Tag: travel

  • Remembering conflict

    An ongoing exhibition in Ulster, Northern Ireland, is about the textiles that memorialise conflict. Threads of Empowerment: Conflict Textiles’ International Journey brings together 29 pieces from across the globe, some of which are in the Museum’s collection. The textiles represent moments of of violence and conflict, violation and poverty, oppression and environmental issues as seen…

  • The New Zealand Gown of the Year

    Between 1960 and 1964, in the Spring of the year, a trail of silver caravans travelled across New Zealand on behalf of “gaiety and glitter, chandeliers and champagne”. The New Zealand Gown of the Year Contest was truly “Fashion on Wheels”, the name splashed across the caravans. It took glamour across the country, although it…

  • The Victorian Tapestry Workshop

    The Victorian Tapestry Workshop is based in Melbourne and is one of the world’s centres for the art form. The Australian Tapestry Workshop, as it is now known, was established in 1976 to produce innovative, exciting and rich artworks in collaboration with artists who work in many mediums, the weavers of their designs and the…

  • Of Corvids

    There are no native crows, magpies or other corvids in New Zealand Aotearoa. Long ago there were ravens in the country but nowadays the only crows that are seen are rooks, introduced by that most New Zealand of organisations: the Acclimitisation Societies. The New Zealand magpie is actually nothing of the sort. It is not…

  • Releasing kiwi

    Kiwi are the icons of Aotearoa New Zealand but, like many of the native birds, are in danger from introduced predators. Since people arrived in the country, kiwi have been under attack. Although they are a taonga (a highly valued treasure) and their feathers were used in the making of kahu kiwi (Māori kiwi feather…

  • Mount White Station

    New Zealand Aotearoa is known for its farming culture and Mount White is home to one of the famous high-country stations. Mount White Station is on the Canterbury side of the Southern Alps/ Kā Tiritiri o Te Moana, the huge range that runs the length of Te Waipounamu/ The South Island. With much of the…

  • The listening tracks this week

    The playlist this week features: Safari by John Barry. British composer, John Barry, was known for his prolific output for film music. This track comes from Out of Africa, the cinematic rendition of Karen Blixen‘s famous memoir about her life in East Africa in the first decades of the Twentieth Century. That Happy Feeling by…

  • Spotify – the playlist

    Each week a curated playlist of audio goes along with the blog. A separate blog post about has been reinstated this week that describes the tracks and why they have been included in the list. Paying subscribers to Spotify, the platform that hosts the list, can hear all the tracks by clicking on the player…

  • The blog this week

    This weekend we are going to a high-country farm, Mount White Station, for a tour of the operation and to meet some of the people who work there. Mount White is in the central part of the South Island, roughly midway between the East and West Coast and lies across the Waimakariri, a river that…

  • Black History Month

    February is Black History Month, a celebration that is marked by the birthdays of famous abolitionist Americans: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Black History Month is recognised in the North America, Europe and Africa, and in the USA the annual event has a theme. This year it is “African Americans and Labor“ The music, fashion…