Cartoonist Behaving Badly – Kāpiti and Coast Independent

The attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine’s office in January 2015, focused the collective attention of the world on cartoonists and the tension that exists between the right of freedom of expression and the responsibilities that come with it. Scottish cartoonist, Terry Anderson

The wonderful cartooning art

By Roger Childs

Caricature is one of the great graphic arts and probably doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Editors know that quality cartoonists sell a lot of papers and older Wellington readers will remember Nevile Lodge’s visuals covering the entire front page of the Saturday Sports Post. (See alongside.)

Tom Scott once said that if the editor won’t print my piece for the day, I’m off because I earn more than he does.

Overseas, cartoonists can risk going to jail and even their lives, when the strokes of their pen touch sensitive political nerves. New Zealander David Low was the most famous anti –Nazi cartoonist and was on Hitler’s hit list if Britain had been invaded.

We are fortunate at KIN in having our own resident cartoonist, the talented Andy.

Cartoonists Living Dangerously

Glasgow-based Terry Anderson, is speaking next Tuesday (December 12) at 5.30pm, at the National Library to celebrate 25 years of the New Zealand Cartoon Archive.

Terry is on the Cartoonists Rights Network International and a staunch advocate of freedom of expression.

Whereas the Charlie Hebdo attack was a terrorist operation, he points out that the vast majority of hassling and abuse of cartoonists is carried out by governments and their agencies.

(If you are interested in hearing Terry next Tuesday, email events.natlib@dia.govt.nz Put “Cartoons” in the subject line.)

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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.