Art Work of the Week – Kāpiti and Coast Independent

The wonderful Helen McIntosh

By Pam Kessler

callig-2455 We are fortunate to have many characters amongst our lively Kapiti Calligraphers group of members and Helen McIntosh is a classic example.

She is out-going, gregarious, loving, kind, and generous and is frequently seen with red, blue, or green coloured hair – an effect, I’ve observed, that is not necessarily done to match her outfit!

The most endearing feature of all, however, must be her quick and ready wit.

How we love her for all the times she has made the perfect comment to lighten the moment!

Inspiration from England and New Zealand

Helen was born and brought up in the North East of England and John Masefield’s poem Cargoes was the stimulation for Helen’s piece for our Sea Fever exhibition.

The Yorkshire Moors, her love of Wuthering Heights and the style of Colin McCahon were all inspirational for her piece shown below, I Am.

callig-i-am

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STORY OF THE WEEK

Kāpiti Coast councillors have toured of one of Aotearoa's unique buildings, the heritage - listed Rotunda at the former Otaki Health Camp, the country’s first.

Jeremy Smith reports that the 105-year-old, eight-sided rotunda predates the Health Camp.

It wasn't actually built in Otaki, but was one of two built in Rotorua in 1915 as part of a military hospital, on the site of Rotorua’s present public hospital.

Later they were taken to Otaki for the opening of the health camp in 1931.

Full story in the main column (December 19).

100 Years Ago — and the Maori Long March begins

Māori politics was dominated by the influential MPs (and sometime Cabinet ministers) Māui Pōmare ( Waitara statue photo above) and Apirana Ngata.

The 1920's also saw the rise of Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana’s religious movement, and the emergence of Te Puea Hērangi in Waikato.

Ngata worked hard to foster Māori scholarship and education and preserve traditional arts and culture.

He convinced the government to establish a Board of Maori Ethnological Research (1923), a Maori Purposes Fund Control Board (1924) and a School of Maori Arts and Crafts in Rotorua (1927).

The Reform government also took the first, tentative steps towards settling longstanding Māori grievances.

Agreements with Te Arawa in 1922 and Ngāti Tūwharetoa in 1926 recognised their respective rights over the Rotorua lakes and Lake Taupō, and led to the establishment of trust boards with some government funding.

Commissions of inquiry which examined Ngāi Tahu grievances (1920–21) and the Waikato and Taranaki confiscations (1926–27) recommended that modest compensation be paid.