Fonotī Pati Umaga on the genre-defying Music Portrait of a Humble Disabled Samoan
The show lead talks reconnecting to parts of yourself, disability leadership in the arts and vulnerable storytelling.
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A large group of people walk and roll towards the camera. They hold large, colourful banners. The front banner is a huge taniwha with multicoloured scales.
In photos: Disabled communities rally for our rights in Ōtautahi
Image description: A close-up of a banner featuring iconic disabled artist Frida Kahlo as a wheelchair user. She wears a colourful, patterned outfit and is adorned with a many-flowered crown and large golden hoop earrings. She holds up a hand in a gesture of pride.
Image description: A crowd of ralliers holds their banners. At the front left, a yellow banner with a red and black toi Māori design says ‘Equity’. A huge red Frida Kahlo face looms behind this banner. In the centre, a woman smiles, holding an angry yellow tiki. A speech bubble says ‘Kia Kaha’. To the right, a large blue banner says ‘Kaitiaki’, and a mermaid floats beside the vertically aligned letters.
Image description: A person wearing a pink sunhat holds a cardboard sign saying, ‘If it’s not accessible, it’s not acceptable!’
Image description: Ruth Jones, chairperson of Disability Leadership Canterbury, a powerchair-using wahine Māori, speaks into a microphone. She wears a keffiyeh. Behind her, the taniwha banner and huge red Frida Kahlo head frame the shot.
Image description: Many banners form a semi-circle of ralliers at the Bridge of Remembrance. Ruth Jones, Bleu Hille (kneeling and also whooping), Grant Cleland (all Disability Leadership Canterbury trustees), and Prudence Walker (Disability Rights Commissioner) are seated in the foreground.
Image description: Andrea, a wahine Māori, holds a banner she designed and made. The banner is green and represents two wheelchair users holding hands. Beneath this image the words ‘toi noho’ appear.
Image description: Many ralliers walk on a main road, blocking traffic. A large banner in the foreground says ‘Hei Whakapiki Mauri’, the name of an Ōtautahi whānau ora organisation, and an Our Voices Count collaborator.
Image description: More than 50 people march and roll down a main pedestrian thoroughfare. People hold banners (taniwha, huge red Frida Kahlo head, rainbows and more). People look serious and focused.
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Access as a Creative Opportunity: An interview with the creators of Speed is EmotionalComing to Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, Speed is Emotional places an emphasis on accessibility with audio description, relaxed performances and integrated NZSL.
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Autistic-friendly classrooms could have helped me get through schoolWhile charter schools are not the only solution for all neurodivergent rangatahi, it could be the start of one for some students, says Kartini Clarke.