The 7-8pm hour on Sunday evenings on RNZ National features a news bulletin followed by One In Five – “a programme exploring the issues and experience of disability”. This is followed at 7:35pm with Voices – “a weekly programme that highlights Asians, Africans, indigenous Americans and more, from Iraq to India to Indonesia and East Asia, spanning Morocco to Madagascar, Belize to Brazil. These are our local-born and immigrant ethnic minority communities, New Zealanders with stories to share”. At 7:45pm there is The Week in Parliament. In this recording:
19:04 – One in Five
Shared spaces
BODY:
Town Planner Tshering Phuntsho wants to introduce the concept of a shared space in his city in Bhutan. Charaf Ahmemed from UNESCO. Chris Orr from the Blind Foundation says disability groups were consulted at the outset about the design of Auckland's shared spaces.
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Auckland's Elliot Street shared space
New Zealand will be showcasing urban design concepts used in Auckland and that cater for everybody at an international conference in Lisbon in July.
Carina Duke and Chris Orr from the Blind Foundation will be presenting a paper at TRANSED 2015, a conference on mobility and transport for elderly people and for people living with disabilities. They will be describing concepts included in the design of Auckland’s shared spaces.
Shared spaces are public areas for everyone. There are no footpaths, curbs or designated roads but vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and anyone using a mobility aid is welcome. Parking is prohibited.
Chris Orr says the Auckland shared spaces have a clear accessible path of travel for people on foot or in wheelchairs that stretches 1.8 metres out from buildings. Nothing is allowed to be placed in the clear zone. There are plantings, street furniture, bike racks, and rubbish bins in the shared space but they sit outside the clear path of travel.
Chris says a crucial part of the design is a tactile delineator. It is a change of texture embedded into the paving that indicates to someone with a visual impairment that they are nearing the section of the shared pace where vehicles may be travelling. “The tactile delineator looks like a fabulous part of the design. It is 600mm wide so you can’t step over it. It looks nice, it feels nice and it works.”
Image: Chris Orr from the Blind Foundation says disability groups were consulted at the outset about the design of Auckland's shared spaces
Chris says the key to the success of Auckland’s shared spaces is that urban designers and transport engineers came to the disabled community before they started work on the designs. “They came and said ‘here’s the idea, can we make it work?’ So we worked it out between us. We’re very proud to take it (the design) to the conference to say way down here in a little corner at the bottom of the world, New Zealand has come up with a standard, a system that works for everyone.”
Aucklander Paul Brown uses the shared space. He is blind and uses a cane as a mobility aid. “I know the area between the buildings and the tactile (delineator) is going to be perfectly clear so I can move at speed. Compared to walking up and down Queen Street or something, it’s a joy.”
Pedestrian counts in the Elliot Street shared space have shown a fourfold increase since its creation and retailers have reported an increase in business.
The shared space was shown to delegates from the Asia Pacific region at a recent UNESCO conference on social inclusion held in Auckland.
Left: Charaf Ahmemed from UNESCO. Right: Town Planner Tshering Phuntsho wants to introduce the concept of a shared space in his city in Bhutan
Transcript:
Good evening and welcome to One in Five. I’m Carol Stiles. Tonight we’re heading out on a bus trip to visit a space in Auckland designed for everyone to use and enjoy. We’re hopping on the bus with delegates at a recent Auckland City Council hosted UNESCO conference. There were people here from 12 countries in the Asia Pacific, from Mongolia through to Niue. Charaf Ahmemed is a programme specialist at UNESCO, working in the area of disability and social inclusion. He was a keynote speaker at the conference.
Charaf Ahmemed: This conference is part of the coalition of cities to fight against discrimination and racism in Asia Pacific. The coalition was established in 2006 and it meets every year. It brings together mayors and governors and other officials to exchange good practices and exchange information, technical advice. And this year we had chosen the topic of disability rights and social inclusion as the main topic of the conference.
Carol Stiles: Charaf Ahmemed says delegates have been discussing inclusive education and its role in allowing people with disabilities to have access to the labour market. There have also been sessions around decent education and quality employment. Charaf says the conference has also focused on how to make cities accessible to people living with disabilities, which doesn’t only mean accessible infrastructure, but access to quality and affordable services.
Charaf Ahmemed: We’re hoping that mayors and others will go home with some of the good practices that they can duplicate and adapt to their context. We’re also hoping that people will stay in touch over the year. And we are hoping overall that what we shared in terms of good practices include people with disabilities in developing policies, in implementing policies, in monitoring and evaluating the programmes. We hope that all of these good ideas will resonate with most of the participants, but mostly with the mayors and governors that have a very key role in promoting and protecting the rights of their citizens.
Annabelle Tangson: Hello, I am from the Philippines. I am Mayor Annabelle Tangson and I represent the 290 lady mayors over the country because I am their president. And it’s so nice to be here in New Zealand to attend this very important conference. It’s a workshop on persons with disabilities. We learn about policies and programmes from the 12 countries that attended the conference here in New Zealand.
Carol Stiles: So you’re going to go home, and you’re going to spread the word, I suppose, amongst all the other women mayors.
Annabelle Tangson: Oh, yes. And this is one of the issues close to the hearts of lady mayors, like mothers, you know? You should take care of your children, especially if they are disability and end being not able to do a lot of things because of their disability.
Carol Stiles: Annabelle Tangson says she was particularly impressed when she heard about the role of Auckland City Council’s disability advisory panel. The panel gives strategic advice on issues of significance to its community. She says she’d like to introduce a panel just like it in her municipality.
Annabelle Tangson: They could tell me, this group could advise me, could advise me on what are the things that I should do to best serve these disabled people. So it’s going to make my work easier and make more effective and efficient in the delivery of services to the disabled person.
Carol Stiles: What needs addressing immediately, do you think, in the Philippines? What do you think you’re doing really well and what needs a bit of work?
Annabelle Tangson: Most of the participants they said funding. Funding is a problem. In the Philippines, small as we are, there’s a policy that every local government should allocate funds. No excuses, no buts, no ifs. You have to give them programmes and projects because there’s money for them under the law. And then number two is we give them employment for sure. 5% of every corporation, 5% of every local government, should employ persons with disabilities in positions that they are still capable of performing. And then what else? Free health benefits, especially for people with disabilities. And we give them pensions. Little as it is, but still it is able to help them for subsistence.
Carol Stiles: What are the employment opportunities like for people with disabilities in the Philippines?
Annabelle Tangson: Oh, yes. They weave. In my municipality we teach them skills. Like even if you are blind you can weave. Even if you are blind you can cook. There’s an agency or an office that would evaluate and assess the capabilities of a disabled person and fit them to the right job that they could do. But of course we can teach them to do things that they are capable of doing. Like gardening, like planting, agriculture. There’s a lot of things that they can still do, even if they are disabled.
Carol Stiles: The educational opportunities – do you have a lot of disabled people attending universities?
Annabelle Tangson: Yes, we have special programmse for the education of disabled persons, especially children.
Carol Stiles: What is the population of the Philippines?
Annabelle Tangson: Oh, it’s 100 million. We do a census of population every 10 years in the Philippines. There are, like, 1.4 million disabled persons in the Philippines. How do we know this? We do house-to-house surveys. We have a community-based management system not only for the disabled, but for planning purposes and where to put our money, you know? Because money is scarce so we have to put it where it should really be.
Woman: (On bus, calling the roll) Mongolia is here, Bhutan is here. Kiribati. Philippines. How many of you? Three, right? OK. Ok, let’s go!
(Hubbub)
Carol Stiles: We’re off now to downtown Auckland, to Elliott Street, to see an example of what’s called a ‘shared space’. Robert Lipka from Auckland Transport has taken the microphone.
Robert: It started in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and in other countries in Europe, where they were looking at trying to create public spaces that all people could share. So people walking, people cycling, people in vehicles. Sometimes there’s planting, sometimes there’s seating areas. The cars can still go through there, but they have to go really slowly through those spaces. So the particular shared space that we’re going down to today to look at in Elliott street and Darby Street, before the shared spaces were built they were just typical, standard streets. There was hardly any room for pedestrians and it was mostly devoted towards the cars. So a business after… when the shared space was constructed and finished and businesses were utilising it to full effect, obviously getting tables and chairs out there and getting people using the spaces, definitely business increased. The amount of foot traffic… they did pedestrian counts of how many pedestrians were using those streets before and then after once the shared spaces were constructed. As far as I can recall, and Chris you can correct me if I am wrong, it quadrupled and more the amount of foot traffic that people… activity on those particular streets before and after the shared space. For all intents and purposes the businesses are elated because their business has gone up significantly and there are actually new shops and restaurants that have opened up specifically because the shared spaces were located on those streets.
New male voice: And back then they were little, narrow, dark, confined seedy down-at-heel streets.
Carol Stiles: Chris Orr.
Chris Orr: They really were. Not a desirable area at all.
Carol Stiles: He works for the Blind Foundation.
Chris Orr: What they’ve done there now, with the treatment that they’ve done, is made it an invigorated, a very busy thoroughfare that’s very successful. (Commentary on bus fades down.)
Chris: The concept of shared spaces is that you’ve got an area that has got no footpaths, no designated road, and you have street furniture, you have chairs for people to sit at and have a meal, you’ve got plantings, rain gardens, all sorts of things in that space. So it doesn’t look like a street. Now, the experiences had been in Europe and in the United Kingdom, they put them in, but they put them in appropriately. They made some very bad decisions about the shared spaces and they never asked people who, for one reason or another, might not be able to navigate in that shared space for reasons of very bad design. So when the concept came to New Zealand the old Auckland City Council, before the amalgamation into the super city, their traffic engineers, their urban design people, came to the disabled community and said “Here’s the idea, here’s the concept, can we make it work?” They came to the affected community before the design. So we worked it out between us. It took a lot of discussion. We threw everything up in the air and where it landed we arranged it and then did it again, so one of the first things we decided on was it was called a ‘clear, accessible path of travel’….from the building line out, of 1.8m. That was kept absolutely clear. So you have your street furniture, you have your plant boxes, you have your outdoor dining, you have your heaters, you have rain gardens, bike racks, all of those things, outside of that clear, accessible path of travel. (Pause) For people who are blind we navigate generally using the building line either for echo-location or using a cane or whatever to navigate down that space. If you’re out one degree or two degrees it is not very long until you’re not close to that building line anymore. So what we use generally is a curb to tell us that we’re getting out a bit. “Oops, get back to the left, get back to the right. You’ve strayed out a bit far.” So it came down to “How do we have a curb without having a curb?” And we decided on what it’s called now, and it’s embedded into the New Zealand road code, and it will be in the new New Zealand road standard 14. It will be what’s called a ‘tactile delineator’. And it looks like a fabulous part of the design, but it’s designed so that if a person with a cane walking down and sweeping the ground in front of them to one side can pick up there’s something here.
Carol Stiles: It’s just a change in texture, really.
Chris Orr: That’s all it is. A change in texture. And it’s 600mm wide, so you can’t step over it.
Carol Stiles: A bit like a rumble line, I suppose?
Chris Orr: Exactly that. And it’s a cane rumble line, if you like. But it’s called a ‘tactile delineator’. So it fitted in with everyone’s needs, looked nice, it feels nice, the whole thing. And it works. So this is now, will be, the standard-setter for New Zealand. And my colleague and I, Carina Duke, who works with me at the Blind Foundation, we have been accepted to deliver a paper on this because we can’t find any evidence anywhere around the world of anybody doing what they’ve done. So we’re taking it to a special conference on transport for elderly and disabled. It’s an international conference. And it has specialist people there - traffic engineers, urban designers and planners, practitioners of teaching mobility and working with people using wheelchairs. All of that sort of thing all together in one place. And they’re the experts in their field from many, many countries around the world.
Carol Stiles: That’s in Portugal.
Chris Orr: Yep. Lisbon in Portugal. It’s July 8 -10th, something like that. We’re very proud to take it to that conference to say way down here in a little corner at the bottom of the world New Zealand has come up with a standard, a system that works for everyone, and we can take it to the world.
Robert Lipka: (street noise) Basically it’s the strip that Chris was talking about. So from the building line to this strip here – minimum 1.8 metres. And that’s where somebody with a visual impairment can follow that path. There’s no parking here. Loading is allowed at certain times. The rest is just a shared zone.
Carol Stiles: There are now four shared spaces in Auckland’s CBD and two in New Lynn.
Robert: This one, it’s been open for at least 2.5 years now. So it’s been around and very successful because there’s more people that are using the space now and more stores want to be here, because this is where people want to be. So businesses are doing well.
Carol Stiles: Vehicles are welcome?
Robert: Vehicles are welcomed, but they have to be slow. So you can see there’s a 10km sign and they have to behave… As I was saying, the road code was changed. The New Zealand Transport Agency added shared zones into that to ensure that pedestrians had right of way over vehicles within these spaces.
Carol Stiles: So what other features are here that I might not notice if I didn’t know all the planning that went into it?
Robert: Yes. Obviously the tactile strip is the key one. We can’t call it the warning tactiles you’ll see at crossings, the yellow dots; we didn’t want to do that. We wanted to keep the space as open as possible and also from an urban design point of view we don’t want to have the bright dots and nor does the Blind Foundation. They don’t want to see yellow dots everywhere. That’s not their mantra. They just want to make sure we create spaces that everybody can use.
Carol Stiles: Paul Brown is a disability advisor and lives in Auckland.
Now as somebody with visual impairment who uses this space, what’s it like?
Paul Brown: I think it’s a safe space. And I can choose to be on the pedestrian-only bit, which is what I like about it. So I have the tactile delineators on the ground that my cane can sense. (Sound of cane rubbing over bumpy ground) One side is this pavement sidewalk and the buildings at the other. And I know that the area between the buildings and the tactiles is going to be perfectly clear, so I can move at speed. But I know there’s not going to be any cars or vehicles there, either. And if I choose to share the bit with vehicles, which I don’t normally, then I can. But for me the important thing is a safe… effectively what still works as a pavement or sidewalk. Knowing that it’s clear just makes it really cool, to be able to move quite quickly and not be looking out for sandwich boards and chairs and all sorts of other stuff, rubbish bins, planters, any of that stuff. There’s just nothing. There’s a lovely 1.8m free zone. (Laughs) It’s great.
Carol Stiles: And how long does it go? It probably goes a couple of hundred metres, doesn’t it…from one end to the other?
Paul Brown: Yeah. It’s a good couple of hundred metres, I think.
Carol Stiles: Have you used shared spaces overseas?
Paul Brown: Yes. (Laughs) With less confidence. So once you work out, as a blind pedestrian, the rules here, it’s fine, you know? You know there’s a bit that’s shared between vehicles and people and a bit that’s people only. Because it’s now been used as a template for all the shared spaces, once you know you’re in a shared space you know you’re always going to have this clear line with the tactile delineators. It just means you can use it safely.
Carol Stiles: I just have to tell you that a courier has pulled in behind you, about 50m behind this car. He parked over the clear zone. Oh. He’s on his way.
Paul Brown: Naughty.
Carol Stiles: (Laughs)
Paul Brown: I mean, it’s not perfect, right, but compared to walking up and own Queen Street or something, you know, it’s a joy. (Laughs)
Carol Stiles: And if was still at the stage where I was pushing a push chair I’d prefer to be in here, as well.
Paul Brown: This side. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.
Carol Stiles: You’re from Niue.
Conference delegate Pui Hopotoa
So what have you thought about what you’ve seen here today?
Poe Popotoa: It’s magnificent. Certainly it’s a new feature for Auckland City. They haven’t forgotten their disabled people here. They’re still part of the community. Like the mayor, he hosted a dinner last night for all of us. And certainly it’s one of the features for the most livable city in the world. (Laughs)
Robert Lipka: So before the space was opened we had a lot of sessions at local businesses and there was also a lot of education in the local newspapers, through media, on the internet, talking about the shared spaces, what they’re all about, how they work, and we had an opening day where we had actually big cut-outs of people. And we kind of just sporadically placed them around the shared space so people came down and saw that. And when cars tried to get down they had to weave through the metal people, basically, little silhouettes. So that was really good. That was really a good learning lesson for the drivers that this is not your space anymore. This is a people space. And in future as more people came here we didn’t need those cut-outs anymore. We took them out. And now we just have lots of people walking around enjoying the space.
Carol Stiles: Why would you want to drive through here anyway?
Robert: That was the intention is that once you learn the space and you learn that it’s difficult to go through, especially during peak times when pedestrians are around, yeah, you’ll find an alternative route if you want to go to wherever you have to go throughout the city. But we’re not trying to discourage the vehicles to use the space, just behaving appropriately in the space. Because especially where I’m from originally in Canada and in North America we tried a lot of pedestrian malls in the early years in the ‘60s and ‘70s where you banished all cars and it was just pedestrian only. And that was difficult for businesses. And also the fact that from a crime prevention through environmental design perspective it may them feel dangerous at some points, especially in the evening times when you don’t have many pedestrians around and you’re maybe one of two pedestrians walking down the street, if you had a couple of cars or delivery vans around the area you’d feel a bit more comfortable, a bit safer. Whereas those spaces became desolate after stores were closed and everything. So then there was that crime issue, as well. Whereas the shared spaces they’re open to everybody 24-7 so as a pedestrian there’ll always be some activity around. If it’s not pedestrians there’ll be some delivery van dropping off some equipment. So it just feels safer to go through.
Carol Stiles: Auckland city councilor Arthur Anae joined the tour.
Arthur Anae: This has been a great opportunity for Auckland and New Zealand to showcase the many things that we do here on behalf of disability people. And how we as a council believe in inclusiveness. As you know we have various advisory boards to bring to the table of council the needs of certain people and for council to go and ask them what are their thoughts about what we’re doing to make sure we’re satisfying the needs of all our community. Every time we go to do something we need an input from disability and other sectors to make sure we’re not making a mistake. As you know, to fix an error is more expensive than fixing it right in the first place. And that’s what we try and do.
Carol Stiles: There are other shared spaces in Auckland, too, aren’t there?
Arthur There’s four, I think. I think you’ll find other parts of New Zealand doing the same thing very effectively. I’m sure I’ve seen it in Tauranga and in Napier, I think where it’s been done effectively. I think it works very well. I think the key from my observations is a respect that goes both ways – pedestrian respect for the vehicle and vehicle respect for the pedestrian. And you’ve got that. The vehicles are going to automatically slow down if people are there.
Man: My name is Tshering Phuntsho.
Carol Stiles: And you’re the chief town planner from..
Tshering Phuntsho: Phuntsholing municipality.
Carol Stiles: Phuntsholing. In Bhutan.
Tshering Phuntsho: Yes, Bhutan. We have in place a big road just now. I’m planning to convert it into a mall. A more pedestrian-friendly space from the cars. We would like to stop the cars. And then convert it into a mall. But then this idea of shared space where they have provided a space where blind people can direct themselves how to walk through between the buildings and this space. This is a very interesting idea and I would like to put that in Bhutan now. So this was a very fascinating idea that I learned and I’m going to put it there in Bhutan. Thank you. (Laughs)
Carol Stiles: All of these things require money. Is there money there to build and provide access for people with disabilities?
Tshering Phuntsho: Yes, money is always a constraint. But once we focus on the issue, the problem, I think money is something that we can manage. Bhutan is a small country. The population is only 700,000 so our cities and towns are very small. So it is manageable at the moment.
Carol Stiles: So what do you think of this?
Charaf Ahmemed: Wonderful, in the sense that I see a lot of interest from mayors coming from outside about the space. One thing that I wanted to add to this discussion and that is the main objective we’re looking at in organising this meeting on disability is really, really to promote the shift from charity-based to human rights-based. That it’s not about charity, it’s not about medical support to people with disabilities. We are promoting equal rights that people with disabilities, they contribute to society. And it’s the responsibility of government and society to fulfil the rights of people with disabilities, not the other way around. And this is really part of the discussion that we are having in Asia Pacific, where you see in many cultures and countries in Asia Pacific they are still dealing with disability from the lens of charity and how we can support, they call them, these people, the poor people. For us they are equal citizens. It doesn’t matter if we are dealing with disabilities in countries like Indonesia where the numbers are about 40 million people or in small islands in the Pacific, the point here is that they are equal citizens.
Carol Stiles: Charaf Ahmimed from UNESCO ending that report from a shared space in downtown Auckland. You’ve been listening to One in Five on Radio New Zealand. If you’d like to get in touch with us our email is oneinfive@radionz.co.nz
We’ll be back at the same time next week with more on the issues and experience of disability. Until then, ka kite anō.
Topics: disability
Regions:
Tags: urban design
Duration: 23'10"
19:28 – Voices
The Mooncake and the Kūmura
BODY:
The Mooncake and the Kūmura is a debut play from award winning new playwright Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen. It first performed at the Loft, Q Theatre as part of the Auckland Arts Festival earlier this year. Layered with myth and fable, the play is a moving story about a mixed-up Maori Chinese love affair that sprouts among rows and rows of potatoes - set in NZ nearly 90 years ago. Lynda meets playwright Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen at the heart of market gardening country - Otaki - to learn more.
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Women - ha! and Maori, they don't understand us!
Charles Chan as Choi, the old Chinese Market gardener - excerpt from The Mooncake and the Kūmura by Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen.
Yee, played by Yosan An is a young Chinese labourer, he’s discussing Maori women needing work with Choi, an old Chinese market gardener. It sets the scene for a love story between Chinese and Maori around 90 years ago, at a time when these communities were very poor and marginalised.
The play The Mooncake and the Kūmara, was a sold out hit at the recent Auckland Arts Festival earlier this year. The themes, an exploration of the lives of Chinese and Maori market gardeners in New Zealand is loosely based on the family history of writer Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen – about her Maori and Chinese grandparents.
You're greeted by the crowing of roosters and squealing of piglets at the gates of the Totaranui Orchards in Otaki, an area steeped in market gardening history – and the home of Auckland Arts Festival director Carla van Zon.
Mei-Lin is Carla's house guest and as far as market gardening stories go - this is the perfect setting for our interview. We’re surrounded by free range chooks, pigs and the heady aromas of homemade cider made from the sprawling apple orchard as Mei-Lin tells me about the inspiration behind her play, the love story between her grandparents Nan and Goong-goong.
It was a call out for short plays (about Asian themes or written by Asian writers) from The Oryza Foundation in Auckland which first prompted Mei-Lin to write the play with her cousin Kiel McNaughton in 2008. This production is an ‘extended’ version of their 10 minute original.
The play is based on the "true" life story about how Mei-Lin's Maori grandmother Alice Williams (Nan) and Chinese grandfather Joe Kum Chee (Goong Goong) met in 1929. Collective family histories are always open to interpretation and MeLin's version is just that.
Chu Moi 徐妹 was the name of Joe Kum Chee's first wife. It was common for Chinese men to leave loved ones and family back home to seek work around the globe, at first in gold-mining and later in market gardening, labouring and laundry services.
According to the New Zealand Chinese Association publication Sons of the Soil Joe Kum Chee came from the village of Nam Ling, in the Poon Yue district, Canton. Joe arrived in New Zealand in 1924 at the age of 21 with his father. Joe and his father laboured on market gardens around the Stratford area. This is where Joe at the age of 26 met Alice Williams - a decade younger than him.
Alice Williams came from the Tainui settlement at Ngāruawāhia, and a new marae called Tūrangawaewae. The leader of the marae was the whaea Te Puea Hērangi (1883–1952) the granddaughter of Tāwhiao Te Wherowhero, the second Māori King.
Te Puea emerged as a leader during the First World War. She opposed the government’s policy of conscripting Māori for war service, at a time when Tainui invasion and confiscation of their lands. After the war Te Puea helped set up the Tainui settlement, the new marae and the fledgling King Movement (Kiingitanga). The settlement became a kind of ‘national marae’.
Te Puea hosted politicians and dignitaries and helped restore the national status of the Kiingitanga. She became a crucial figure in reviving the Kiingitanga (King Movement) among Tainui people in the twentieth century. Alice Williams's mother was one of the whaea that helped host at the marae.
Mei-Lin laughs as she tells me that there are many nostalgic versions of how her grandparents met but Mei-Lin's version is probably closest to the truth of the gritty, harsh realities of the times. Market gardening wasn't a stroll in the meadows, it all about survival and sheer hard graft.
They're moving where the money is, they're all on the make. They just want to survive.
"They were so poor, both Goong and Nan. Nan's father had died, so where is this mum [Mei-Lin's great-grandmother] with her 10 children going to find a way to feed and clothe all these children? Nan was only 16 when she got together with Goong."
It was tough times for Maori and Chinese - the Great Depression, post W.W.1. and entering the era of W.W.2. Joe and Alice went on to purchase green grocer and fruit shops in Stratford and Hawera from 1937 to 1945 before moving to Palmerston North and gradually expanding their market gardening business.
According to Mei-Lin Joe and Alice had around 13 children and Joe and Alice continued to toil on their gardens throughout each pregnancy. "The older siblings became the babysitters."
Mei-Lin is the first Maori-Chinese playwright to bring to New Zealand's audience a play with an entirely Maori and Chinese theme.
This is an ‘extended’ version of a 10 minute play I wrote with my cousin Kiel McNaughton back in 2008. Both of us, at separate times in our lives, had wanted to write a play about our Goong-Goong (from Southern China/Guangzhou) and Nan (from Taranaki via Wanganui via Waikato), so we got together on weekends and worked on the 10 minute version of the play. We submitted it for a collection of plays being produced under the banner Asian Tales and it grew from there. - See more at: http://www.qtheatre.co.nz/news/artist-pass-mei-lin-te-puea-hansen#sthash.pnGFsB7X.dpuf
Carla van Zon, Director of the Auckland Arts Festival is quick to point out that The Mooncake and the Kūmura was selected on the merit of its' writing.
Festival director Carla Van Zon is about to feed her 40 odd piglets, Carla tells us she loved this play from the outset because of its earthy authenticity. She loved the fact that the older hardened Maori and Chinese characters grew softer in the telling of the play, losing their racist misconceptions of each other.
Mei-Lin pays particular credit to Katie's direction. "It was great to have Katie Wolf direct, she comes from Taranaki and she could relate to the Maori side of my family."And what about the title? Mei-Lin tells me she liked it because it was evocative of Aesop's fables;
"Threaded throughout the play are fables, where the Chinese characters tell Maori legends and Maori characters tell Chinese fables, with lots of artistic license of course!"
The debut season sold out and there are plans to tour this to festivals around the country, Carla and Mei-Lin would like to premiere it for one night in Otaki too, for the population of market gardening families in the region.
After all - it is a love story set among rows and rows of potatoes. Who wouldn't be enamored with that?
The Mooncake and the Kūmara
Auckland Arts Festival 5th – 10th March 2015, at the Loft, Q Theatre, Auckland.
Playwright: Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen
Direction: Katie Wolfe
Cast: Yoson An, Charles Chan, Kip Chapman, Awhina-Rose Henare Ashby, Waimihi Hotere, Chye-Ling Huang
Design Team: John Verryt, Paul Lim, Drew McMillan, Elizabeth Whiting
Play excerpts recorded at the Loft, Q Theatre, Auckland, NZ by Justin Gregory and Aleyna Martinez for Radio New Zealand.
Topics: history, arts, education, rural, spiritual practices, language, food, te ao Maori
Regions: Taranaki
Tags: Chinese, theatre, market gardening, Otaki, cultural practices
Duration: 17'18"
19:43 – The Week in Parliament
Opposition taunts government over light legislative workload. Steven Joyce denies reports of a split in National's caucus over the Health and Safety Reform Bill. John Key attacks Andrew Little over speculation about means testing National Super. Budget Debate medley includes topics ranging from euthanasia to economics and back. Select committee looks at The Lines Company. Murray McCully rejects opposition claims that a multi-million dollar payment to a Saudi businessman was a bribe. Ann Tolley defends scramble to find new providers to replace Relationships Aotearoa.