Art and about with Naomi McCleary ...............................................8

by one of the finest essayists of our time who died recently). I’ve had a subscription to the film service Mubi for a while but I’m only just starting to make the most of it this lockdown.

What are your fears and anxieties about the Covid world - and what are your hopes and aspirations?

Luana: I do worry what long-term impact Covid will have on our creative sector. What has always been a challenging space to make a living in, has and will become harder as community priorities and financial burdens are realised. However, I’ve seen first-hand how the creative arts bring hope. Coming together for a shared purpose and vision can inspire and ignite and as long as we continue to champion, remain strong and resilient, the sector will continue to flourish.

Tendai: One of my fears is that the rhetoric of being ‘in this together’ is obscuring the impact this pandemic has on disadvantaged communities. It’s not difficult to see who this pandemic will affect most disproportionately and we can link that to a history of dispossession and poverty. Fortunately, I also see glimpses of people around me reflecting on what kind of world they’d like to build and be part of. My hope is this moment galvanises us all into action.

Tell me a little about your more concrete plans for the next 12 months.

Luana: Over the next 12 months, Corban Estate Arts Centre will undergo a lot of change. Earthquake strengthening is about to commence on our buildings which will cause many movements around the estate as we seek to create some sense of normality amongst the chaos. It will be a time of disruption in our already disruptive pandemic world and this is when leadership becomes essential. I lean into the challenges ahead with a positive view on our future and feel inspired about what CEAC will become and what role we will play as part of a creative precinct in west Auckland.

Tendai: For most of the next 12 or so months I’ll be working with the team at Te Uru to deliver projects with a stellar cast of collaborators. These include, among others, Stars Start Falling guest curated by Hanahiva Rose; The Banaba Project/Te Kaneati, guest curated by Yuki Kihara; and I’ll be working with the artist George Watson to stage her first major one-person exhibition in a public gallery at Te Uru. George is making a new video work that draws on literature and the life of Katherine Mansfield, in order to explore concepts of imagination, desire, and the politics of memory in settler Aotearoa.

Tendai Mutambu. Photo by Erika Stevenson.

Continued on page 15 >>

Buckle up, this is going to get rough

The west has had a rough time recently. Not only do we have Covid to worry about but in the space of a week the West had to cope with a terrorist attack and being battered by another of those one-in-100-year storms that seems to happen every couple of years.

There was some significant damage caused to local infrastructure by the storm. • Bethells Te Henga was cut off for a period of time after a huge downpour caused the river to shift and undermine the road into the village. Urgent work undertaken by AT has reopened the road. • Karekare has had a significant slip take out most of Lone

Kauri Road and AT is addressing this particular slip. There are three other slips on the road and it will take months to remedy. • Mountain Road has had two significant slips. • Huia was battered and Whatipu is still isolated. • Other parts of the roading infrastructure in the area have also suffered major damage.

Watercare’s system also took a hammering.

From a situation where the city was facing likely water shortages next Summer the west’s dams were suddenly completely full. Water quality has plummeted as the sediment levels in the dams has built up and Watercare has recently had to purge the lower levels of two of its dams in an attempt to improve water quality.

This is a stark reminder that Climate Change is a current and ever present threat and that if we are to avoid the worst effects we do need to make fundamental change.

These sorts of one-in-a-hundred-year storms have hit the west three times in the past three years. Buckle up, this is going to get rough.

The Waitākere Ranges Local Board Future West team are (left to right) Mark Allen, Saffron Toms, Sandra Coney and Greg Presland.

– Greg Presland

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