Advance - Winter 2013

Winter 2013

start your engines at the push of a button

contents 4 visual arts

Lisa Reihana talks about her recent projects.

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6 cover story

An innovative new push button motor starter for amputees.

10 communication

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Taking a closer look at collaboration in Northland’s marine conservation areas.

13 international

We talk to three Fulbright Scholars about their experiences on the academic exchange.

16 natural sciences

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Unitec’s cat welfare expert talks about why cats are causing so much controversy.

21 conservation

A Unitec lecturer uses GIS in Fiji to help with conservation planning.

24 art walk

An exciting art walk project on Rosebank Road in Avondale.

28 social practice

Taking care of the dying is the focus for Unitec researcher, Catherine Hughes.

32 profile

John Davies from the Department of Performing and Screen Arts talks about his research and career.

34 student research Find out about Carly van Winkel and our other Unitec postgraduate researchers.

4 28 editor Simon Peel writer Trudi Caffell design Nadja Rausch cover photo Jae Frew printing The Image Centre

6 published by Unitec Institute of Technology Private Bag 92025, Victoria Street West, Auckland 1142, New Zealand ISSN 1176-7391 phone 0800 10 95 10 web www.unitec.ac.nz

New Zealand's leading research Institute of Technology In April, the results of the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) quality assessment exercise were announced. I'm happy to report that Unitec maintains its top ranking for the quality of staff research in the New Zealand Institute of Technology or Polytechnic (ITP) sector. Of particular satisfaction was strong performance gains in the areas of computing and information technology, design and visual arts, and architecture.

The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) operates the PBRF quality assessment every six years and staff submit portfolios detailing their research activity over the six-year period. These portfolios are reviewed by panels of experts and given ratings (A, B, C). The ratings are intended to assess the quality of research activity and determine how much funding the TEC will allocate to further support and promote research. At the heart of the PBRF is a funding mechanism, but it is also an important indicator of quality and intensity of research at an institution.

Some people ask how participation in the PBRF − with its traditional measures of research activity − fits with Unitec's aspirations in terms of applied research, industry engagement and impact. My answer is that it's not a case of either/or; it's about both. Applied research is research that has an identifiable end use or application or, in other words, addresses an identifiable problem or issue.

This is often contrasted with 'blue skies research' where the use of the research outcomes is not yet known or obvious, or may be some time off in the future. High-quality applied research can solve real world problems as well as being published in books or journals, or presented at conferences.

Indeed, to acknowledge the value of applied research, the PBRF assessment incorporates an "applied research" panel with expertise in assessing the quality of research that is geared towards having an impact and producing benefits.

The PBRF is, of course, a valuable source of funding. But it's certainly more than just being about the money. Participation in the PBRF gives Unitec valuable recognition of its position as a research-engaged institution. By being ranked against their peers at other universities

and institutes of technology, Unitec staff gain important recognition of their standing, thus enhancing their career prospects. As well, our students can be assured that they are being taught by staff who measure up against the same standards applied across the New Zealand tertiary sector. The community can be assured that our teaching is underpinned by a level of research activity that ensures courses are at the forefront of knowledge.

So at Unitec it's not a case of choosing between teaching or research, or choosing between applied research and academic research outputs.

Unitec is both teaching led and research engaged. Staff are involved in applied research that is also capable of being quality assured and published or presented. One might think of Unitec as a 'knowledge factory' whose purpose is both to create knowledge, information and expertise, and to share and disseminate it.

I hope that you enjoy this issue of Advance. If you want to know more about research at Unitec, please visit the research pages of our website www.unitec.ac.nz or contact me directly.

Associate Professor Simon Peel Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies speel@unitec.ac.nz

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Photo: Grant Southam

visual arts

A visual approach At the beginning of last year, Advance featured the footbridge designs of Unitec’s Tohunga a Toi Lisa Reihana, which were part of the $340 million motorway extension to Victoria Park Tunnel. After a small delay, the footbridge over the motorway and two other designs Reihana created for the project were officially opened in December last year. “The latest designs are in Victoria Park, one next to the skate park, and one opposite Franklin Road, which is a billboard incorporating a raranga pattern combined with an image of the sea,” says Reihana. “I’m quite proud of the one opposite Franklin Road, it’s quite lovely at night, especially when you realise it’s the original shoreline of the beach.”

The motorway project was the largest of its kind in Australasia at the time, and Reihana’s role, alongside fellow artist Henriata Nichols, was to bring focus to historical sites of Auckland.

“Overall there were designs for the motorway, the bridge and the egress structures in the park.”

The original idea was to incorporate Māori designs into the motorway project. “Ngāti Whātua had

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been working with the Auckland Council for a long time, finding opportunities where there are major sites of interest being developed, trying to find ways of bringing an artistic quality to it, that also signals historical precedent.”

Reihana says a highlight for her was being briefed

by Ngāti Whātua. “They actually walked the land and told us the historic stories of early Auckland, the history and pre-history of early Auckland.

It was really great as an artist of Māori descent being able to walk around Auckland today and really get a sense of what it used to be like. I understand what was going on down there before industry developed.”

The motorway designs were just one project in the busy visual artist’s life; she is well known for her art both in New Zealand and overseas, and in the recent Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) round, Reihana received an A rating. “It’s a great achievement, only a handful of artists are rated at this level,” she says.

The PBRF hasn’t always included the creative arts. “Originally it was weighted towards classic

visual arts

Opposite page: Lisa Reihana stands with the finished design opposite Franklin Road. This page: Reihana's original design for the completed work.

academia, so it took a while for a creative arts framework to be developed,” says Reihana. “You could create an exhibition and not be rated on it, but someone who critiqued your exhibition could be rated.”

have to be recommended for it,” she says. “It’s in a place called Saratoga, near Silicon Valley, where all the gabillionaires live. I stayed for 11 weeks and was able to write 30 scripts in order to complete the next stage of In Pursuit of Venus.”

Reihana says that receiving an A rating takes more than simply creating artwork. “It’s also the other things I support. It’s the academic aspect, certainly, but it’s also about supporting the visual arts in myriad ways, as a mentor, being on boards like at the Auckland Art Gallery and connecting to the creative industries.”

Since returning from the residency, Reihana has been concentrating on finishing the project. “I’ve got a Creative New Zealand grant, which I couldn’t

As if she didn’t have enough to do already, Reihana also completed her master’s degree at Unitec last year. “I was able to complete stage two of my current video project, based around Captain Cook, Joseph Banks and the Pacific Navigator Tupaia.

Called In Pursuit of Venus, it’s is going to be a mega project; it’s already garnering a lot of interest.”

Earlier this year Reihaha took up a residency at the prestigious Montalvo Arts Centre in the US. “It’s the oldest artist residency in the US and you

"A lot of the work I have done is about being courageous and shifting the goal posts." use as a student. That was why I needed to finish my master’s, and why I needed to get these scripts done. This year, I will shoot the videos, add them to the original master’s material and then launch the project internationally; it’s going to go everywhere.”

She’s taking a financial risk with the video project, but Reihana says it’s worth it. “A lot of courage is required in art. A lot of the work I have done is about being courageous, and shifting the goal posts. A world without art would be a very sad place.”

» contact Lisa Reihana Tohunga a Toi Department of Design and Visual Arts lreihana@unitec.ac.nz

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cover story

Photos: Jae Frew

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Making life easier

The first time Transport Technology Lecturer Steve Liggett came into contact with someone who had lost a limb was when he was at university completing his undergraduate engineering degree. “I had a classmate who was in a motorbike accident and lost the use of his arm,” says Liggett.

“He was unable to start his vehicle while sitting in the driver’s seat; he actually had to start it while standing at the open door, and reaching in and cranking. You can’t physically reach around the steering wheel with your left hand and get to the ignition key and twist it.”

to operate the ignition system and start the engine of a vehicle by simply pressing a button, rather than having to twist the ignition key. “The button can be located anywhere in the vehicle,” says Liggett. “You put your foot on the brake, press and hold the button, and the vehicle will automatically start. It recognises the driver’s door opening and closing, and immediately turns the accessory on. So there is no need to fuss around with the ignition key if you just want to get in and listen to the radio or use the accessory circuit.”

Liggett says he paid careful attention to ensuring the design would protect the user. “It has multiple safety features to make sure that someone doesn’t accidentally bump the button.

The door needs to be closed, the handbrake on, foot on the brake, and then you press and hold the button for two seconds. Only then will the engine fire into life. The ‘autostart’ feature monitors engine cranking speed, which enables the user to press and release the button to start.

When you’ve come to a standstill and you want to exit the vehicle you just press the button, the engine will stop and out you get.”

Opposite page: Steve Liggett and his push button motor starter. The button installed into Liggett's car. The packaging designed for the new product.

cover story

A Unitec Transport Technology researcher has used a grant from the New Zealand Artificial Limb Service to create a product that will make driving a car easier for amputees.

It’s a simple idea that has huge potential for impacting the lives of amputees, says Paul Bargh, Area Manager at the Auckland NZALS office. “The benefits are clear, and we’re very happy with the final result. Steve demonstrated the device to us, which he has fitted into his own car. It certainly has potential for some of our upper extremity “It’s a simple amputees who are the idea that has a most obvious group that I see benefiting from more huge potential accessible car controls.”

When the New Zealand Artificial Limb Service (NZALS) requested proposals from researchers aimed at developing products for impacting that would help rehabilitate amputees, Liggett decided to Liggett says that the NZALS the lives of pitch his idea for a retrofitted were able to quickly find amputees.” push button motor starter, someone who was interested specifically for people with in the product. “Paul talked to prosthetic right arms. “We put in a one of his patients, who has a right proposal to develop a system to enable arm prosthetic and asked if he would amputees to be able to better rehabilitate be interested. His patient phoned me and said the themselves in their use of a vehicle. We wanted to product was fantastic, that he’d been looking for provide a product, so that once installed, meant one forever and could we install it into his vehicle.” they could operate their vehicle easier, without The reason for the excitement is that the push the use of a right limb. We were successful and button starter returns a measure of control into they offered us a grant to develop and build a an area of amputees’ lives that has previously suitable product.” been problematic. “It helps to rehabilitate new The final push button starter product is an amputees in the operation of a motor vehicle,” embedded control system that enables the driver says Liggett. “I think anyone who has lost an arm

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is going to struggle with everyday activities in general. They will certainly find some activities more of a challenge. The chap who phoned me told me he has to stand outside his car − in the cold and rain in winter − using his left arm to pre-heat the ignition, to then be able to start his vehicle. Only once he’s started it can he get in. He said if he’s got anything in his arm, or he’s trying to put something in his vehicle, he has to do all of that first, and then get out again to start it. He said there’s nothing currently manufactured in New Zealand that he’s aware of to help him. So he’s very excited about our product.”

And it’s not just for people with amputated limbs, says Liggett.

“It could be for anybody. I have it installed in my own car. I use it every day and I wouldn’t go back to an ignition key, ever. You don’t need to muck around with inserting and twisting a key; you just hop in, press the button and go.

We can locate the button on the left or right, or put it anywhere really. Modified vehicle owners such as classic car or hotrod drivers might want a button instead of a key. It also has potential with agricultural or industrial uses; a button may be preferable to a key for safety reasons in some circumstances. We’ve also been advised to contact the Laura Ferguson Trust to see if there are people with other disabilities, such as arthritis, who might be interested.”

» contact Steve Liggett Lecturer Department of Transport Technology sliggett@unitec.ac.nz

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People purchasing a brand new car may find the push button feature already incorporated into their vehicle, says Liggett. But the main point about his invention is that they can retrofit the button into existing vehicles. “It’s easy to say that if someone has lost an arm, particularly a right arm, they should go out and buy a new car with a push button. But there are other external factors to take into account. If you have lost a limb, you may not be in a position where you can afford a new vehicle. Can you still remain employed in your current occupation? You may also need to have your house modified to make it easier to live. Once all this has been taken into account, there may not be the funds available to go and buy a new car. So right here and now, there are a

good number of people who have a need for this.

They already own a vehicle, and for one reason or another they don’t want to upgrade it to the latest model, so here is a solution that can help them out.”

"It’s a product that can be used to assist and help people who really need it. It has a practical use."

Liggett says an important part of the project was that he was able to involve his students with the design and build of the push button starter.

“My background is in electrical engineering, so I’ve been in control system design for around 15 years. I haven’t built anything like this previously, but it was a reasonably straightforward project.

By setting assignments and mini-exercises I was able to involve my autotronics students as well.

What’s really good for them is that it’s not just an assignment-based project, it’s actually going to be out there, to assist a group of people that I think need this device.”

According to Liggett, the next step for the design is to incorporate radio frequency identification (RFID). “In practical terms it means that at the moment, as you approach the vehicle, you still have to open the car with a remote or a key,” says Liggett. “With RFID it could automatically detect the driver. Currently, it’s a manual operation where you have to open the door and start the vehicle using the button. By incorporating passive RFID, it would automatically identify that you are the owner and arm the system. It adds another level of security.”

The NZALS is planning to put the product up on their website to be available to people who need it. They’re also keen on ensuring the product is available to the general public and are planning to show it off around the country. “I’m building an interactive display unit for the NZALS so they can demonstrate it in their different regions,” says Liggett. “It’s a steering wheel, with a button and some lights to indicate the ignition and accessory lights. Once you press the button it will fire up like a V8 engine.”

Liggett says that because of its practical use to amputees, the push button starter was a research project that he felt passionate about. “What drew me to this project was that it was about developing something that wouldn’t necessarily sit on a shelf or be added to a list of research outputs. It’s a product that can be used to assist and help people who really need it. It has a practical use. It made it all very real and worthwhile and it made it a valid research project for me.”

cover story

Liggett’s students Final year Bachelor of Applied Technology students Ambar Kulkarni and Rob Rawnsley both say participating in the motor starter project meant a huge jump in their learning for their final year of study. “The amount of information and knowledge that I learnt from the project was fantastic,” says Kulkarni. “Rather than just doing programming on a computer, it was a good example of how electronics interacts with the real world.” Rawnsley agrees: “Steve always encourages practical projects, but this wasn’t just a project we’d made up, it had an outside objective that made it more like working in the industry. It gave us more of an idea of what it would be like in a real work environment. The best part is that it has a practical use, it’s a product that can help people.”

Photos: Jae Frew

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communication

Communication in conservation Finding the best way to develop collaboration between community organisations and promote conservation in Northland is the focus of research by Lecturer Giles Dodson.

“It’s a good way to get people on board who might not otherwise be on board.”

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By studying a collaboration between Northland hapu Te Uri o Hikihiki and the Department of Conservation (DOC), Unitec Lecturer Giles Dodson believes he has been able to make some important conclusions on the best way for community and government organisations to work together on conservation projects.

The collaboration was focused on getting Mimiwhangata, a marine park located north of Whangarei, upgraded to a marine reserve. “It was a partnership between DOC and the local hapu that lasted from 2001 to 2006. It was a good example of how they could work effectively together and develop ideas around conservation and conservation management. That is to say, how a marine reserve should be established, how it should be governed and managed. Also, how

Māori cultural values should be incorporated into the final marine reserve structure.”

His case study clearly showed that the cogovernance or co-management approach to marine conservation was an effective method for collaboration, says Dodson. “It’s a good way to get people on board who might not otherwise be on board; that is to say hapu groups, who have historically been suspicious of some marine conservation protection measures, because they are seen as impinging on customary fishing rights, for example. The Mimiwhangata project showed that those aren’t insurmountable barriers to getting a project off the ground.

What is a barrier is the statutory framework, which currently makes partnerships and comanagement a very difficult proposition. The

Photos: Simon Riera

The current legislation, the Marine Reserves Act, dates from 1971, and was put in place specifically to establish the Goat Island Marine Reserve.

In contrast, the Reserves Act offers greater opportunities for governing terrestrial reserves, says Dodson. “The Marine Reserves Act doesn’t permit for the governance of particular marine reserves to be devolved to community groups, be they Māori or whoever, whereas the Reserves Act does.”

The Marine Reserves Act also states that marine reserves can only be set up for scientific reasons, says Dodson. “Currently it completely overlooks biodiversity protection and, which I think is really important, it also overlooks the cultural values and practices, particularly for Māori, around engagement with the environment.

If those kinds of values and perspectives are recognised, and able to be incorporated into future conservation frameworks, then I think everyone who is involved in conservation will find that there is a great deal more willingness to support conservation initiatives, particularly around reserves and protections.”

But perhaps an even larger problem with the legislation is the timeframe that marine reserves are expected to remain in place. “Once the marine reserve is in place, it’s in perpetuity,” says Dodson. “It’s like a national park, once it’s established, there is ‘no take’ from that area, you can’t modify the natural environment in any way. My understanding of the Māori world view is that the natural environment is there for the

Opposite page: Carol Ngawati of Unitec's Maia Māori Development Unit has been mentoring Dodson throughout his research project. This page: Lecturer Giles Dodson outside the Unitec Marae.

Despite these hurdles, creating a marine reserve at Mimiwhangata is a viable option for multiple reasons, says Dodson. “The idea is that marine protection can be a vehicle for other kinds of social and economic development. For example, around 300,000 people a year visit Goat Island, officially named the Cape Rodney-Okakari Point Marine Reserve. Local people at Mimiwhangata could have a part to play and benefit economically from a visitor and tourism economy. It’s a way they can take control of their own development, through an activity that is actually quite beneficial − ecologically, educationally and culturally.”

The problem with the creation of a marine reserve at Mimiwhangata is that the application has been stalled, says Dodson. “Around 2006, the Government decided to move away from that form of process for establishing a marine reserve. The Government at the time articulated the Marine Protected Areas Policy, which is about taking a strategic national approach to establishing marine reserve protected areas.

They weren’t going to look at any more reserve applications because of this new policy.”

This new top-down policy was supposed to provide a co-ordinated national approach to marine reserve creation, says Dodson. “Critics have said it’s very much a Government-driven approach, and Government-driven approaches tend to be influenced by powerful lobby groups. Whilst places like the Sub-Antarctic Islands and the South Island West Coast have gone through this process already, the very highvalue and high-use coastlines like the east coast of Northland, Auckland and Bay of Plenty have not, and it’s not certain when this will begin to happen.”

But there are still lessons that can be learnt from the initial collaboration, says Dodson. “One of the historical aspects of all of this is that Māori have frequently

communication

legislative framework which provides the legal structure for co-governance is, I would suggest, inadequate at the moment.”

purposes of sustainable social development, so to lock something away and say we’re never going to take from this area again, is in contradiction to that.”

The Mimiwhangata area is pristine conservation land, that locals are keen to preserve.

Photo: Crown Copyright Department of Conservation, Danica Stent

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» contact Giles Dodson Lecturer Department of Communication Studies email: gdodson@unitec.ac.nz

regarded these organisations with a great deal of suspicion, because to a large extent they’re associated with the holding of land that is seen as Māori land. One of the important things about Mimiwhangata is that it was providing a template for the way in which DOC could operate in the future in its relationship with local hapu and iwi.

The marine reserve at Mimiwhangata remains an important aspiration for locals and Northland conservationists.”

Since completing the initial case study on Mimiwhangata last year and beginning to publish his findings in the Society and Natural Resources journal, Dodson has widened his scope to look at other community organisations. “My idea has been to expand my view out from a specific case study, to look at the wider Northland context, with a view to looking at the broader New Zealand context at some stage, with maybe an international comparison.”

communication

Dodson says he is aiming to provide a comparison of different methods of dialogic or deliberative engagement. “This basically involves people coming together and talking and negotiating with each other. I’m using three Northland-based community groups engaged with matters of marine conservation, but who provide contrasting approaches and contrasting character.”

Left: Oystercatcher adult and chick, DOC camping ground, Mimiwhangata.

Right: Aerial view of Waikahoa Bay, Mimiwhangata Coastal Park.

Those three organisations are the Intergrated Kaipara Harbour Management Group (IKHMG), Fish Forever and the Doubtless Bay Marine Protection Group. “The IKHMG is a multistakeholder working group put together by Te Uri o Hau, a hapu of Ngāti Whātua, who put some of their Treaty settlement funds into establishing an integrated, eco-systemic, environmental management approach to the Kaipara Harbour.

That means looking at the ecological management of the Kaipara Harbour not in terms of political boundaries, but in terms of the ecological catchment, the whole of the eco-system.”

Photo left : Crown Copyright Department of Conservation, Danica Stent.

Photo right: Crown Copyright Department of Conservation, James Fraser.

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It’s a big undertaking; the Kaipara Harbour is one of the largest harbours in the world, and it’s fed by a significant chunk of Northland.

It’s also one of New Zealand’s most intensive dairy farming regions. “The management group has representation from all the local councils, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Forest and Bird, Te Uri o Hau and a whole range of other stakeholders, including commercial fishers on the Kaipara Harbour. They meet quarterly and have an active research and policy development programme underway, and are looking forward to having an actual political or governance impact.”

The other two organisations are very different again. “With Fish Forever, they’re a crew of concerned environmentalists around the Bay of Islands seeking to establish a no-take marine reserve in the Bay of Islands and are actively engaged with Eastern Bay of Islands hapu. The other organisation, the Doubtless Bay Marine Protection Group, is not very active at the moment, but they have been active in the past.”

Dodson says the work he is doing will help organisations to work successfully together in conservation. “I think it’s important because it provides insights into how better to do this kind of co-management. How better to advance, not only conservation activities, but also any kind of social or political issue on a local perspective.

It will show how to do so in a way which is authentic and democratic.”

And of equal importance is the cross-cultural dynamic of his research, says Dodson. “As we move into the post-Treaty settlement era, which will happen soon, there is the issue of Māori and Pakeha relations. On one hand we’ll have the institutions formed by the Treaty settlements, with their different forms of co-governance and devolved management. But once that is dealt with, and the historic Treaty settlements are completed, then we will be left with the existing conservation and resource management frameworks. My sense is that the existing frameworks need to be modified in ways which reflect the restored Treaty relationship between Māori and Pakeha. The simple fact is that when it comes to conservation, very little can get done in New Zealand without mutual engagement, support and communication.”

international

Clockwise from top left: Mel Galbraith shows off an owl wing in the Slater Museum of Natural History, part of the Biology Dept of the University of Puget Sound - with Bruce Haulman and museum director Professor Peter Wimberger.

Ron Mitchell from Fulbright New Zealand. Scott Wilson with some of his students from Georgetown University.

Associate Professor Carol Plummer in New Zealand.

Fulbright scholars at Unitec As the US-New Zealand Fulbright scholarship exchange celebrates its 65th anniversary, three Fulbright scholars – two Unitec lecturers going to the US and one US professor spending time here – experience what it means to participate in a cultural exchange.

When he was searching for a way to encourage lasting world peace at the end of World War II, US Senator J. William Fulbright came upon the idea of educational and cultural exchanges between the US and a range of other countries, including New Zealand. This year, the prestigious Fulbright educational and research scholarships are celebrating their 65th anniversary, with a long and memorable history of New Zealand scholarship recipients in their wake.

The opportunity to undertake valuable research in another environment is one of the benefits of the Fulbright scholarships, and two Unitec researchers were able to take up that challenge this year. Lecturer Mel Galbraith from the Department of Natural Sciences was awarded a travel grant which enabled him to travel to Seattle for a month, and Senior Lecturer Scott Wilson from the Department of Performing and Screen Arts spent five months at Georgetown University in Washington, DC as the 2013 Fulbright Visiting Scholar in New Zealand Studies.

For Wilson, the decision to apply for a Fulbright Scholarship was a simple one. “I was looking for ways to challenge and improve my teaching practice, push myself out of my comfort zones in the classroom and, at the same time, wanting to develop a couple of longer-term research projects.”

The scholarship has given him a valuable perspective on New Zealand films. “As part of the scholarship, I’m required to teach a course within the School of Foreign Service under the remit of the Centre for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies.

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audience would be immediately alert to, like the differences between West Coast and East Coast beaches, or the ways in which class and status are coded for local audiences. At the same time, other things that are less important for a local audience become highly significant for them, like the presence of a Māori character in a film who never refers to his or her ethnicity (as in Scarfies or Stickmen). These insights could only really happen by taking New Zealand films to an international audience and spending time – lots of time – talking through these details.”

Fulbright Scholarships

international

Established in 1946 in the aftermath of World War II by US Senator J William Fulbright, the Fulbright Programme is a range of exchanges between the US and other countries around the world. It now operates in over 155 countries, funding around 8,000 exchanges per year in order to encourage participants to study, research and teach their work in another country.

It has been described as one of the largest and most significant movements of scholars around the world.

Fulbright New Zealand was established in 1948, through a bilateral treaty between New Zealand and the US. It was the fifth country to join the programme, and since its inception has had more than 1600 New Zealanders and 1300 Americans participate in the New Zealand/US exchange.

Some notable alumni include Nobel Prize-winning scientist Alan MacDiarmid, anthropologist Dame Anne Salmond, historian Michael King, playwright Roger Hall, poet Bill Manhire, composer Gareth Farr and Member of Parliament David Cunliffe.

Wilson says his research project has made huge progress during his time at Georgetown. “My research, which is at the heart of my time here, is involved in exploring the international reception of New Zealand cinema and my time with the students is a crucial part of my exploration.

It is a perfect opportunity to conduct ad-hoc audience research, exploring issues of national identity and representation with young people whose only exposure to New Zealand has been through The Lord of the Rings and Flight of the Conchords. When I’m not in the classroom, I’m hitting the library stacks at the Library of Congress. The library’s archives give me access to film reviews and American and international responses to New Zealand cinema that are impossible to access without being here.”

Wilson says the Fulbright experience is designed to promote research. “It’s not a six-month vacation, as some might think. Research and cross-cultural exchange is at the centre of the Fulbright system. As well as exposure to new research materials, being in archives and research centres in the US has also exposed me to research practices and methodologies that were new to me. Not only have I developed as a researcher, but I’ll be bringing that knowledge back to share with my colleagues.”

Fellow Unitec researcher Galbraith received a travel scholarship to help with his costs to visit the US, based in Seattle. “The prime host was the Green River Community College,” says Galbraith. “They visit Unitec every year, as part of their study abroad programme. Their tutor, Dr Bruce Haulman has been bringing students to Unitec for the last nine years, and he was my main host. Bruce had always said that he wanted me to come and visit, and the Fulbright scholarship popped up as a mechanism to assist with that.”

Galbraith had a full programme of lectures planned for his time away. “The main focus of the travel awards is the sharing of knowledge between the two countries, so I gave talks to Green River Community College, but also three talks at the University of Washington, and one at the University of Puget Sound. I also gave a talk to the Washington Ornithological Society, and one to a National Audubon Society, because birds are my main focus of research.”

The talks he gave were on a variety of subjects related to his research here in New Zealand. “One presentation was on New Zealand birds; another was about the restoration of Tiritiri Matangi Island, because it has an international reputation. The other talk was for the University of Washington on biosecurity from a New Zealand perspective. It’s very different to the continental perspective, because we’re isolated islands. In the US it’s more about people and agricultural issues, rather than biodiversity.”

While his time was mostly spent talking and interacting with people in the US, Galbraith says he was able to take some time for his own interests. "I enjoyed experiencing the continental biodiversity, and the mammals, from big to little; bears down to the little squirrels. It’s very different. For me Mt St Helens was also a real highlight, I remember when it erupted, and it’s been a part of my teaching as a catastrophic event in ecology. Bruce also arranged for me to visit quite a few field research stations. University of Washington has quite a lot of them, so it was about that aspect of it as well.”

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Galbraith says he tried to give the people he talked to an idea of what it’s like to live in an island nation like New Zealand. “It’s easier for us to imagine what it’s like, because we see pictures of these little mammals and things, than the reverse. It’s one of the things I hope I achieved with the talks I gave, just impressing upon my listeners how different islands are.”

They accept around 20-25 postgraduate students a year and around the same number of New Zealand academics into the programme.

“It’s a great opportunity for New Zealanders because when they go to the US they have that opportunity to not only interact with American academics, but with visiting academics who may be at those institutions from around the world.”

While Unitec’s researchers were in the US, an associate professor from the University of Hawaii made the trip to New Zealand for her Fulbright experience. Social work researcher Dr Carol Plummer spent five weeks in New Zealand, spending time with Unitec’s Department of Social Practice at Waitakere Campus.

The Fulbright programme offers huge benefits to New Zealand as a whole. “The more Kiwis we can send to the US the better. It’s the classic thing, since The Lord of the Rings, more Americans are aware of New Zealand but they have a very limited idea of what New Zealand is like, and certainly a very limited understanding of the quality of the academic institutions here. Because of the Fulbright programme, they’re seeing the brightest and best of our academics and postgraduate students coming into their institutions. I really think we’re world leaders in that regard. We can send people who are very competitive into those environments.”

As with doing research, applying for a Fulbright Scholarship or grant requires meticulous preparation, says Mitchell. "That ties into the competitiveness. It’s not because we get large coming into their She was also able to get out into numbers of applications, it’s institutions." the community, talking and sharing that we get very high-quality her knowledge with social practice applicants. We have a limited organisations around Auckland. “I’ve had amount of funding, and therefore a lots of meetings with community groups, and limited amount of awards that we can offer, so they’ve been very open to me,” says Plummer. people do need to demonstrate that they are the “I’ve also learned a great deal through working best person to give the award to.” with a research contact who does family violence research in the Māori community. I’m helping him As for the exchange scholars themselves, to evaluate the family violence programme that Plummer says her time in New Zealand has they’re doing, which is marae based. I spent a been a fantastic opportunity. “I think it’s really night on a marae with this group and I’m getting wonderful for people to consider the Fulbright great opportunities to learn and see what I can scholarship possibility, not only for expanding take back that might fit with native Hawaiian their own learning but also bringing back the populations.” knowledge that they gain from somewhere else.

I think it’s a real opportunity and it’s important It’s not just about this one visit either, says that more people consider and explore.”

Plummer. “When we first talked about this exchange, we decided that we’d really like to Wilson agrees that the exchange has been a see if it could be a launching point for more learning experience rich with content and future communication and interchange between possibilities. “I think it’s vital for all academics, University of Hawaii and Unitec.” and particularly those based in the classroom, to experience as much difference as possible, in This kind of ongoing relationship emerging from order to develop their own practice. Of course, an initial Fulbright scholarship is exactly the result having access to new research resources is that Fulbright New Zealand is aiming for, according amazing, but the heart of the Fulbright is the to Ron Mitchell, Programme Manager at Fulbright notion of exchange, and out of this exchange has New Zealand. “We see it as a great opportunity come, for me at least, a new sense of what I do to build intercultural understanding, but to also and why I want to keep doing it.” engage in that global academic network,” he says.

international

Plummer says it was a chance to expand her own knowledge of her specialty areas − child sexual abuse, and social work in the aftermath of natural disasters − while offering her expertise to lecturers and students in the department, and the wider community. “For me it’s about learning what similarities and "Because differences we have in terms of of the Fulbright our systems for education, our programme, conceptions of social work and they’re seeing the social practice, and some of brightest and best the similar challenges around of our academics research productivity."

» contact Brenda Massey Grants and Funding Advisor Research Office and Postgraduate Centre bmassey@unitec.ac.nz

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Cats: friends or offenders?

Unitec’s resident cat expert talks about his research into the welfare of cats and why they’re causing so much controversy.

natural sciences

Opposite page: Unitec Senior Lecturer Mark Farnsworth says that cats should be registered and microchipped - in the same way as dogs are - for their own welfare.

Do you know where your cat goes when you let it out your front door? The answer is probably no, and according to Natural Sciences Senior Lecturer Mark Farnworth this is one of the major problems with cat ownership in New Zealand. “If I said my dog disappears into the local reserve in the morning, and I don’t see her again until the evening when I put food in her bowl, and she’s not micro-chipped, and she has no collar, people would be outraged, they’d think that I was neglectful as an owner. But our perception of cat ownership in New Zealand is that it’s a perfectly legitimate way to keep an animal.”

Farnworth is currently completing his veterinary science PhD thesis on cats, and has become an expert in the area of cat welfare research in New Zealand since arriving from the UK nine years ago. “To the best of my knowledge, that makes me the only person in New Zealand researching the welfare of cats,” he says. “There are other people looking at cats in terms of biodiversity, in terms of conservation and in terms of management for those ends, but I’m also interested in management of the cat population for the benefit of cats, which is where my point of difference lies.”

His interest in this area began when he noticed how cats could polarise people in New Zealand.

“It was something I first observed in the Natural Sciences department here at Unitec. In a department where we teach animal welfare and vet nursing, and we also teach about conservation and biodiversity, I noticed this

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schism in my colleagues. Some were very cat orientated, and some had no interest in the welfare of cats at all. Among those who disliked cats, they often saw them as conflicting with the clean, green image of the country, and getting rid of them was a collateral cost of maintaining that image. I thought that was an interesting and very clear effect of living in New Zealand that I hadn’t previously experienced living in other countries.”

Despite this unique viewpoint from some New Zealanders, Farnworth says we are still essentially a nation of cat lovers − we have one of the largest ownership rates of cats in the world. “There are 1.4 million owned cats in New Zealand, with 48 per cent of New Zealand households owning at least one cat, according to New Zealand Companion Animal Council statistics,” he says.

His interest was aroused by this conflicting view of cats in a nation of cat lovers, and Farnworth began research into the perception of cats in New Zealand. “One of the very first studies I did was cat and dog sterilisation in Auckland in 2009,” he says. “I found that New Zealand has a very high neutering status for owned cats, at around 90 per cent.”

He says this indicated that cat owners in New Zealand are generally responsible and concerned for the welfare of their cats. As he dug deeper he realised it was the statistics around un-owned cats that were more of an issue. “You’d estimate un-owned cats – either stray or feral cats − to be about 25 per cent of the owned population.

So if there are 1.4 million owned cats across New Zealand you’d expect there to be around 300,000 un-owned cats.”

Of these un-owned cats, a significant number are caught and taken to shelters every year.

“The statistics from New Zealand shelters suggest that around 80,000 cats go into shelters

Photos: Simon Riera

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“Cats in the wild live at a density of about one individual per square kilometre.

In the city that rises to between 200-700 cats per square kilometre.”

every year. Statistics from the US and Australia suggest that between 50-60 per cent of all cats who enter a shelter never leave it; they’re euthanised,” says Farnworth. “It’s not likely to be much different in New Zealand. That would mean around 40,000-60,000 cats are euthanised in New Zealand every year. But despite that, it is probable that there are persistently around 300,000 un-owned cats in New Zealand.”

This means New Zealand may have a problem with the way un-owned cat populations are being managed, says Farnworth. “If it was effective you’d expect a decline in the numbers over the years.

Our current strategies don’t seem to be working.

And I don’t see that as the fault of the charities − despite the hard work and dedication they show, there is only so much they can do. They’re the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.”

natural scienceS

Farnworth turned next to the legal status of cats in New Zealand, and says he found a level of vagueness that explains some of the difficulties with cat management. “Basically, pet or companion cats are protected under welfare law, while feral cats − cats that are living wild and are scared of people − are not protected, and are in fact identified as pests under the bio-security and conservation acts. They can be legally shot, poisoned or trapped in any way that does not cause unnecessary suffering. They can be treated like a possum, because they (possums and feral cats) are in essence both pests. Stray cats − pet cats that have been lost or abandoned, or cats that are having their needs supplied by people − lie somewhere in the middle.”

A good example of the difficulties with definitions is the recent problem with a cat colony living on the Williams House Historic Reserve in Paihia and being fed by local volunteers. The Bay of IslandsWhangaroa Community Board removed an informal feeding station for the cats in mid-April and banned feeding the cats at the beginning of May; they have been dealing with the fallout ever since. Aside from the outcry from the local residents feeding the cats, and the jubilation from local wildlife action groups who believe the cats are feral and a danger to native birdlife, there was an official complaint laid by the Bay of Islands SPCA. The society said that the cats are not in fact feral, but strays that are therefore covered under the Animal Welfare Act, and abandoning their feeding programme would be in breach of the law. It’s an ongoing and contentious issue, says Farnworth.

Colonies of cats like the one in Paihia are a particular issue of urban un-owned cat management, according to Farnworth. “A colony is a loose collection of cats living in an area, which gets fed by someone. They’re not social; they’ll go wherever the food is. Cats in the wild live at a density of about one individual per square kilometre. In the city that rises to between 200-700 cats per square kilometre. What’s the difference? Humans and human food supply.

They wouldn’t be hanging around if we weren’t feeding them. So the density of cats is dictated by the availability of food, which is why colonies stick together, because they continue to be fed.”

Working alongside Natural Sciences Lecturer Glenn Aguilar, Farnworth has mapped cat

Bob Kerridge: “Enter Gareth Morgan, a modern-day zealot, and self-proclaimed saviour of the feathered with an absolute loathing of the warm and furry.”

Bob Kerridge in the NZ Herald.

“Research tells us that fewer than 50 per cent of domestic cats bother to hunt at all."

Bob Kerridge in the NZ Herald.

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natural sciences

colonies in Auckland, using a database of around Cat colonies raise particular issues in the care of 4900 cats. “We took all the data on stray cats cats, especially when it comes to whether they and unmanaged colonies and then correlated are defined as feral or stray. The difference of them against the New Zealand deprivation perception between a stray cat and a feral cat index. It seems to suggest that the population is huge in people’s minds, according to of un-owned cats may be growing, Farnworth. “What I have found in my and it may be particularly centred research is that people are less on areas where you have high concerned with the welfare of unemployment, low-decile feral cats compared to stray "Cat colonies are schooling, reduced access to cats. Put plainly, they think a persistent feature cars, that kind of thing.” feral cats should be killed and stray cats should be reof Auckland’s urban He suggests because of this homed. The work identified data that a more focused landscape." a significant division in approach to education around how people perceive cats, cat management might be an which impacts on the cats option. “Education campaigns and themselves through no fault of information awareness efforts in these the cat. Whether it’s stray or feral is neighbourhoods, which are primarily higher dictated by how people have treated it and its density residential areas, with a high deprivation ancestors, and to some extent the cat pays for index, would be a more efficient use of public our neglect, often with its life.” and private resources as opposed to a blanket or area-wide approach.”

Controversy around cats sprang into the national spotlight earlier this year when philanthropist Farnworth then used cat colony records for Gareth Morgan spoke out against cat ownership the period 1991-2011 to determine spatial in New Zealand. Farnworth says the resulting characteristics, and relationships between cat battle raging between Morgan and Bob Kerridge colony density and human populations, social of the SPCA is a good example of how far apart conditions and the physical environment. “Results the people who hate cats and the people who love show a positive correlation between cat colonies, cats can be. “I don’t come down on either side of population density and social indicators, as well that campaign. In fact, I think both sides missed as the type of land where they are located,” he the fact that they agree on large components of says. “An increase in the density of cat colonies their policies, but they decided to focus on the is noticeable in areas where they are frequently extremes where they cannot possibly agree.” reported, meaning cat colonies are a persistent feature of Auckland’s urban landscape.”

The view of cats as ‘natural-born killers’ (from Gareth Morgan’s website www.catstogo.co.nz)

Gareth Morgan: “My request to every cat owner is to make this cat your last.”

Gareth Morgan told Campbell Live earlier this year. (reported in Herald Online.)

“That little ball of fluff you own is a natural born killer.

The fact is that cats have to go if we really care about our environment.”

Cats to go website.

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is similar to the negative perception of cats that Farnworth noticed when he arrived in New Zealand. He says there is a temptation to just laugh off this alternative view of cats, but believes that would be a mistake. “You can’t just say that they’re crazy people who don’t know what they’re talking about. Because actually they’re not, they’re very rational people who have a different perspective, who believe that the value of New Zealand’s unique wildlife and ecology is far more important than cats. I think cat owners owe some responsibility to those who don’t want cats, to make sure their cats aren’t part of the problem that makes people want to get rid of them."

house at all times, or have curfews where they’re kept indoors at night.”

Farnworth understands that these kinds of measures would be met with resistance from cat owners. “People see it as a punishment, but if they looked at it not from their perspective, but from the perspective of the cat, it’s a positive outcome for their cat. That’s the problem, people think about things from human perspectives. But from a welfare perspective, it’s potentially a very positive change in my opinion. At the moment, if a cat is found on the street, there is something like a 40 per cent chance it will be returned to its owner if it’s owned. If a dog is found on the street, there is a 95 per cent chance of it being “If a cat is returned to its owner. What’s found on the street, the difference? Dogs have to be registered and microthere is only a 40 per chipped, cats don’t.”

natural science

» contact Mark Farnworth Senior Lecturer Department of Natural Sciences mfarnworth@unitec.ac.nz

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Farnworth says the freedom we allow cats is unmatched by any other companion or pet animal. “Rabbits, dogs, mice, guinea pigs, cent chance it will cows, sheep; they’re all Because of his strong contained. Any other animal be returned to research background in we keep as a pet we keep the area of cat welfare, its owner." confined − you don’t open Farnworth was recently the door to let your mouse out approached by the New Zealand in the morning. We have a social Veterinary Association to explore perception of what a cat is, and we cat population management in New use that to justify why we don’t manage Zealand. “It’s a review of the literature around them effectively.” cats in New Zealand, mechanisms to manage He argues that keeping cats in this way is not cats, and what might or might not be considered in the interests of the cat, and it’s not in the useful tools for doing that,” he says. “It’s a interests of other animals. “In cities like London, systematic review, and it uses a methodological Tokyo and New York, most cats never leave the approach based on an exploration of the house. It seems sad to New Zealanders, but literature around cats, cat management and from the cat’s perspective, what’s the problem? cat population.”

It never has to go out in the wind and the rain; it The research aims to garner an objective view on never has to fight with other cats.” the literature around cat welfare from both New Being allowed to roam at will is actually worse Zealand and overseas. “I’m happy to pose questions, for the welfare of cats, he adds. “Most cats that but I won’t write what I think is the solution, because die prematurely get hit by cars on the street, it’s not an opinion piece, my opinion is irrelevant. This or attacked by dogs in the back garden. They is a review of the literature.” contract feline immunodeficiency virus or feline Whatever the outcome of the review, Farnworth calicivirus from fights with other cats free roaming believes there needs to be a new approach to cat around the neighbourhood. They are shot at and management in New Zealand. “I can see problems poisoned by people who don’t like them.” in terms of the public perception of cats, problems Responsible cat ownership, according to in terms of managing the un-owned populations Farnworth, could start with registering and of cats, and potential problems in terms of the microchipping all pet cats, and may potentially welfare of cats themselves. It’s important for end with cats becoming an inside animal. their management, both for cats and people, that “Currently, unlike some areas in Australia, New something is done.”

Zealand does not have stringent controls in And even the controversy that is currently raging place to manage the cat population. In Australia around cats isn’t the problem it might seem at these measures include curfews and measures first. “I argue that there is a middle ground that to contain cats. Each state has their own rules leads to positive solutions both for conservation around cats, but they all have laws to ensure and for cat welfare, and that’s what I’m doing, I’m that cats are legally registered, kept in the trying to meet that middle ground.”

Photo: Wikipedia Commons, Michael Munich.

A new collaboration between Unitec and the University of the South Pacific is helping with conservation planning in Fiji.

Using maps to show the distribution of species has been around as long as scientific exploration has existed, but the ability to create sophisticated statistical analysis based on raw data is a product of the computer age. That’s why geographic information systems (GIS) have become vital in a variety of research projects – they’re designed to present geographical data in a more accessible format and can capture, store, manipulate, analyse, manage and present a range of information, as long as it has a location.

conservation

Mapping conservation Above: Xixuthrus heros, the latest beetle in Fiji to be mapped using Aguilar's GIS models.

Natural Sciences Lecturer Glenn Aguilar focuses his research work around GIS modelling, and is able to collaborate with other Unitec researchers to turn their data into statistically relevant information that enables them to make conclusions surrounding their work. “Basically, GIS is software that generates a map,” he says.

“You add in several layers of information and it describes the data visually.”

Currently, Aguilar is working with Unitec’s Natural Sciences Head of Department Professor Linton Winder and a group of researchers in Fiji to assess their data on local flora and fauna. “This » winter 2013 » advance

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“The people we’re working with in Fiji are fantastic scientists with an impressive amount of data.

Glenn has been able to unlock the information that they have been collecting.”

particular collaboration is with the University of the South Pacific (USP), specifically their Institute of Applied Science and the South Pacific Regional Herbarium. We’re looking at supporting conservation planning in Fiji using GIS mapping, in particular the biodiversity of specific species.”

this data that I wanted to analyse. The question is, once you have collected it, what do you do with the data? How do you interpret it so that it can be used for conservation? Using GIS, Glenn was able to take the data and turn it into something useful for conservation planning.”

The team is mapping a range of focus organisms, based around what the Fijian USP researchers are studying. “There are insects, frogs, fresh water organisms, bats, mangroves and some forest species,” says Aguilar. “They are all what we call biodiversity indicators. They are critical for conservation, because they give a status of biodiversity for a certain area.”

The project is working out well for everyone involved, says Winder. “I personally don’t know anything about the technical aspects of the GIS, but I do know its potential use and how it can be applied to the research I’m doing. That’s why I’m collaborating with Glenn on this, and together we are able to create a synergy, a wider project that uses our complementary skill sets.”

The collaboration was put in place after Winder worked with Aguilar on an in-depth analysis of research he had completed during his time as the Associate Dean for Research in the Biology Department at USP. “While I was there I received Darwin Initiative funding,” says Winder. “I looked at the conservation of insects in Fiji, so I had all

From there Winton says it seemed a natural progression to offer the same collaboration to his former colleagues at USP. “The people we’re working with in Fiji are fantastic scientists with an impressive amount of data. Glenn has been able to unlock the information that they have been collecting, and allowed them to use it in their research.”

conservation

Top: The GIS map showing the location data of multiple beetles gathered on the island of Viti Levu in Fiji. Left: The individual GIS maps for nine of the beetles studied.

Above: Six of the different GIS models using the same beetle data.

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When he went back for the third time, they did ensemble modelling, which meant layering multiple GIS models, each with their own algorithms, to create the most statistically accurate map. Using multiple models means that each of the different algorithms picks up a distinct range of information, says Aguilar.

“If you use only one GIS model, it may not be reliable, you can’t be assured it’s the best. They are all mathematical models, just with different modelling approaches.”

According to Aguilar, there are 19 GIS models available in the software used. “For this particular collaboration, I’ve used eight models, and from those eight models, we’ve selected the best performing ones and used only six of them.

Essentially, we do all of them at the same time, because each has its own strengths and weaknesses. I put them all together and try to come up with a weighted average that will overcome the weaknesses of each individual model.”

Even though this is the first time much of the Fijian biodiversity data has been analysed in this way, most of it is not new. “They have flora and fauna data dating back several decades,” says Aguilar. “For this project they wanted to look at the data they’ve already got, and present it in a format that is convenient for decision support and management planning. For example, using GIS we were able to identify hot spots for the different species. That’s something that can be considered a very important contribution to biodiversity information for the areas covered.”

As well as showing where the organisms are distributed on the map, environmental information is added to assess how climate and other factors could affect the species. “Once we have the actual data, we can then simulate what happens to the species in different scenarios,” says Aguilar. “We can put in climate change scenarios, and see how it affects their distribution. We can show what happens if the temperature increases by one degree or two degrees or three degrees, or what might happen 10 or 20 or 30 years from now. How will these

distributions change?

People can easily see the distribution of these organisms. It makes it easier.”

What is GIS? A geographic information system (GIS) is the merging of a map with statistical analysis and database technology. It’s used to capture and analyse all types of geographic data, and provides an easily accessible way to view what can be quite complicated scientific information. It can produce sophisticated statistical analysis useful for scientific research, including predicting potential future outcomes and showing hot spots for particular species.

It’s this future planning that is so valuable in Fiji, says Winder. “Through GIS we can see where the insects are, where they might be in the future if the climate changes and provide conservation advice.

We’re able to focus our efforts on conservation.”

The terms geographic information science or geospatial information studies are both used to describe the academic discipline of working with geographic information systems.

One of the main goals for this collaboration is for Aguilar to train the USP researchers in doing the GIS modelling themselves. “They already know about GIS, they know how to use the software, but it’s about putting it into a more useful form for publication. We’re working on the data at the same time as they are, and my work is simply complementing what they are doing.”

Aguilar has also worked with other projects around Unitec to map the location of research subjects as varied as cat colonies in Auckland and invasive species to New Zealand. He says the value of GIS is that it provides valuable statistical analysis that is both easily accessible and more in-depth − it takes their information gathering to the next level. “In GIS there are a lot of tools that provide you with scientifically acceptable conclusions. If you publish something, it must be backed up by analysis, and there are tools here that allow you to do that. It gives the research more academic rigor.”

conservation

Aguilar has visited Fiji several times to provide training and to work with the researchers on their data. “The first time we developed the base map and set up the database, and the second time we went into the species distribution modelling and came up with a map,” says Aguilar.

“We just use the maps and then overlay the data on top of them. Since most of the researchers already had basic GIS skills, our focus was on the use of available spatial analytical tools to determine and map the characteristics of the biodiversity of the species studied.”

And GIS models can be used for almost any kind of information – as long as there is a location facet, he can provide a relevant map. “There is a lot of data out there that is collected for a particular purpose, and then nothing is done with that data to analyse it,” says Aguilar. “It is used to describe what is there, and simply accumulates in the databases, particularly in developing countries, where they don’t need scientific analysis, just technical information, such as what insects are located in a particular area. We could use GIS to analyse that data and gain valuable insights into the world around us.”

In the meantime, having information and being able to interpret it correctly in Fiji could help save not only the species, but the ecology as a whole.

“GIS is able to provide vital baseline information for conservation purposes,” says Aguilar. “If you don’t know where something is, you can’t help to conserve it.”

» contact Glenn Aguilar Lecturer Department of Natural Sciences gaguilar@unitec.ac.nz

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Finding Rosebank

art walk

Opposite page from top left: An actor from the LAB Theatre, part of a work called The Whau Fables by Unitec staff member Pedro Ilgenfritz. Darryl Torckler with his photographic installation Mud Work. The Everyday Collective's steel sculpture, The Planner, designed by Paul Woodruffe.

Actors from the LAB Theatre interact with the audiences on Rosebank Road in their roving performance The Whau Fables. Unitec’s Head of Communications Jocelyn Williams makes jewellery in the Everyday Collective's session Seeding the Cloud

by Ilse Marie Erl. Performers from the Seekers Dance Collective perform Trauma, Agency, New Vision by Kerryn McMurdo.

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Associate Professor Marcus Williams curated an exhibition in the 2013 Auckland Arts Festival, called the Rosebank Art Walk: a site-specific group of artworks set on the Rosebank Peninsula.

endeavour of various kinds that exist in the area.

By doing that, we can increase the sense of community and a sense of investment for people in the area – not just fiscal investment, but intellectual and emotional investment as well.”

Dominated as it is by industrial buildings and associated businesses, you’d be excused for thinking that Rosebank Road is a strange place for art work. But, according to Associate Professor Marcus Williams that is precisely what made the Rosebank Art Walk, held over the weekend of 23-24 March this year, so successful.

“If there was anything unique about the project, it’s that it was based along Rosebank Road. It’s not the kind of place you’d expect to find art, to put it bluntly. It’s a vibrant light industrial area, including tilt-slab buildings and scrap metal yards, and the banging and clanging of engineers. Yet it sits on a peninsula between really interesting ecological estuaries that have rare fossils and a unique fresh water spring coming up into a salt marsh, and the rare fern bird. On one side is the Whau River, which was the channel that Māori once used to drag their waka from one side of New Zealand to the other, to save them going up and around the North Cape and back down. It’s a fascinating area.”

Using an art walk to bring the public into the Rosebank area seemed like a good way to garner an appreciation of the area, says Williams. “I don’t think Rosebank Road is ever going to be a tourist destination, but we can bring value by raising awareness about things like the horticultural history or the ecological standing and values that exist there. We had well over 1000 people at the event over the weekend, and I was absolutely thrilled that such an exciting number of people turned out. Rosebank Road has over 2000 car movements on a Sunday, its least busy day of the week, so it’s usually totally car dominated, people don’t walk along the street. So to see the road dotted with people holding their maps, peering at buildings and engaging in the place was amazing.”

Unitec has identified the peninsula as an important stakeholder area – recently signing a memorandum of understanding with the Rosebank Business Association. “I wanted to find a place for creative industries to be part of that relationship,” says Williams. “By bringing this notion of site-specific practice to this area, the idea is that we increase the awareness of Unitec’s presence, and we increase the knowledge of this specific place: the histories, the ecologies, the entrepreneurship, the human

He says that the idea of building community is at the heart of what he was trying to achieve with the project. “We begin with the premise that through a better knowledge of place, communities grow and that culture is the mechanism by which this occurs. And that this in turn enervates the economy.”

The process of putting the art walk together began mid-2012, with the initial artists selected

by Williams. “I carefully selected artists who were talented and experienced in site-specific practice. That was part of my contribution, to find artists who could engage. I chose artists who work with industry; who work with ecology or ecological issues; who have experience working with research in the specific histories of a place and making an artwork in response to that place.

Last but not least, I chose artists who work quite commonly outside the gallery context, because it didn’t happen in a gallery.”

The collaboration between the artists and the businesses on Rosebank Road was also a vital

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Solomon Mortimer

Gert Hattingh

art walk

Paul Woodruffe

Solomon Mortimer

Solomon Mortimer

Michelle Ardern

Solomon Mortimer

art walk

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Âť unitec.ac.nz Thomas Stini

"The work needed to be about the place, the work needed to be set in the place and the work needed to be developed collaboratively with local enterprise or community.”

Williams says the Rosebank Art Walk enabled him to put some very specific creative practices into play. “Ultimately what I enjoy about it is the ability to enable creative practice within a specific targeted framework. That’s really interesting and quite controversial in the arts, where relationships with commerce are complex and often eschewed; but I think curatorial practice can be about the strategic alignment of creative practice with wider social agendas such as community and economic development. I believe that the sum total of a project can have an instrumental purpose beyond the parameters of art itself.”

One of the projects that featured during the weekend was the Garden of Avondale, in which two Unitec Architecture graduates, Martin LeungWai and Waikare Komene, worked with senior students at Avondale College who were tuakana (mentors) to students at Rosebank School (the local primary school). “It was a manifestation of a tuakana–teina relationship, a Māori pedagogy that is instilled in Māori growing up in marae and schools and so on, where the older kids are charged with mentoring the younger kids,” says Williams. “The Avondale College students helped the younger kids design and build the garden and then run the garden. It was very important, that tuakana–teina relationship aspect of it, that’s the key thing, as much as the garden.”

The Avondale Spider is closely associated with the region, and artist Brit Bunkley didn’t miss the opportunity to work with the imported

eight-legged creepy crawlies. Bunkley did a 3D scan of a freeze-dried Avondale spider from the Auckland Museum and then turned it into a digital file to be printed on a 3D printer. “They were printed at about 250 mm in diameter,” says Williams. “They were then installed in a cyberarachnid installation inside a shipping container on the side of Rosebank Road. The work had easy appeal and yet raised issues around fear of the unknown and invasions from overseas.”

Opposite from top: Children from the Rosebank School at work in their Garden, part of the Garden of Avondale project by Waikare Komene and Martin Leung-Wai. Audience members outside one of the artworks. Waikare Komene with one of the students. The children carefully plant a tree. Taking a break from all the hard work.

Williams also participated as an artist in the Rosebank Art Walk, with a piece that was inspired directly from his own family history. “In the 1950s my grandmother, who raised four kids on her own after her husband died, used to walk down Rosebank Road from Avondale, a good five or six miles. She’d pay a penny a pound to buy tomatoes off the dead vines after they had been removed for the season by the market gardeners.

She and the children would fill the bags with tomatoes and carry them all the way back home.

They would then spend the weekend bottling the tomatoes and making relish.”

The artwork worked on multiple levels, says Williams. “I grew tomatoes which were gifted to visiting artwalkers. By throwing a koha in a bucket, they triggered interactive digital imagery, recreating impressions of that long hard latesummer walk down Rosebank Road. The work referred to the role of the peninsula as the bread basket of Tamaki Makaurau for hundreds of years and reminds us of the very different economic conditions in which many of our parents and grandparents grew up, not so very long ago.”

art walk

part of the whole project. “Site-responsive art is a collaboration between the previous experience the artist brings to the table, and the specific circumstances that are in the place,” says Williams. “If a project made no reference to the place, I helped develop it with the artist through discussion and resources. The fundamental premise upon which this project was based was threefold. The work needed to be about the place, the work needed to be set in the place and the work needed to be developed collaboratively with local enterprise or community.”

The coins collected were used to buy fruit trees for the Avondale Community Gardeners, who will in turn gift the trees to local residents in Avondale.

“What excited me most about the art walk is that it generated all this other activity and community building; the weekend event was just the tip of the iceberg. Another example is that the piece entitled ‘How did we get to Jomac Place?’, created

by Senior Lecturer Craig Hilton, is going to become a public sculpture on Rosebank Road.”

As to the future, Williams says he hopes the idea is one that catches on. “I think you build a legacy by doing something ongoing, so I would like to keep it going at Rosebank. Some kind of art and industrial eco precinct might be something we could aspire to in the much longer term. Just to dream for the moment, you might end up with some kind of exemplar of how industry can operate in a sustainable relationship with the surrounding environment through its relationship with a knowledge institution such as Unitec.”

» contact Marcus Williams Associate Professor Department of Design and Visual Arts email: mwilliams@unitec.ac.nz

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Taking care of the dying

social practice

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Senior Lecturer Catherine Hughes says it was almost inevitable that she became a researcher in the area of palliative care, or end-of-life care.

“I’ve had a significant amount of loss in my life, a significant number of experiences with death and dying. It was probably my father’s death that made it very clear for me that this was the area that I needed to be working in. He was the 25th person in my life who’d died. It was the final straw; it was like okay, I give up, I’ll go and work in this area because I’ve had so many experiences of it.”

She studied at Canterbury University, eventually completing her PhD in Social Work on the cultural context of dying and how institutions such as hospitals and hospices negotiate patients’ unique cultural needs. Again, it was her father’s death that led to her research focus on this aspect of death and dying. “My father was Glaswegian, a Scottish man, and for him it was very important that cultural traditions be followed,” she says. “He was the one who really showed me that we die in a cultural context and there is a really important role that plays in our dying and we need to make space for that. Every family has its own particular cultural context.

Not based on being white or Māori, but based on a cultural context that’s rich and deep and meaningful, because we all have them. Ethnicity is one part of that, but not the only component of it.”

Hughes’ PhD research found that we all die in a cultural context particular to each of us. That culture is initially squashed when people first engage with hospital systems and then palliative care systems. “People become enculturated into the medical system that they are reliant on for their needs, and there is this loss of identity that happens.The findings have been that people conform to the larger cultural context, which is the medical model of care, in order to receive the care they need. For a lot of people who are seeking ongoing treatment, say for cancer, there is this sense that they will keep engaging, they’ll do what the doctors tell them they have to do, so hopefully they’ll live.”

But when the diagnosis changes to one where they are actually dying, their compliance falters.

“What I found is that when the person gets to the point of dying, there is this sense that the system has failed them, because they’ve done everything expected of them and they’re still dying,” says Hughes. “They think, ‘I’ve done what they’ve told me and I’m not going to live anyway, so now I’m going to do what I want to do’. For many of the people I’ve worked with, it’s been at that point that they’ve said ‘My cultural context is really important, there needs to be room for that here’.”

What this means can be different for different people, but it usually involves family, says Hughes. “One of the most common effects of this is that people gather; people come when someone is dying. Suddenly life takes on a different meaning. You often have very large extended families turning up in the hospitals, or the hospices, and they need space to be together. Suddenly there is this whole new way in which space is negotiated to allow for that cultural holding of the dying. The majority of families I’ve worked with have gathered, regardless of what ethnic or cultural identity they are.”

But she says the hospital system just isn’t equipped for this influx. “A hospice is better equipped for it, but not a lot of people die in a hospice, more people die in hospitals. Homes are the best place, as they are the most suitable cultural context for that to happen, but often need more resourcing. With my own family, when my father was dying, we all gradually arrived at the hospital and stayed until he passed away. It’s about allowing space for that.”

It’s not always easy for a hospital or a hospice to shift their systems to encompass the multiplecultural contexts of the people in their wards. But Hughes says it’s important that they try. “Negotiating all of this within a medical model is quite fraught. There are these tensions that are constantly negotiated, between what the medical model allows and what people need at the end of life.”

cover story

Taking care of the dying is a calling for this Unitec researcher, who has been using ethnographic research methodology to find out whether culture plays a role when a person is dying.

Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.

Martin Luther.

The big issue is that there is no single rule for how people die, says Hughes. “It’s so individual.

You can’t have a one-size-fits-all model for dying, because people die in a cultural context, people die as they lived. If you lived your life in a certain way, chances are that you will die like that. Often, people who loved a good crowd and a good party will wait until everyone is there to die. Often, someone who is very private will choose the moment everyone walks out of the room to get a cup of coffee to die.”

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Watching the peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief social practice

moment only to disappear into the endless night forever.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.

Because she believes that research into dying can’t be done by asking someone who is dying one-off questions, Hughes used a very specific research method for her PhD. “What’s unique about my research in particular, is that for quite a long time, research focused on the perspectives of the family members, and research that documented in detail the journey of someone who was dying was not particularly well captured at all. You can imagine why, because it’s so tough to do. So I decided to use ethnography as my method. It’s used primarily in anthropology, where an ethnographer would go and stay with a particular tribe or culture they were studying.

The term ‘going native’ came out of ethnography.

It’s about moving from being outside the system to inside of the system. In that transition, you document your own journey alongside the learning about the participants. You start as an outsider of the culture and gradually you become an insider, and through that process you begin to learn about the culture.”

For Hughes, using this methodology meant she met with her research participants in their homes as they moved through the process of dying. “As I got to know them, I started doing things like taking them to their oncology appointments, because often family members had to work. I ended up filling a lot of gaps by looking after the person who was dying. It wasn’t that I did an interview and went away again. Ethnography is what I call ‘deep hanging out’.”

It was an intense way to do research in this field, but one that Hughes felt was necessary. “I hung out with these people until they all died, and for some of them it took two years. It was tough, it was really hard. But I wrote all their stories of dying. Every week, sometimes more than that, I would meet with them, and I would write down everything they said, everything they did, everywhere they went, every conversation they had.”

Instead of being resentful of her presence, Hughes says her research subjects were generally welcoming. “I was surprised, I thought it might be more intrusive, but the need people have for support in that dying process is so extreme that you actually become invaluable. I would pick them up and take them to appointments, I would go grocery shopping for them, or do gardening for them, and I would go to family events. Gradually I became part of their support networks, and I would get to know their families. You become part of the community of care and then you become an insider in that community of care.”

Then, in the middle of writing her thesis, another

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major life event changed her perspective. “I’d been three years in the field, doing that deep hanging out with people who were dying. I’d begun writing up my thesis, and I had one person still alive. And then I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer.”

Hughes put her PhD on hold while she had surgery and treatment. “For me that was the most profound experience, because I thought by then I knew what that might be like. But when I was diagnosed and had to go through treatment, I realised I had no idea. I wasn’t told I was dying, so that was different, but in the beginning I didn’t know that. So as I went through treatment, I wrote my own ethnographic journey and incorporated it into my PhD. It’s not something I’d recommend, but it’s what happened.”

But that personal experience of cancer informed her understanding of the people she’d been following. “I did feel like I understood their experiences in a different way. But even more, it helped me to understand what I didn’t know about their experiences. I’d written a 300,000-word PhD at that point, and I literally picked it up and slashed it to 100,000 words. It was so easy, because when I read it, I thought ‘You didn’t know that at all, you thought you knew that, but you didn’t’. So it was a fantastic slash and burn of a thesis.”

Incorporating her own experiences into her PhD may seem unusual, but it’s an integral part of the methodology, says Hughes. “In ethnography, there is no attempt at maintaining a distance.

You are part of your own findings. It’s accepted that you will have a skewed view. I guess it’s more of a post-modern approach to research, where it positions the researcher in the research story, so there is no attempt to maintain any neutrality at all; in fact it’s quite the opposite.”

After finishing her thesis in 2010, Hughes took a job at Hospice West Auckland as a social worker specialising in end-of-life care. “I realised that after many years of researching, I wanted to work in the field. I’d loved the work I did interning in San Francisco as a student, and I wanted to put some of my learning into practice as a social worker trained in palliative care. So I moved up to Auckland and became a community palliative care social worker for Hospice West Auckland.

The more recent papers that I have written are from my work there.”

She continued her research with the patients at the facility; one area of particular focus was the establishment of a Māori and Pacific Hui support group. “I was working with a young Māori woman, a 25-year-old mum with two babies. She was

dying and she asked where people went to meet each other and talk. I’d also noticed that we were getting really late referrals for Māori and Pacific people in particular. They weren’t accessing palliative care early enough for us to put things in place so that people could die a good death. That was when the Hui was born, in consultation with local kaumātua and kuia in the West Auckland community.”

The Hui is unique in that instead of separating people into different groups, everyone who has contact at any level with someone who is dying is included. “It brings together, for the first time I think, a hui where family members of someone who might have just passed away are sitting with patients. In the beginning there were our Hospice kaumātua, a woman whose mother was dying, an older lady who was dying, people from the community, a young woman who was dying and a girl whose sister had just died. The Hui brings everyone together.”

Palliative Care Palliative care is defined in the New Zealand Palliative Care Strategy (MOH, 2001) as follows: Palliative care is the total care of people who are dying from active, progressive diseases or other conditions when curative or disease-modifying treatment has come to an end. Palliative care services are generally provided by a multidisciplinary team that works with the person who is dying and their family/whānau.

Field and Cassel also provide a definition of palliative care as an ideology that “seeks to prevent, relieve, reduce or soothe the symptoms of disease without effecting a cure.” (as cited in Hawthorne & Yurkovich, 2003, p. 261).

social practice

She’s stayed involved with some of the Hui members since leaving the hospice two years ago to join Unitec’s Social Practice Department, and is documenting the experience as part of her latest research. “I still continue to support them, but more as a volunteer instead of as an employee. I still use the ethnographic approach in my research; that’s a stance I’ve taken post-PhD with the Hui group. I don’t see myself as being the social worker who runs the Hui, I see myself as being a participant, part of a Hui that is run by the group.”

Hughes has been part of the process of dying for many people, and says it’s still an experience she wants to continue to be involved in. “I just think it’s the most incredible honour in the world to be invited to be present at someone’s death. I don’t find it that much different from being present at someone’s birth. I’ve been at a couple of births and I’ve been struck by how similar the feelings are that go with each.”

Her ultimate aim is that everyone is able to die a good death. “I guess for me dying a good death is when your symptoms are under control, you have adequate care and support in place, you have the people with you that you want there, and you are where you want to be. For me, part of that good death story is that there are people who are present who are willing to do anything you need them to do. To be there for whatever you might need from them, to not have any preconceived ideas about what you will need at the time of your death. That’s a tall order.”

» contact Catherine Hughes Senior Lecturer Department of Social Practice chughes@unitec.ac.nz

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Profile

A life of theatre Senior Lecturer John Davies has spent four decades perfecting his craft in the theatre and learning about the aesthetics of performance.

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I spent pretty much 10 years living out of a suitcase and touring with that company.”

In his early 30s, Davies decided it was time for a change. He wanted to find out more about his own work, away from the influence of the collective. “I went to Japan and studied Japanese classical Noh theatre, which is a very beautiful form, very meditative. When I first encountered it, what first struck me was the strange, quiet beauty of it. It was very moving, in a way that I’d never seen in theatre before. There were a lot of masks, beautiful costumes, very elaborate. Everything that appears is an extraordinary work of art, in the weaving of the robes and the carving of the masks.”

Spending his life in the performing arts has been a rewarding and exciting career for Senior Lecturer John Davies. “I left drama school at the age of 22, and then I just did it for four decades,” he says. “If no one was giving me a job, I made my own work. The area of visual theatre, and masks and dance and music has always been an area of interest for me, so I’ve never stopped exploring it, and I never will.”

When he came back to New Zealand to live and work as a freelance actor and teacher, Davies maintained his contact with the people he’d worked with in Japan. “I’ve subsequently had four trips to Kyoto in Japan. The Noh theatre is extremely aesthetic, it has a very defined and clear visual quality to it, and this is one of the things that I’m very interested in, the role of aesthetics in the staging, the way the image tells the story.”

He spent his 20s in an independent avant-garde touring theatre group called Red Mole. “I spent 10 years with Red Mole.

We toured all through New Zealand several times, we toured the US, we lived in New York and we toured through Mexico.

One of his research projects is in what Davies calls Kapa Haka Noh. “It’s combining the style of Kapa Haka with the aesthetics and structure of Noh, which sounds like a bit of a force-fed sandwich, but it actually works beautifully. "

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Davies says the move opened up his career to a more contemplative element. “It was a wonderful time. Because I was no longer putting all my energy into creating work, I was able to be reflective, to write about my work, to put my work into the context of other practitioners, and to teach about theatre in an academic, rather than a practical, fashion. It’s something I continue to do, and want to do a lot more of. ” He also pursued an interest in opera, which uses the heightened aesthetic he enjoys. “At Waikato University I was extremely fortunate to work with two wonderful musicians and composers; David Griffiths, a well-known baritone in the New Zealand opera world, and Michael Williams, a composer.”

Davies’ most recent project, a dramatic ANZACthemed opera called The Juniper Passion, which he started while he was at the University of Waikato and has finished since returning to Unitec in 2011, was recently performed in Italy to packed audiences. The music was composed by his friend Williams, with the libretto written by Davies.

The opera is set during the battle of Monte Cassino in Italy during World War II. “I went to Michael and said I want to write about the experiences of my parents and that generation,” says Davies. “It’s not about my father, but he was there at the battle of Monte Cassino. He came back and had a good life, but many young men didn’t leave that battlefield.”

Davies says he grew up with stories of the war.

“Mum and Dad would get together with all their friends, and all us kids would be running around.

They’d all sit and talk, and the conversation would always turn to the war. They all had extraordinary stories and experiences that they would share.”

The Juniper Passion follows a traditional structure that has been neglected in many modern operas, says Davies. “In the original operas they invented this format called aria recitative. The recitative is the sequences where the action happens, and they sing in a plain song fashion. The arias are the songs within the opera, the famous songs that everyone knows, where that character can reveal the inner life. I was keen to be re-inspired by the original structure of the libretto.”

The opera begins and ends in New Zealand, and is the story of a Kiwi soldier who died in the

battle, but in unusual circumstances, involving stolen art, the bombing of the local abbey, an Italian Benedictine monk and a German soldier.

“We recorded it and Michael Williams, who was in Italy at a festival, took a recording with him, and he played it to his hosts. They heard it and said ‘We just love this’. They said ‘We really would like you to come to Italy to perform this opera’.”

Opposite page clockwise from left: John Davies in full Noh Theatre costume.

A community theatre group mentored by Davies. Unitec dancers perform at the launch of the CD for the The Juniper Passion.

Davies and Williams took The Juniper Passion to Italy in June this year, at the invitation of the Colle Ioince Music Foundation, for four performances.

The first performance was in an ancient Roman amphitheatre on the slopes of the Monte Cassino mountain, on the battlefield. “The significance of us going there with this subject matter was huge,” says Davies.

The music was provided by an Italian university orchestra and had an Italian conductor. The singers included one American, an Italian and six New Zealanders. There were also eight dancers, four current Unitec students and four graduates.

“One of the significant aspects of this opera is that every character in The Juniper Passion is embodied by a singer and a dancer. At times the life of the character is revealed by a dancer; at other times by the singer. This is the area of research I will be writing about as a result of bringing this work together. It has been explored in other situations, but never in an opera about Monte Casino, and never by a company of New Zealanders, for Italians.”

profile

The next big move in his career involved a role at the University of Waikato. “I worked there for 10 years as a lecturer, and at that time I did a lot of writing, and was published in books and journals.

I discovered a whole side of my work that had been lying dormant because I’d been too busy doing other things.”

For the Italians, the war is still very fresh, says Davies. “The young men who danced these roles were the same age as the men who lie in those graves there. I think that is what the Italians understood. They looked at them dancing, the strength and the vibrancy of them and they said, these are the men that New Zealand sent to help us deal with this fascism, and many of them died.

I think that was very profound for them.”

Davies and his team raised the money to travel to Italy, with some help. “Unitec’s support of this project has been stunning; they provided enough of the funding to kickstart the project; essentially they made it possible.”

Despite having been in the performing arts his whole life, Davies says it has been an honour to be part of such a special project. “This, in many ways, was an ultimate moment for me. It was just the most incredible opportunity, after all these decades of work, and I’m really grateful.

It’s what I say to the students here: don’t give up on your work, because it adds up, if you keep doing what you are passionate about, it doesn’t just disappear, it actually grows and adds up to something.”

» contact John Davies Senior Lecturer Department of Performing and Screen Arts jdavies@unitec.ac.nz

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Student Research Unitec congratulates the students who have recently completed significant postgraduate research in their chosen fields. The wide variety of topics reflects Unitec's focus on high quality applied research.

Master of Architecture (Professional) Name: Toby Chapman-Smith Research: Touchless ‘Touch’ Name: Siochanta Trusewich Research: Sitting Pretty: The Architect and the Chair Name: Nicola Ransley Research: Keep it Pumping: Breathing New Life Into Redundant Storage Tanks

STUDENTS

Name: Hermann Matamu Research: Architecture in the Absence of Gravity Name: Duncan Thomas Research: Ecology Via Architecture - An Answer to our Future Cities

Master of Educational Leadership and Management Name: Gustaaf Klein Research: Experienced Principals’ Accounts of their Character Development: Their Inside Stories Name: Jenny Baber Research: Senior Leader Efforts to Improve the Educational Outcomes of Maori Students in New Zealand Secondary Schools Name: Joanne Robson Research: The Appraisal of Middle Level Leaders in New Zealand Secondary Schools Name: Martin Bassett Research: Developing Middle Level Leaders in New Zealand Secondary Schools Name: Duncan Henderson Research: Sustaining Professional Learning: Primary School Teachers' Experiences of Professional Support in their Third to Fifth Years of Practice

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Name: Linda Allen Research: Engaging in Sustainable Collaborative Professional Learning: The Case of a West Auckland School Cluster Initiative

Master of Health Science Name: Pip Rodel Research: An Investigation into the Experiences of MRI Technologists Pertaining to IMFB Safety Practices Name: Jennifer Haven Research: Investigating the Engagement of New Zealand Diagnostic Radiographers with Research Name: Kertmee Sackdanouvong Research: Middle Managers: Managing Change in a Lao Higher Education Institution

Master of Education Name: Lynette Parker Research: "Coconut Wireless" - Examining the Impact of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project on the Niue Education Community

Master of Design Name: David Austin Research: Small Town Revelations Name: Jamaine Fraser Research: Hunting: Connecting Hunter, Animal and Environment

Name: Kalpana Nand Research: Play and Learn: Designing Educational Tools for Children

Master of Social Practice Name: Diane Woolson Neville Research: Experiences of Advocacy: Situating Experiences of Contemporary Women’s Advocates within the Feminist Movement to End Violence Against Women

Master of Osteopathy Name: Jesse Armstrong Research: Evaluation of Flexion-Relaxation in the Thoracic Erector Spine and Superficial Lumbar Multifidus During Standing Flexion and Slumped Sitting Name: Stephanie Lo Research: Perceptions and Attitudes of New Zealand Plunket Nurses Toward the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CMA) in Children

Master of International Communication Name: Lijaio Ai Research: The Impact of Government Regulation to the Chinese Social Networking Systems (SNS) Users in China

Master of Computing Name: Shiu Ram Research: Benefits of using Data Warehousing and Data Mining tools Name: Vikash Nand Research: Network Performance Evaluation of Fiji Government Information Technology Infrastructure - Proposing a Virtualisation Solution

Copies of these studies can be found in the Unitec library or through the Unitec Research Bank, unitec.researchbank.ac.nz

Shooting animals Doing a Master of Design research thesis on trophy hunting might seem unusual, but for photography student Carly van Winkel it provided a challenging topic that defied her expectations and made her rethink her values. “I was trying to understand why they did it. I didn’t understand their reasons, and it seemed very bizarre to me to shoot an animal just for a trophy. But the project changed my whole perspective on it.”

It was only after she decided to go on a hunt that she realised there was more to trophy hunting than met the eye. “A lot of them don’t kill anything at all most of the time. They go out on the hunt for the experience of the hunt, they just watch animals, they photograph them, and go home with nothing. It just made me realise it is not always about the kill, it is about the experience, what they get from it.”

Van Winkel met a hunter online, and travelled in the dark down to Cambridge to go on a hunt with him. “He took me to a secret location, and we walked for about seven or eight hours, and then finally at the end we found a deer and I shot it. We took it home, and he cut it all up and gave me the meat, and I took the skin home and got that tanned by a taxidermist.”

She says her reactions to the hunt were unexpected. “I thought I would be a mess once I shot it, that I would cry and the hunter would think I was insane. But I didn’t really think much of the kill at all. I only remember that day because of everything I learnt, and for realising it’s not only about killing.

It was about the walk, and him teaching me about nature.

He could smell the animal before I could even see it. It was

amazing just how aware he was of the natural environment. I felt really terrible for everything I’d thought about it before I’d actually given it a go.”

Trophy hunting is often misunderstood in the wider community, but van Winkel says she is keen to help people to understand it better. “There was a photo that was published with a deer with a whole lot of straw stuffed in its mouth and a hunter holding up the deer; People were horrified. But from my research, I learned there is a reason why putting straw and grass in the mouth of a recent kill is photographed. It is a ritual to thank the animal for giving its life, and them giving the deer its last meal. So there are these misunderstandings that make people judge the whole thing without any kind of understanding.”

She says her trophy hunting project, including her photography exhibition at North Art Gallery on Auckland’s North Shore and the book she produced, wouldn’t have been as successful if it hadn’t been for the help she received from the hunters. “I was contributing to an online forum a lot, and so many of them were unbelievably helpful and generous. I realised that they write about it and photograph it because they really love being out in the wild. The book that I produced had stories in it, these really beautiful stories about hunting.

A lot of the project was contributed material, so I had their photos and stories in my book, and I had their videos playing at the exhibition, as well as my photography. It wasn’t just about me, it was about the people I’d met. I wanted to show that these guys are not who people think they are.”

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