Breath of the Birds: the Revival of Taonga Puoro
The annual Lilburn Lectures are a collaboration between the Lilburn Trust and the National Library of New Zealand. This year’s Lilburn Lecture will be the seventh in this series of open public talks. Refreshments will be served following the Lecture.
Friday 1 November 2019
Time 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Cost Free. RSVP as places are limited. Keith.McEwing@dia.govt.nz
Venue Taiwhanga Kauhau — Auditorium (lower ground floor), Corner Molesworth and Aitken Streets, Wellington. Entrance on Aitken Street.
Esteemed New Zealand composer Dame Gillian Whitehead (Ngāi te Rangi) will speak of the origin of ngā taonga puoro, their revival, and how she has used these traditional Māori musical instruments in her work. The lecture will include a performance by NZSO principal flautist, Bridget Douglas and taonga puoro performer and researcher, Alistair Fraser.
About the speaker:
Dame Gillian Whitehead has written a wide range of music including works for solo, chamber, choral, orchestral and operatic forces, most of them direct commissions from performers and funding organisations. A number of her works have been recorded for commercial release, including a CD of her chamber works by Wai-te-ata Press and a recording of her opera, Outrageous Fortune. In 2000 she became one of the inaugural Artist Laureates of the NZ Arts Foundation. In 2008 she became a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, one of New Zealand’s highest
honours, and she was granted the title ‘Dame’ in 2009. 2018 saw Gillian receive an Arts Icon Award, recognising her enormous contribution to New Zealand’s cultural landscape. Overseen by the Arts Foundation, there are only 20 of these awards in circulation at any time, the recipient holding the award for life. A significant collection of Dame Gillian’s works is held in the Alexander Turnbull Library.
Image: Photographs of Gillian Whitehead. Ref: PADL-000849. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/32058367
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Poll: 🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
The Reserve Bank has shared some pretty blunt advice: there’s no such thing as a “safe” job anymore 🛟😑
Robots are stepping into repetitive roles in factories, plants and warehouses. AI is taking care of the admin tasks that once filled many mid-level office jobs.
We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
Want to read more? The Press has you covered!
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14.8% Critical thinking
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2.8% Other - I will share below!
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
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We hope this brings a smile!
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