NDF Conference in Wellington and Education Seminars

The National Digital Forum Conference up in Wellington was surprisingly very good. It was mostly surrounding what is going on in digital projects by the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) sector, which I normally view as being stale. It actually has some really interesting things going on, even in New Zealand! Before one meeting, a guy at my table was on the subject of  how cats were ruining the native wildlife and birds here, and I said there was an easy solution: just have indoor cats like we do in the U.S. He seemed to have never thought of this before. One fun part of meeting new people is meeting Dune fans and trying to convert others. I convinced two women who are science fiction fans but hadn't read it yet (mostly because its length is intimidating) to add it to their list. I’m pretty much a Dune ambassador at this point. 

I checked out the National Library's little exhibit on the 1975 Maori Land March while I was there. In short, a large group of Maori led by a 79-year-old woman, Whina Cooper, marched the length of the North Island south to the capital, Wellington, to protest the loss of Maori land. Petitions of support were circulated, and I thought how real and concrete these seem in contrast to today's online petitions.

There were some interesting seminars at the university. One was a Digital Humanities seminar on the issues surrounding preserving, storing, digitizing, and dealing with copyright for all of the old university radio shows and music still stored on cassette tapes. Two others were on the Education Campus and featured Professor Antonia Darder from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles . She spoke on decolonizing the body in education and how we are doing a disservice to young people by enforcing the mind/body split and pretending that education is only about their cognitive abilities and not the rest of their physical selves. Immobilizing them in rows of hard desks and viewing teachers as technicians rather than pedagogical leaders is hampering a development of empathy and whole selves. I had never heard of Paulo Freire before, but I am interested in now checking out his Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Professor Darder also was the keynote presenter at an Education Symposium where she elaborated on her notion of what is needed for critical leadership for social justice and community empowerment in today's world. She ended with reminding us that the Western mentality is a conquest mentality, making everyone believe that everything has to be big to be worthwhile. But she said local, small acts can have great impact and translate bigger. She was a really passionate and inspiring speaker, and I'm glad I had the chance to hear about different ways of thinking about education.
 

Dr. Antonia Darder in her lecture on decolonizing the body in education

In other news, we were invited for dinner at someone's house where we tried some new foods: parsnip and leeks. We brought American-style buttermilk biscuits which were happily scooped up. They taught us how to play Mahjongg, which was great because we had just bought the game at a garage sale that morning and I have been wanting to learn so I can play with my Chinese friends. Apparently it is so addicting that it is banned in Chinese universities so the students don't get distracted.
 

leaving the South Island

my 6:40am flight was mostly businesspeople (men) in suits

view of downtown Wellington - weather stayed mostly nice

one conference presenter had a Dune reference on his slide - sweet!

sighting 1 of neighborhood cat in Wellington

sighting 2 of neighborhood cat in Wellington

sighting 3 of neighborhood cat in Wellington

Parliament building in Wellington is called The Beehive

Wellington airport has lots of Lord of the Rings stuff hanging

I beg to differ: insulation here stinks

leaving Wellington at 8:00pm

returning to Christchurch

Wellington: Te Papa Tongarewa National Museum and Weta Cave

The next day was windy and rainy -- not pleasant weather for exploring a city on foot. Our luck with travel (see Queenstown trip) seems to be continuing as people have been saying this downpour is uncharacteristic even for Wellington. The guidebook said that the National Library had the Treaty of Waitangi (1840 agreement between many of the indigenous Maori chiefs and the British Crown), but we were disappointed to find that it is undergoing restoration and won't be on display for two years. She said there was a copy at the Archives down the street, so we went there, but the Constitution Room was closed, of course. I gave up and had to be satisfied with the facsimile copy in the lobby.

view of Wellington from the balcony of Airbnb apartment

Te Papa National Museum

Fortunately, the Te Papa Tongarewa National Museum of New Zealand did live up to the guidebook's praise. We spent hours there checking out the exhibits on the history of New Zealand.

Highlights:

The museum has the only colossal squid on public display in the world, and that thing was gnarly! It is the largest invertebrate, has eyes as big as soccer balls, and is preserved in a tank of liquid.

A self-taught woman, Joan Wiffen, discovered the first dinosaur fossil and many subsequent ones in New Zealand.

It was frustrating and saddening to learn about how destructive humans have been to this land. The British and other Europeans wanted to turn New Zealand into a little Britain, and in the process burned and bladed much of the forests, as well as taking land from the indigenous Maori people. They introduced farm animals and invasive plants and animals, leading to the extinction of many species.

Green indicates forests. Now, only 25% of indigenous forests remain.

Brown indicates Maori land ownership on the North and South Islands (not much anymore).

"Pakeha settlers wanted to create a prosperous outlying farm of Britain."

I already knew about the giant moa bird that went extinct, but the museum had a nice recreation of it being attacked by its main predator before Maori arrival, the Haast's eagle (also extinct). It kind of looks like an ostrich, but its legs are a lot thicker.

Weta Cave
Weta Workshop is known for its work on the special effects for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but it has grown a lot in its 20-year history and is working on the three new Avatar films and a lot of other projects. The 30-minute behind-the-scenes movie in the "theatrette" really just ended up making me want to watch LOTR and some of the other movies the company has worked on again!

Yogurt or Cream?

We met up with a friend from Christchurch at a Malaysian restaurant and then went to another restaurant for dessert. When you order cheesecake, they ask whether you want yogurt or cream. I didn't understand what they were talking about until they brought out the plate and had little ramekin dishes on it with plain, tart yogurt in one and whipped cream (unsweetened) in the other. It was quite strange to not have a glob of whipped cream on top of the cheesecake, and having tart yogurt with a bite of cheesecake was not pleasant. They also ask the same question when you order a brownie!