First new festival a success
Sunday morning. The white snow topped turquoise-blue ranges¯glisten in the sun as they look down on Otaki township. In the backyard, the neighbour’s kowhai tree is heavy with moon-yellow flowers. Five iridescent black tuis, drunk on nectar, fight and sing. Just the right reminder of Friday night’s warm hospitality at the Maoriland Hub.
Earlier this year, new migrant Fernando Figueroa asked me for a venue to hold Ka¯ piti’s first Latin American & Spain Film Festival. The Chilean-born was armed with just an idea to share a multicultural experience with his new local community. He had the support of the Chilean Embassy but he had to secure local support. I could think of no other than Libby Hakaria’s Maoriland Hub. The home of the only global annual indigenous film festival.
Fernando climbed a mountain of challenges, scraped the funds together, and with Maoriland Hub support provided an amazing cultural and political experience of song, food and film to about 100 people. The film, a story of a family rediscovering the pain and joy of the loss of husband, father and grandfather — the former president of Chile Salvador Allende — was riveting. The free-entry festival continues. Thank you to Libby and Maoriland’s gracious manakitanga.
Ambassador of Chile, Excellency Rodrigo Espinosa, was present. He recounted an intriguing story to me. Last summer, while visiting the beach along Raumati South, he said he was pleasantly surprised by a Chilean national flag fluttering outside a large beachfront property. “It would not have been proper for me to have knocked on the door to explore this, but I still remain intrigued,” he said. I told him I will fly his intrigue in my column and see if any reader can provide an answer. So here’s hoping.
On more serious conversation topics, I did touch on his nation having one of South America’s longest coastlines. That’s a good note on which to set sail to an important decision made by councillors. Last week, we supported the proposal for a Wellington region-wide approach to manage the increasing challenge of the impact of sea-level rise, coastal inundation and erosion. This has serious planning implications for Ka¯ piti and, given the legal bun fight that happened between council and beachfront properties over recent years, councillors welcomed the ability to work with other councils. The plan is for the aggregation of planning and scientific expertise to support local community-led solutions. A parallel process is being developed to identify vulnerable communities to start this conversation.
This climate change challenge is huge while at the same time, at a micro level, very real and significant for both council and private property owners, faced with the potential loss of tens of millions of dollars. With insurance companies already starting to wind up a strategic retreat from vulnerable properties. With an estimated 1800 potentially impacted properties, Ka¯ iti has a huge stake in this matter. We need to work with our communities to find the range of adaptation tools necessary to reduce the inevitable risks. Our council has, through our LTP, budgeted an average of $230K per year over three years to progress a consultation programme with the community and engage the relevant expertise to aid council and our communities. Meanwhile, the drunk garrulous tuis are still singing on the nectar-laden kowhai. Blissfully unaware of the global climate change ‘civilisation’ has wrought.