems are up,” Rachel says. “We also try not to accept anything that’s from fast fashion, Anko, BigW, Best & Less, because we have a sustainability program. Plus, we want to give ladies really good quality clothing that they may not be able to afford, and it will last longer for them.
“Kmart clothing is perfectly fine for anyone to wear, but if you haven’t worked in a while and you’ve lost your confidence, we want to give people something better quality that’s going to improve that confidence and empowerment.”
Dress for Success has a ‘client first’ policy and clothing that is deemed inappropriate for an interview, a court appearance, a graduation or other major event is sold at discounted rates at their ‘Bubbles and Bargains’ Sales.
Dress for Success Illawarra will hold their next Bubbles and Bargains sale on May 4 at Dapto Ribbonwood Centre.
“Those sales get a really good following, because it’s really great clothing at really good prices,” Rachel says. “It keeps us going, but it’s also about saving things from landfill and providing good clothing in an affordability crisis.
“We don’t turn anything away, we don’t accept coat-hangers and plastic bags, we give some clothes to the op shops, and there’s a collection company that takes the unusable clothes away and turns them into rags.”
As part of Dress for Success’ ‘Get the job’ program, clients receive a custom outfit suitable for a job interview.
“We offer a Get the Job workshop, alongside the styling service. The workshop talks about what to think about when you go for a job, what to wear, how to put a CV together, what it should have in it, interview questions to think about, shaking hands, eye contact, that sort of thing,” Rachel says.
“The other styling we do is a ‘Got the Job’ service. If someone has got the job and they’re starting at work, they come to us and we give them a week’s worth of work clothes, a capsule wardrobe to keep,
because the paycheck won’t come in for a week or two.”
Dress for Success clients have access to a free online portal called Career Hub, which includes a range of resources to help those seeking employment.
“It’s not a linear journey for a lot of people. We had a woman come in with her caseworker. She had fled a domestic violence situation and was living in the refuge. She needed an outfit for meetings with rental managers, because if you don’t have a home, you can’t get a job,” Rachel says.
“We dressed her and she got a home to live in, and then came back a few months later, she had joined our Career Hub, got an interview, came back for an interview outfit, she got that job and came back to get the Got The Job outfits.”
Dress for Success will be working with ITEC in the coming year, delivering Get the Job workshops to final-year students.
“You don’t need to be disadvantaged to refer to us. You may have all of the money in the world but you may not have control of it and access to that money. You may have a husband or partner that does let you access your money,” Rachel says.
“You might not have money because you’re a student – we want to help students get on their path to success.
“I would love it if every student that went to ITEC, TAFE, UOW, every female knew about us and booked in towards the end of their course so that they’ve got that outfit and they’re ready to go.”
The Dress for Success boutique in Warrawong is open three days a week and Rachel aims to grow their client base, so they can open five days a week.
“That’s why I do this job, because I see these wonderful women coming in who’ve had challenges, and I see these wonderful volunteers that give up their time to help these ladies, and sometimes that’s all it takes, and it’s transformative,” Rachel says.
“We can’t fix the complex problems that these ladies walk in with. We can do one thing: we can give them confidence and we can empower them to help them put their best foot forward.”
The Illawarra Iranian Association’s Persian New Year party was held on March 20 at UOW. Photos: Tyneesha Williams
Happy Nowruz!
On Thursday, March 20, the Illawarra Iranian Association celebrated the Persian New Year with a party at the University of Wollongong. An ancient festival stretching back thousands of years, Nowruz means ‘New Day’ and is timed to celebrate Spring on the northern solar calendar. It’s celebrated by millions of people in Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, parts of Turkey and Iraq, out to northern India. Read more here
Why, dear sea anemone
By Dr Andy Lawrence
“One of the most recognisable species at the rocky tidal line is the waratah anemone.”
Ifound
out this week that I’ve been mispronouncing the name of one of my favourite marine creatures for my entire life. Comically, my husband, who is a high school teacher, corrected me after he himself was corrected by his 14-year-old student in the middle of
English class. I’m secretly delighted that anemones are part of his English pedagogy.
Apparently, you pronounce the word anemone an-EM-on-ee. My whole life I’ve been saying an-EN-om-ee. Mind blown. Now I’m trying to retrain my
Photo: Andy Lawrence
mouth to say anemone and I feel like my three-year-old toddler trying to pronounce grasshopper (she calls them ‘hop-grass’ and it’s delightful).
My nomenclatural faux pas aside, I adore anemones. Some of my fondest childhood memories are exploring the rockpools of the NSW South Coast, prodding anemones and feeding them bits of debris. This is a memory I now facilitate for my own children. Yesterday we spent an hour and a half at MM beach, looking for anemones and letting them gently grab their little fingers with their tentacles. Then patiently waiting for them to unfurl again.
One of the most recognisable species of anemone at the rocky tidal line in the Illawarra is the waratah anemone, Actinia tenebrosa. This species is common throughout southern Australian shores and is named for the waratah flower, the emblem of New South Wales. The species is also common throughout New Zealand where it is known as Kotore or Kotoretore in Māori. Kotore has a few synonyms in Māori: bottom, bird tail and, amusingly, anus.
Rather fitting I’d say, given that when the tide goes out, waratah anemones hide from the sun and air by retracting all their tentacles, giving them the uncanny appearance of a prolapsed anus.
The poetic honesty of the Māori name is less reflective in their underwater appearance. They unfurl their beautiful red tentacles and do indeed look less like an anus and more like a flower. I can just imagine the Australian colonists with their delicate sensibilities, turning a blind eye toward the anemones’ more anal characteristics and focusing on their flower-like ones. Not to mention the fact that these sensibilities were entirely contradictory.
Anus-looking sea creatures? Obviously offensive, please do not speak of it.
Procurement of land that is already occupied and complicity is subsequent massacre? A-OK! The saving grace is that ‘waratah’ at least comes from the Eora Aboriginal word ‘warada’ meaning beautiful. I suspect the common name
was likely a more modern attribution, but don’t quote me.
Talking of prickly subjects, did you know that anemones’ tentacles stick to your fingers because they’re shooting tiny barbs into your skin?
Like all cnidarians (think jellyfish, blue-bottles and coral), anemones have specialised cells in their tentacles called cnidocytes. These cells contain a microscopic grenade, complete with a hair trigger.
Inside the cell rests a nematocyst, a bag of liquid containing a literal harpoon connected to a long thread. When the hair receptor is tripped by touch or chemical changes, the nematocyst becomes highly pressurised and releases the harpoon into whatever is near the cell. That is the feeling of the anemones ‘sticking’ to your fingers.
Luckily for us, anemone nematocysts are not pressurised enough to pierce our skin. But when you are stung by a blue-bottle or jellyfish, this mechanism is how they inject their venom and why it hurts so damn much.
Another fun fact about waratah anemones (I am practicing my pronunciation every time I write this word – I need all the help I can get) is that they are viviparous! Meaning, they brood their young inside their body cavity, then give birth to fully formed juvenile anemones through their mouth, which also functions as their anus… and, I guess, their vagina? Anyway, they have one hole. The little bebes then plant themselves close to their parent, which is why you see these anemones gathered together on the rock surfaces and crevices.
So besides being part of a lovely memory and creating wholesome experiences for my kids, anemones have now given me a lesson in English pronunciation and, even better than that, they have given me a new avenue to appreciate Māori language and culture. Next time you poke an anemone, remember that linguistically speaking you’re poking an anus.
You’re welcome.
“Apparently, you pronounce the word anemone an-EM-on-ee. My whole life I’ve been saying an-EN-om-ee.”
– Andy Lawrence
$4k raised for Women Illawarra
By Tyneesha Williams
“It was a really beautiful event with a lot of people participating.”
– Michelle Glasgow
OnSaturday, March 8, Nan Tien Temple held an International Women’s Day event in aid of Women Illawarra, raising $4000 to support the local charity’s work.
Ticket holders took part in the largest regional Meditation and Tai Chi event, followed by a temple ‘blessing for women’. A talk was given on the Buddhist perspective on ‘home’, followed by a free screening of local short film Francis, directed by Screen Illawarra’s vice chair, Sharon Lewis.
General manager of Women Illawarra, Michelle Glasgow, said she was grateful for the community’s support.
“It was a really beautiful event with a lot of people participating, which was
nice to see,” Michelle said.
“Women Illawarra are really grateful for the support given by the Nan Tien Temple in running the event.
“Their generosity in fundraising for us really highlighted the importance of connection across all communities and supporting women and children who are vulnerable.”
Funds raised will go toward supports and programs for children and women in the community.
Women Illawarra will hold its annual fundraising event on May 16, from 6.30pm at the Obar, Towradgi Beach Hotel. Tickets are available through Humanitix.
