Weaver’s legacy celebrated
A book celebrating the legacy of Te Arawa master-weaver Emily Rangitiaria Schuster OBE, QSM (1927-1997) has just been published. Te Ringa Rehe – The Legacy of Emily Schuster commemorates 20 years since Emily’s passing and recognises the important role she played in the revitalisation and conservation of Ma¯ori weaving over her lifetime. Rotorua Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa lead exhibition curator, Ane Tonga, worked in collaboration with highly skilled weavers Christina Hurihana, Edna Pahewa and John Turi-tiakitai alongside the Schuster family to produce the book.
Crew members sought
Police are searching for three crew members who absconded from a Korean fishing vessel in Bluff overnight. The Southern Ocean arrived on Monday with a dead crewman on board. Detective Sergeant Dave Kennelly said the Chinese national died more than a week ago, on November 20, after an incident on board while the vessel was in the Southern Ocean. It is understood five crew were swept overboard while chipping ice off a funnel. Three were believed to be unharmed. Another crew member received moderate injuries and one, a Chinese national, died. The vessel was scheduled to depart yesterday.
Erebus memorial
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will meet the families of the Erebus victims to talk about building a national memorial to commemorate the air disaster. With the 40th anniversary of Erebus approaching in two years, Ardern said it was important to talk to the families about how to best pursue a national memorial. It is likely the memorial would be built on New Zealand soil rather than on Mt Erebus in Antarctica.
Botulism victim improving
One of the three members of a family struck down with botulism after eating freshly slaughtered wild boar meat has made a slight improvement. Waikato family Shibu Kochummen, 35, his wife Subi Babu, 33, and his mother Alekutty Daniel, 62, ate the wild boar curry for dinner two weeks ago at their Putaruru home. Kochummen had killed the boar earlier that day while on a hunting trip with friends. Within minutes of consuming the meal, Babu and Daniel collapsed, vomiting, at the family’s Putaruru home. Kochummen called an ambulance, but while on the phone, he, too, collapsed. Emergency services arrived to find the trio on the floor, unresponsive and vomiting. Since then the trio have been in a vegetative state and mostly unresponsive. But now, the eldest member of the trio, Alekutty Daniel, had started mouthing words and making audible sounds, family friend Joji Varghese said. The trio’s family have been helping care for their relatives in hospital. The couple’s two daughters, aged seven and one, were asleep at the time and did not eat the wild boar meat.