Where can you find contacts for Maori, Pacific or indigenous actors, publishers, artists, weavers, film makers, TV producers and musicians in one handy place?

The Brown Pages has just published its latest directory with contact details for a wide range of Maori, Pacific and indigenous talent in media, arts and culture in New Zealand, the Pacific, Australia, Canada and America.

What began started out as a directory book in 1993 has become a regularly updated online database which is accessible 24/7 and is actively promoted worldwide.

The hard copy directory will be published every six months and will highlight a particular aspect of the industry, with the June 2008 issue looking at actors.

From July 2008 you will need to subscribe (see fees below) to gain web access for three, six or twelve months to gain secure, up to date access to the database, industry and community generated news legal and business information pertaining to media, arts and culture and professional networking.

If you’re involved in all aspects of media, arts or and culture and would like to list yourself or your organisation in the Brown Pages database, you can do so for free simply by following the instructions on our website. 

Also if you have film/video clips, showreels, images, audio clips, and news or press releases and would like them promoted on our site, send your info to admin@brownpages.com.  

To order a copy of the Brown Pages directory, send a request to sales@brownpages.com.  All web subscriptions receive a complimentary hard copy.

Book only	NZ$39.95 + P&P	Directory is updated 6 monthly Note: International postal charges apply.  Discounts on 10+ books.
Web access 3 months	NZ$49.95	Includes 1 x complimentary edition, postage and secure use of the online database. Note: international postal charges apply.
Web access  6 months	NZ$59.95	Includes 1 x complimentary edition, postage and secure use of the online database. Note: international postal charges apply.
Web access 12 months	NZ$99.95	Includes 2 x complimentary editions, postage and secure use of the online database. Note: international postal charges apply.

An extinct NZ bird is about to take flying lessons in Taki Rua Production’s new Maori language play ‘Moa Can’t Fly’ – which kicks off a national tour on Monday August 4th.

Written by author, broadcaster, cartoonist and teacher, James Waerea, ‘Moa Can’t Fly’ is a classic story about Pukunui, a young boy who teaches his friend Moata Moa to fly.  Along the way they encounter many colourful characters such as Rongomai, Tane, the Moa Hunters and Tangaroa.

The play is part of Taki Rua Production’s annual Maori language tour that started in 1995, to make professional theatre accessible to rural areas in their own back yard.  Although it’s performed in the Maori language, the play has universal themes of family unity, enviromental protection and cultural diversity.

The story of Pukunui started in 1961 when James Waerea was teaching at Rotoiti Maori School.  Dischentanted with the school’s curriculum, he was challenged by the headmaster to write a children’s book.  Pukunui was the first of its kind as there were no books available for children aged 0 - 6 years with Maori text. Although it was groundbreaking, James says no one would publish it for eleven years.

"The common cry of publishers at the time was the country wasn’t ready for this type of book,” recalls James.  “At the time, Kohanga Reo hadn't even been thought about.  Eventually in 1972 I found a publisher who was willing to help and Pukunui was born.”

Pukunui’s character went on to feature in a series of books which have been reprinted several times including Pukunui the Astronaut and Pukunui’s Hangi.  Pukunui will be targeting a new generation of audiences when his story travels the country for two months - starting in Palmerston North, Whanganui and Taumarunui.

The play is directed by Ngapaki Emery and features a cast of talented young performers including Michael Johnson, Te Kotuku Aperahama and Te Mihinga Komene.  Aimed at children aged 4 – 14 years, ‘Moa Can’t Fly’ is a funny, uplifting play suitable for the whole whanau.

 Additional Information

Te Kotuku Jerry Aperahama (Pukunui).
Iwi: Ngati Kuri, Ngati Tuwharetoa, Te Atiawa, Taranaki, Te Iwi Morehu.
Seventeen year old Kotuku is a gifted artist, storyteller, musician and singer.  When he’s not composing or creating, he’s out playing a number of sports ranging from football, basketball and touch rugby to parkour (jumping from building to building).  One day he hopes to star on TV2’s Shortland Street.

Te Mihinga Komene (Koro Maika, Take, Tangaroa, Moata Moa).
Iwi: Waikato, Ngati Maniapoto, Ngapuhi, Ngati Tamatera, Ngati Whakaue me Ngati Porou.
Te Mihinga Komene is a member of the well-known educating and entertaining Papesch family and has worked as a Maori language teacher at Canterbury and Waikato universities.  She has acted in Wellington’s Taki Rua Theatre Te Reo Maori Season and for Free Theatre productions in Christchurch. She did her undergraduate studies at Victoria University in Wellington and completed her honours degree at Canterbury University.
 
Michael Johnson (Whaea Pukunui, Kore, Tanemahuta, Moata Moa).
Iwi: Ngati Tuwharetoa.
Michael is in his third and final year at the New Zealand College of Performing Arts. His first time on a stage was ten years ago, and ever since he hasn't wanted to come off! In the future he wants to become a drama teacher.

Ngapaki (Marama) Emery - Director.
Iwi: Ngati Maniapoto, Ngati Ruanui.
Ngapaki directs Moa Can’t Fly but will also play the wife of David Dougherty in the film Until Proven Innocent to be released in 2009.  Ngapaki was also one of the actors in ‘Vula’ that toured Europe this year.  Ngapaki trained with Master teacher Phillipe Gaulier and graduated as an actor in 2005.

Ends
For more info contact: Renee Mark, Marketing Mgr Taki Rua Productions.  Phone: 027 2244541.  Email: admin@takirua.co.nz or www.takirua.co.nz

Our Metro Mob - 25 July – 28 September, 2008
As part of the 2008 South Australian Living Artists Festival (SALA), Tandanya will once again be hosting Our Metro Mob, an exhibition showcasing a selection of Adelaide-based contemporary Australian Indigenous artists.

In 2008 Our Metro Mob will demonstrate examples of current developments in South Australian Metropolitan Indigenous art practices from many artists in different stages in their artistic careers. Works from Northern Territory born artists who now live homeless in Adelaide, to urban born and bred artists will be displayed. This broad cross section provides us with a fascinating mix of themes and inspirations including the environment, cultural heritage, urban development and traditional connections. Artists represented this year have been selected from submissions received.

Our Metro Mob will compliment the Adelaide Festival Centre’s Our Mob 08 exhibition of works from remote and regional South Australian artists and Our Young Mob representing young South Australian Indigenous artists.

Kujurra Yarnti Wulkuman – Three Old Women - 25 July – 28 September, 2008.  Presented by Julalikari Arts, Tennant Creek.
The Julalikari Arts Centre is located in ‘the Pink Palace’ at Tennant Creek, which was built by Mary Ward of Banka Banka Station as a hostel for stockmen and their families coming into town from out bush. It has also been used for a range of community purposes and in 1995 it become the Art and Craft Centre for local Aboriginal Women.

The Art Centre is a creative home to up to 27 women artists. They represent in artwork, language groups, age and experience a great expanse of traditional country in the Barkly Region and beyond. Kujurra Yarnti Wulkuman showcases the paintings of three of the oldest women currently working at the art centre; Flora Holt, Susan Nelson and Peggy Jones who is one of the best known of the Julalikari artists with her work featured in collections throughout the world.

Most of the artists working from the Barkly Region share an intense love for the flora and fauna, the landscape and for cultural activities and ceremonies, they represent these in their own individual ways through their artwork. The iconic shapes of bush tucker and birds featured in Peggy Jones’s works are notable for their graphic appeal and boldness.

Susan Nelson’s paintings are naïve representations of Ngappa (Water) Dreaming, bush tucker and activities of the region and Flora Holt presents vibrantly coloured interpretations of the flora and fauna and landscapes of the region.

Recoil – Change an Exchange in Coiled Fibre Art - 15 August – 19 October, 2008.  An Artback NT touring exhibition.
Curated by Margie West, together with Indigenous Curator Karen Mills, Recoil is a major touring exhibition which focuses on the medium of coiling and its importance in contemporary Australian fibre practice. The diverse works in the show highlight the fascinating history of coiling. Its rapid spread and diversification particularly in remote Aboriginal communities and the way in which it has become a powerful aid in linking Indigenous and other Australian women from opposite ends of the country, from South Australia, the desert regions of Western Australia and the Northern Territory to tropical Arnhem Land.

This exhibition showcases the weaving works of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian fibre artists from diverse cultural backgrounds who have significantly contributed to stimulating skill exchanges involving coiling. It features many beautiful items which encompass the art of coiling including bags, baskets, mats, quirky sculptures and paintings and includes work from well-known South Australian weavers, Yvonne Koolmatrie from Berri and Niningka Lewis from Ernabella.

ABOUT – Located in Adelaide, South Australia and established in 1989, Tandanya is Australia’s oldest Aboriginal owned and managed multi-arts centre. The word Tandanya comes from the language of the original inhabitants of the Adelaide plains, the Kaurna people, and means place of the Red Kangaroo.

Winner of the prestigious 1999, 2000, 2001 SA Tourism Award and Hall of Fame for Indigenous Tourism, Tandanya offers insight into the vibrancy and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in the present context. Open 7 days, 10am to 5pm.

For further information please contact:

Kate Wake
Visual Arts Manager
National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Tandanya
253 Grenfell Street, Adelaide, SA 5000
+61 8 8224 3234
katew@tandanya.com.au

Australia's First Cultural Market! Open every Saturday 9am to 4pm.

The Blue Palm Tree Markets, a Pacific Island-style Market, will be just like the markets back home for the Pacific Island and Maori communities of Sydney.

The Saturday market, which will sell art, crafts, music, fashion, seafood, traditional foods and fresh produce, is about bringing these communities together, providing an outlet for maintaining their cultural heritage and offering the public a unique multicultural experience.

There are approx 100,000 people of Pacific Island and Maori origin living in N.S.W today and these people place a high value on their community links, their culture and their traditional way of life. Although proud Australians, they are proud of their home cultures too and place importance on preserving their traditions and customs for future generations.

Consequently, the Blue Palm Tree Markets will be visited by hundreds of shoppers from these communities every weekend. But it isn’t just a market for people of Pacific Island, Maori and Aboriginal descent, it is a market for all Sydney residents and tourists regardless of their nationality.

For more information go to www.bluepalmtree.com.au.

Matariki Calendar 2008-2009
NZ RRP: $19.99 (incl. GST)
ISBN: 978-1-877385-27-8
Dimensions:300 x 300mm    
Publication date: April 2008
Te Papa Press
 
The original calendar celebrating Māori New Year.
 
The Māori New Year begins in June, after the star formation known as Matariki (the Pleiades) reappears in our skies. Around New Zealand, Matariki is a time of great festivity as well as reflection and planning for the year to come. Te Papa’s Matariki Maramataka runs from June 2008 to May 2009, and is packed full of proverbs and körero that illustrate Māori principles of living – with the natural world and in relationships with people. Included are images of Māori taonga (cultural treasures), activities from contemporary Māori life, and beautiful scenes of New Zealand through the seasons.
 
Available from all good bookshops and online at www.tepapapress.co.nz.

 At the FIFO 2008, which took place in Tahiti from January 29 to February 3,  “Horo'a,” directed by Jacques Navarro-Novira, won both the grand jury prize (with €4200).

Special Awards went to “Sacred Ground” directed by Kim Mavromatis of Australia, "Blowind Up Paradise" by Ben Lewis of Great Britain and "My Brother Vinnie" Steven McGregor of Australia.  The three winners respectively received €2500 in prize money. ey (Nouvelle Zélande) "Lifting of the Makutu". 

The Public Award was awarded to the film "The latest Australian trackers" Eric Ellena (France) and the special prize of RFO'25 years' documentary Peta Carey (New Zealand) "Lifting of the Makutu”.

The 6th Pacific International Documentary Film Festival will take place in Papeete, Tahiti, from 27 January to 1 February, 2009.  Entries have been open for some weeks now and will close on October 1st, 2008.  If you have produced  or directed documentary films in the South Pacific region during these three last years, download the entry form and the festival's rules and guidelines below.

The highly successful fifth edition of the FIFO gave the public and participants the opportunity to discover the many faces, cultures, histories and rich stories of the people of the Pacific. The range of subjects, from the sad plight of Nauru to an Aboriginal community's quest for truth and reconcilation, revealed not only the rich diversity and difference within our region but also that wich unites us. The festival's partnership with RFO (France Television group), enabled wide broadcasting of the prize-winning films.
 
With the FIFO now entering its sixth year, Papeete has become an unrivalled venue for Pacific pictures, a meeting place for people from Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia and the West where the voices of the Pacific are heard.  You can download the entry form here as well as the regulations for the festival and the letter of agreement.

Pierre OLLIVIER, FIFO Director
organisation@fifotahiti.org
www.fifotahiti.org

By Ngahuia Te Awekotuku with Linda Waimarie Nikora.  With new photography by Becky Nunes.

Taia o moko, hei hoa matenga mou...
Take your moko, as a friend forever...
Whāia te moko whakatū

Moko colours the lives, and the skins, of all the people involved in the making of Mau Moko. It has been more than a journey; it has been an obsession. And it has been a quest to celebrate, understand, demonstrate and record how an art form, centuries old, can flow gracefully into the third millennium. Moko is about the future, just as it is about the past; it is a graphic accounting of memory and desire; it is an engraving, on the Māori body, of history and commitment, of loyalty and relationships. Moko takes place in the present, but defi es time itself, carrying ancestral values and aesthetics into the consciousness of those yet to come.Moko - its history, songs, traditions, issues, myths, technologies, styles, forms, admirers, wearers, artists, and modern narratives - is the project.

In the traditional Māori world, moko, or facial or body tattoo, was part of everyday life; everyone had some patterning on their skin. Men wore elaborate designs on their faces; women wore usually less complex but elegant design, and both sexes had extensive body work. After almost dying out in the twentieth century, Māori skin art is now experiencing a powerful revival, with many young urban Māori displaying moko as a spectacular gesture of ethnic pride and identity.

Compiled by a group of Māori scholars from the University of Waikato, Mau Moko is the most magnificent book on Māori tattooing ever produced, and is the closest there has ever been to a ‘complete’ book on moko. Mau Moko examines the use of moko by traditional Māori, notes historical material including manuscripts and unpublished, oral sources, and links the art to the present day. It explores the cultural and spiritual issues surrounding moko and relates dozens of stories, many of them powerful and heart-warming, from wearers and artists.

Mau Moko is superbly enhanced by images from early European encounters, traditional Māori representations, and stunning new colour photography commissioned for the book by award-winning photographer Becky Nunes.  Tirohia, he moko!  Look, and wonder, at the beauty of this art form...

For further information or to arrange an interview,
an extract, or receive a review copy please contact:
Gina Harrison - Senior Publicist, Penguin Group (NZ)
Ph: (09) 442 7462, gina.harrison@nz.penguingroup.com
RRP $65.00, Hardback, 264pp, December 2007
Imprint - Penguin Viking, published by Penguin Group (NZ)

By Rob O'Brien

The word nigger has always been associated with overt racism, but a provocative new film is about to show the rest of the world that Australia will happily endorse its use on a public building
 
Stephen Hagan began his campaign back in 1999, and even then he thought it was an open and shut case. He couldn’t have been more wrong. Nine years on and he is still pursuing the Toowoomba Sports Ground Trust, owners of the local Athletic Oval, to have a sign removed that included the word ‘Nigger’ (the ES ‘Nigger’ Brown Stand). Edward Stanley Brown, Toowoomba’s first rugby league international, who died in 1972 aged 74, was actually a white Australian - not an Aborigine - and was believed to have earned the nickname because of his extremely fair complexion.
 
Arguing that the sign was offensive and racist, Hagan’s case failed to move Australia’s domestic judiciaries including the Supreme Court and finally went all the way up to the United Nations, where in 2003 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination found the term offensive and insulting and recommended the federal government remove the word; but the Howard government refused to act against it. (Click here to read more).

The 10th Festival of Pacific Arts will be held in American Samoa from July 20 - August 2, 2008 and will focus on protection of traditional knowledge and expressions of culture.

Tialuga Sunia Seloti, from the 10th Festival of Pacific Arts Organising Committee in American Samoa, says the committee is paying special attention to the protection of artists’ intellectual property rights at the festival.

‘Our Festival Task Force Chairperson, who is also the Lieutenant Governor of American Samoa and a certified legal counsellor under the US legal system, is considering this issue carefully.  He is working closely with our government attorneys. The model law provided by SPC and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat is also being reviewed,’ Ms Sunia Seloti says.

The idea of a Festival of Pacific Arts was conceived by the Conference of the South Pacific Commission (now the Pacific Community) in an attempt to combat the erosion of traditional customary practices. Since 1972, delegations from 27 Pacific Island Countries and Territories have come together to share and exchange their cultures at each Festival of Pacific Arts.

In 1977, at the 3rd meeting of the South Pacific Festival Council (now the Council of Pacific Arts), the Council determined that the Festival's major theme should continue to be traditional song and dance, and that participating countries and territories should be free to include other activities depending on the resources available to them.

The 27 participating Pacific Island Countries and Territories include: American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, Easter Island, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji Islands, French Polynesia, Guam, Hawaii, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna.

For more information about this year's festival, visit http://www.pacartsas.com or email Fagafaga Daniel Langkilde, the Co-Chairman of the organising committee at dlangkilde@malama.tv.

TRUE RED: The Life of an ex-Mongrel Mob Gang Leader is the essential biography of one man’s fascinating journey from the realm of darkness into the world of light. 

This book explores the gang life of ex-Mongrel Mob Gang Leader Tuhoe ‘Bruno’ Isaac and what it really took for him to leave that environment and find a new life.

In the public’s mind the Mongrel Mob have a notorious reputation as an unpredictable and dangerous gang, mostly Maori whose lives revolve around fear, violence, drugs, drinking, brawling, rape and murder. While ex-Mongrel Mob Gang Leader Tuhoe ‘Bruno’ Isaac does not dispute this public image, from an insider’s point of view however the Mongrel Mob gave him a total sense of belonging at a crucial time in his life. 

“Here I found true acceptance and comradeship amongst a common brotherhood; I was willing to die for them,” he says, “The Mob became everything to me: it was my life and it was also to be my death.” (Click here to read more - pdf 343 kb).

Te Pihi Mata – The Sacred Eye: Partington photographs of Whanganui

In 2001, a Bay of Plenty man found a suitcase in his garage filled with 235 glass plate negatives and 500 vintage prints.  The suitcase had belonged to his wife's great-grandfather, photographer William Henry Thomas Partington

The collection featured mostly Maori, and people and scenery along the Whanganui River in the late 1800s.

Now held at the Whanganui River Museum, Te Pihi Mata uses photographs to tell portions of Whanganui history and has been curated by both iwi and the Museum.

The exhibition is open to the public from 8 December 2007 and is open for almost two years.

CHOOSE YOUR WEBSITE DEVELOPER CAREFULLY.
Copyright Brown Pages 2007

Thinking of setting up a website/ecommerce site?  There are plenty of website developers out there, the trick is finding the right one for your business.  Your website developer and designer are important keys to your business success and if you have a limited budget, you’ll need to plan wisely.  You may embark on the project with a team of developers only to find months later that they’re slow to deliver or taken on more clients and become too busy for you.  By then you may have already paid a deposit and are unable to turn back because of the targets you’ve set yourself.  Some companies have a product developer or someone who acts as an interface between you and the web developer.  If you are dealing with the web developer directly yourself, you need to know how to negotiate that.
(Click here for full article).

The Greening the Screen environmental toolkit was developed to encourage companies and productions to think smarter, work better and add value to their business with practical environmental improvement measures. Written by Ann Smith, Emma McConachy and Landcare Research, case studies are used throughout this toolkit to show how real companies have achieved environmental and business benefits. The very nature of screen production in New Zealand, where groups of professionals come together for a few months and then disperse to other projects, provides a great opportunity for Greening the Screen practices to spread throughout the industry. Click here to download this toolkit (pdf 3.5 mb).  For more information about Greening the Screen, visit the website www.greeningthescreen.co.nz