Standing Room Only

Wellington is playing host to one of the city's most important arts events this year - the contemporary indigenous arts festival Kia Mau. It's grown from its enthusiastic but smaller-scale beginnings eight years ago to an extraordinary collection of indigenous talent from all round the Pacific Rim. Aotearoa New Zealand, of course, but also Samoa, Tonga, Malaysia, Cambodia, Canada - even Africa. Simon Morris is joined by the founders of the Kia Mau Festival - two of this country's most distinguished and talented creatives - playwright Hone Kouka, and poet, producer and film-maker Miria George.

Joe Bennett's weekly column is a delight. In a media world dominated by opinion pieces, influencers, pompous "reckons' and trivial drivel, Joe seems happy to provide short , funny - often thoughtful - pieces to lighten our day. Or at least he did. Like so many South Island luminaries at the moment, he's succumbed to the urge to write a memoir. It's called From There to Here - a journey both figurative and literal, with a subplot he describes as "a long and fruitless struggle against teaching for a living". Joe Bennett looks back with Simon Morris.

Simon Morris talks to Martyn Roberts from Afterburner about the upcoming interactive theatre production Dark Radio for NZ Fringe Festival 2023

Even a three-volume autobiography doesn't come close to telling the full story of poet Lauris Edmond OBE. So her daughter and literary executor, Frances Edmond, is filling in the gaps in a biography called Always Going Home. This includes assessing in depth the death of another of Lauris's daughters, Rachel, left emotionally damaged by a childhood assault, and its impact on the whanau. Lauris didn't publish her first poetry collection until she was 51. Ten more followed, plus the autobiography, a novel, dramas written for radio and theatre and her work as an editor. She was 75 when she died in 2000. Frances published Night Burns with a White Fire: The Essential Lauris Edmond with co-editor Sue Fitchett in 2017 - but, as she tells Lynn Freeman, Always Going Home is very much the personal story of a mother and daughter, both writers with strong personalities. Frances Edmond's Always Going Home is published by Otago University Press.

In the final episode of Standing Room Only, host Lynn Freeman chats to Catriona MacLeod about her five decades at RNZ.

Visual effects art director, Dylan Coburn has drawn storyboards for some of the biggest recent New Zealand projects - Rings of Power, Cowboy Bebop - even Dame Valerie Adams More Than Gold... It's an important job - not just artistically, but also budget-wise. A good storyboard can save literally millions of dollars on a shoot. But Dylan's latest project uses his drawing skills for something entirely different - to help young readers to learn how to count. Boingo and the Golden Balloon sees a young rabbit chasing his favourite object in the world through a forest, with all kinds of critters giving him directions along the way. Lynn Freeman talks with Dylan about his career switch. Boingo and the Golden Balloon by Dylan Coburn is published by Action Junior Limited.

The often heartbreaking story of the extended family of three Jewish Second World War refugees who found a new home in Aotearoa is told in a new poetry collection, We came from Hamburg. Retired judge Vivienne Ullrich became fascinated by her husband's family tree, which suddenly expanded when they received an email from relatives living in America. There was the ongoing mystery of Erna who abandoned her three daughters and disappeared in 1920. Meanwhile Wally, her son Eric and eventually her daughter Liesl came to New Zealand from England, to join Wally's second husband Walter. Vivienne's husband Philip, is the late Liesel's son. Lynn Freeman talks to Vivienne about her exotic in-laws. We came from Hamburg by Vivienne Ullrich is published by the Cuba Press.

Writer Susy Pointon is determined to capture the many stories of Northland's rugged and mysterious Hokianga, her adopted home. Since moving there 18 years ago, she's talked to locals to record their memories on tape and in writing. The first two books in her Hokianga series were fictionalised short stories based on actual people and events. Number three however, Ferry Stories of the Hokianga: Nga korero o Hokianga mai I te waka, is more of a hybrid, with locals contributing their own stories which sit alongside Susy's fiction. Lynn Freeman asks Susy for some highlights.

This year marked a first at Cannes - both the winning films came from the same country, South Korea, Decision to leave and Broker. But South Korea has been making its presence felt across the board recently - the Oscar winning Parasite, TV sensations like Snowpiercer and The Squid Game, hugely popular romcoms and action flicks on Netflix, not to mention the K Pop phenomenon. Right now the biggest bands in the world are Korean boy bands like BTS and girl groups like Blackpink. The first time Korean films crossed Simon Morris's path, they seemed to belong firmly in the "genre" area - monster movies, brutal crime stories, martial arts. But suddenly they're bigger than that - far bigger. It's like the Golden Age of Hollywood in the Thirties and Forties. So what's Korea's secret? Simon talks with Michael Stephens, longtime chair of the Korean Cinerama Trust, and also crack screenwriter Nick Ward, a regular on the Seoul Screenplay Development Support Programme.

The fashion industry is notoriously wasteful - for instance, cheap clothing that lasts months rather than years before ending up in landfills. But an expat now based in the US is leading by example, buying up unwanted garments made from quality fabrics and materials. She then unpicks and reworks them into high fashion clothes for the catwalk. Esther Lofely and her husband Robert Catalusci work together on her label, ELC. For well over a decade she worked for the Royal New Zealand Ballet company, and was Head Draper when she left in 2019 to work overseas before settling in Virginia. Lynn Freeman asks Esther why she become interested in creating garments from clothing destined for the tip.

Since Standing Room Only started some of the biggest changes we've seen in attitudes towards art and artists has happened in Otautahi Christchurch. How much artists contributed to the city's emotional recovery from the earthquakes through projects like Gap Filler, but also how many individual people created and shared their work. Before the quakes, Neil Dawson's monumental sculpture The Challice in the Square was initially criticised, but within days of its unveiling it became an impromptu shrine for the New York victims of 9/11. Back in 1998, the SCAPE Public Art started commissioning large outdoor works by international and Kiwi sculptors and artists. Some stayed but most of them were temporary. Some attracted criticism but they certainly got people talking. As SCAPE reaches its quarter century, its founder and Executive Director Deborah McCormick is standing down in March next year. Deborah's last SCAPE will see her tick off one of her long held ambitions - to secure a permanent sculpture for Christchurch by Auckland-based artist Dr Brett Graham. Lynn Freeman talks with Deborah and Brett, first asking Deborah to take us back to the lightbulb moment that led to SCAPE public art event.

Seven years after escaping a family tragedy in her home town, Jac Morgan reluctantly returns to search for her missing sister, Charlie. But twenty years earlier, another teenage girl went missing in Everly. Paige Gilmore disappeared during the town's annual Gilmore Hotel Open Day, and the anniversary is not far away. As Jac looks for clues to lead her to Charlie, the two cases start to blur. This is the premise for In Her Blood, the latest crime novel by Ngaio Marsh Award shortlisted author, Nikki Crutchley. Lynn Freeman asks Nikki whether the characters - and the town of Everly - are based on real life. In Her Blood by Nikki Crutchley is published by HarperCollins.

At 11 she released an album, at 18 she set up a charitable foundation, and now at 21 Tayla Alexander is a lyric soprano. Before that, she's about to perform in a short comique opera in Brisbane. It's part of the Lisa Gasteen National Opera Programme for emerging professional singers from New Zealand and Australia. On top of all that, this year she's been studying for an honours degree at the University of Auckland before going overseas for her Masters in music. She was also a semi-finalist in the 2022 Lexus Song Quest. Like her mentor Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Tayla tells Lynn Freeman, she's a "crossover artist", singing a wide range of genres - opera, classical, pop and music theatre.

An embalmer goes rogue in horrific ways in the first crime novel written by K. M. Tarrant - someone who is very much at home in a mortuary. She's a qualified embalmer, she's fascinated by human psychology and reading crime fiction is her thing. Now based in Auckland's North Shore, the Temuka-born writer says she hopes her book Life and Death in Birkenhead will not only entertain people, but demystify the world of embalming. In it, Gerald the sociopathic embalmer is on a collision course with Maisie, a caring and bereaved young woman who also takes up the embalmer's tools. Life and Death in Birkenhead by K. M. Tarrant is a Mary Egan Publishing publication.

Very much against the odds, Rosaline Frank was able to forge a career as Nelson's first woman professional photographer, starting at the end of the 19th century. A local photographer Rosalina McCarthy became so captivated with her near namesake's work and achievements that she's written her story in a book called Belated Accolades. It's actually a joint biography, also telling the story of William Tyree for whom Rosaline Frank worked before effectively taking over his studio. And as well as examining Rosaline Frank's all-consuming photographic career, Belated Accolades looks at the dilemma she faced as custodian of well over a million negatives and photographic glass plates accumulated over decades at the Tyree studio. The famous Tyree Photographic Studio collection has UNESCO Heritage status because of its social history value. First things first though - Rosalina tells Lynn Freeman how she came to be fascinated with Rosaline Frank's story.

This year on Standing Room Only we've run interviews with all kinds of repairers. Our last is with a colleague of ours, John Roberts - better known around here as JR - who mends old broken radios that still have plenty of life in them. One of his specialties is repairing the plastic Bell radios that were in so many Kiwi homes from the 1950s to the early 1980s. Lynn Freeman asks JR if he grew up with a radio in the family home. John Roberts is a member of the New Zealand Vintage Radio Society

A pilot scheme helped Canterbury secondary school art students build their confidence by getting their work into a gallery - and sold. Now it's being rolled out to the next generation of Te Whanganui-A-Tara Wellington and Tamaki Makaurau Auckland artists. Charlotte Sherratt and Sophie Paterson set up Artstart - formerly known as The Creators' Room - in 2017. Now students are invited to send in their work, and a panel of judges chooses a hundred to be framed and exhibited. Money from any sales goes back to the young artist and so far that's come to around of $375,000 in Canterbury alone. To find out more Lynn Freeman talks to Ella Ward who's one of Artstart's many success stories, and to its co-founder Sophie Paterson.

Dr H. B. Turbott was The Radio Doctor for more than 40 years - pre and post the Second World War - dispensing advice on a range of health and social issues until his retirement in 1984. His broadcasts spanned child rearing, vaccination and communicable diseases, through to healthy ageing and nutrition. Dr Turbott's often very enlightened opinions for the time fascinated Dr Claire Macindoe, an Otepoti/Dunedin-based researcher and historian. She based her PhD thesis on him - The Radio Doctor - Broadcasting Health into the Home. Now she's won the Judith Binney Writing Award, she plans to turn that thesis into a book. Lynn Freeman asks Claire how she heard about Harold Turbott's broadcasts.

James Cameron is about to launch one of the Greatest Shows on Earth - Avatar The Way of Water has just had its first sneak previews in the Northern Hemisphere. We have a vested interest in New Zealand of course - much of the film was shot and produced here. When director James Cameron and producer Jon Landau brought the sequel to Avatar here in 2018, they decided to train and mentor a group of would-be film-makers across all aspects of production. Over 36 interns and apprentices were selected for a wide range of disciplines - from lighting, costumes and cameras to set design and production accounts. So what was it like to be dropped into the biggest film in the world? Simon Morris talks to Dylan Patel, who joined the Camera Department, Shona Ward, a Costume intern and Robyn Bryant from the Music Department. Avatar The Way of Water opens around New Zealand on 15 December.

Right now the country's public libraries want to have an even bigger role in their communities - in particular, actively helping schools to support the education of our tamariki. LIANZA - the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa - is planning a submission to the Future of Local Government Review. Librarians see this as the best chance they have to ring in some much-needed changes. Lynn Freeman spoke to retired librarian, Allison Dobbie who's leading LIANZA's submission, first asking her about local bodies' current financial support for libraries around the motu.