SIGNS OF EARLIERSculptor Iain Cheesman is responsible for hanging all of the art in my apartment. Who would know that hanging art is its own specialism? Everything in my collection is carefully coordinated. I would never hang anything myself now. Cheesman's own work has the loosely co-ordinated whimsy that he brings to art-hanging. His sc...

Wāhine toa!At a Parliamentary event organised by UNICEF just before Christmas, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the audience that she loved children (!). I really believe in this stuff, she said, that's what motivates me in politics. UNICEF's advocacy manager Prudence Stone floated the idea of an event to celebrate New Zealand's network of child ...

​American academic Peggy McIntosh describes white privilege as an 'unearned package of assets' enjoyed by white people. She argues that in Western societies, whites enjoy advantages that non-whites do not experience.1 White people may not recognise the privileges they have. But the effects can be seen in workplaces, schools, universities, courts, j...

Anton BlankJuly 2017At the Green Party's launch of their policy to address poverty on Sunday, Greens co-leader Metiria Turei made an extraordinary confession that she had lied to the Department of Social Welfare, when she was collecting a Domestic Purposes Benefit back in the day. Turei lied to Social Welfare about having flatmates she said, becaus...

Chris Rock slays in AucklandComedian Chris Rock opened last year's Oscars with a blistering attack on racism in Hollywood. There were no black nominees during 2016 which is why Rock called the Oscars the White People's Choice Awards.As if there hadn't been other years when there were no black nominees he goes on. What about the sixties? In the year...

Our Indigenous Diversity Forum in May will focus on unconscious, or implicit, bias. Here are some answers to questions asked of us since we advertised the forum. It's also a taster of our book Rewire, which will feature at the event. Whatis racism and what is bias?Everyone has biases. Mostly they are implicit, which means the bias operates at a lev...

Photographer Stephen Piper spent two weeks in Southland this year photographing images for his first solo exhibition – South – currently on at Northart Gallery at the Northcote Shopping Centre in Auckland. English and a location scout by trade, Piper brings a filmic quality to the images and while the gorgeous landscape is there, Piper's primary fo...

Apocalypse NowI can't bring myself to read too much more about Moko Rangitoheriri, the Rotorua toddler killed by his caregivers. There's a sickening depravity to it all; a couple completely disconnected from their own humanity and the human spirit in others. They did unspeakable things to this poor boy. Also in the news last month, a three-year-old...

Hong Kong hideawayNew Zealand artist Mark Schdroski has been domiciled in Hong Kong for the last fifteen years. He lives with his partner, jeweller Edmond Chin, in Central Hong Kong. They own two apartments side by side, which they have developed into a single dwelling. Chin's clients are international; actresses wear Chin diamonds to the Academy A...

There's a lengthy feature about my colleague Hautahi Kingi in the February issue of North and South.Born and raised in Whanganui, Kingi is the progeny of a Māori father and Pākehā mother. Educated at kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori, he spoke no English until he was seven. He went on to win scholarships to attend St George's, a preparatory school...

Ranginui and RihannaWhanganui photographer Tia Ranginui's new exhibition Glazed Donut opened at Space Studio and Gallery (spacestudiogallery.co.nz) in Whanganui this week.Through photography, Ranginui explores the objectification and sexualisation of the male form. She takes conventions normally associated with the photography of women (artisticall...

Emerging out of a decade of drug addiction in my mid-forties I was faced with a dilemma, what now? I had lost track of myself and my purpose, drugs the ultimate avoidant, which kept me away from a life I couldn't make sense of. Ever since childhood I'd felt like a possum in the headlights. This had lead to a cycle of psychological crises over the y...

IHEARTCAITLYNJENNER.I am mesmerised by the transition of Bruce Jenner, the absolutely gorgeous American decathlete in his day, from man to woman. Everything playing out in worldwide media, positioned at the epicentre of popular culture, it is a publicist's wet dream. The strange face of Bruce Jenner now makes sense. In his interview with Diane Sawy...

​I have been on the road for the last few weeks as part of my work with the Public Health Association, visiting the regions to deliver training in policy and communications, and having discussions with local health providers about Maori health needs.The development of Maori media and the proliferation of social media is having a profound impact on ...

Altruism was instilled in me from childhood. My parents were deeply concerned about issues like education, racism, and the status of Maori and Pasifika children. Teaching firstly in remote Maori schools, when we moved to Auckland they both had stints teaching in Ponsonby, during very different periods. My father Pius taught at Beresford St Pri...

A selfie of my parents My parents had their honeymoon at Kennedy's Bay, Coromandel in 1958. My father Pius Blank emigrated to New Zealand from Switzerland in 1952. Pius was a photographer and most of our family photographs were selfies, taken with a Rolleiflex camera on a timer.Pius was fascinated by Maori culture and photographed Maori life during...

Postcolonialism Post-colonialism continues to be a central tenet of Maori discourse, even-though it has almost passed its use-by date. What sounded radical in the eighties – tino rangatiratanga, an 'us' versus 'them' divide between Maori and Pakeha, the state as enemy of the oppressed – is less convincing as the New Zealand population diversifies a...

Last month the Minister of Social Development Anne Tolley announced a decrease in New Zealand's child abuse rates of 12%. This was based on Child, Youth and Family figures, which showed that during the year to June 2014, 16,289 children had 19,623 findings of abuse substantiated compared to 18,595 children with 22,984 findings of abuse in the previ...

On Friday night I will be participating in a panel discussion at the Grey Lynn Library, called Finding Our Stories. It is one of many events making up this year's ride Festival. We'll be exploring all kinds of texts, including books, films and music, that inform and affirm the construction of queer identity.The notion of queer ...