Archive for the ‘National identity’ Category

$10,000 to kick-start your digitisation project!*

Make it Digital has two awards of up to $10,000 on offer for organisations who have New Zealand content they want to digitise and make easier to find, share and use. Entries must be from an organisation that is a New Zealand legal entity. Individuals with project ideas should team with a relevant organisation and submit their idea collaboratively. Entries close on Monday February 1 2010.

For more information, check out the Make it Digital Award page.

Make It Digital is a place for people who are interested in making content digital. New Zealand is a small place with big ideas, and we need to be creating and digitising more content – be it our pictures, our stories, our 3D creations, or our knowledge and culture. Need some advice, got a digitisation project, got some expertise to contribute? Make It Digital is the place for you. Check out more information about the project, what people are doing and how it’s going over here.

*Terms and conditions apply, so read all the small print.

As a child I can remember saying ‘See you in the morning,’ as I kissed my mother goodnight, to which she would often reply, ‘If God spares.’ This both puzzled and frightened me as I lay in bed wondering what the consequences would be if He didn’t or indeed who might He not spare during the night?

I was reminded of this rather gloomy outlook on life recently when I read an article by Chris Rattue in the New Zealand Herald. In the aftermath of the All Whites’ away draw in Bahrain in the first leg of the football World Cup play-off, Rattue stressed how ‘the events of the game, rather than the score, made you ponder this: there will be a mighty song and dance if New Zealand qualify for the World Cup finals in South Africa, as there should be, yet it could turn out to be a poisoned chalice… what if they get there, only to be hammered?

In this NZLive feature article Steve Watters looks ahead to the second-leg of the All White’s World Cup qualifier against Bahrain.

Image taken from the cover to the programme for the All Whites’ game against Chinese Taipei, 1981 (collection of Neill Atkinson)

They say time flies when you’re having fun and from the sounds of it that’s what NZ On Screen have been doing for the last year. But a whole year? I hear you ask. That’s right, NZ On Screen celebrates its first birthday this month and we’re taking this chance to wish them a very Happy Birthday and thank them for all the hard work they’ve put in to bring New Zealand television and film to our desktops.

Here are a few of the highlights from the collection:

Don’t Let It Get You
Sir Howard Morrison (as himself) and Rotorua are the stars in the tiki-flavoured tale. This 60s classic is a melange of madcap, pep-filled musical fun. Made by John O’Shea, it features Kiri Te Kanawa, Lew Pryme and Aussie star Norman Rowe.

Gliding On
In an age before Rogernomics, well before The Office, there was the afternoon tea fund, Golden Kiwi, and four o’clock closing: welcome to the early 80s New Zealand Public Service. The Roger Hall series was the first hit Kiwi sitcom: “Morning Jim!”

A Dog’s Show
Man. Dog. Sheep. This was an unlikely formula for Kiwi TV gold. Showing sheepdog trials from around the country, A Dog’s Show ran from 1977 to 1992. This episode is from the same year as the Springbok Tour, but the only riots here are ovine.

Enjoy!

Howard Morrison, at left, performs with the Quartet (from the cover of Te Ao Hou)

It’s a song that many throughout the world know. A song that was given to our local tongue by Howard Morrison when he sang ‘Whakaaria Mai’ for the Queen at a Royal Command Performance in 1981. It’s a song that today is in my mind, and perhaps in the minds of many, as we remember Sir Howard Morrison, who died in Rotorua today, 24 September 2009, aged 74.

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By David Luoni

Cuba Crisis No.1. Image courtesy of Tauranga Art Gallery, from a private collection.

Gore’s Eastern Southland Gallery is hosting a compelling retrospective of Edward (Ted) Bullmore’s art entitled ‘A Surrealist Odyssey’. Ted Bullmore was a southern lad who grew up on the family’s farm at Balfour but his talent lent itself to acquiring cultural rather than rural capital. Gore has now caught up with Bullmore’s genius and is proudly celebrating it. If only we’d had the foresight to do this 40 years ago when Bullmore needed it, having returned home from a productive nine year stint in Europe only to find himself working in relative obscurity in Rotorua. Sadly, Ted Bullmore died young, aged only 45, after having a heart attack in 1978.

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