August & September Seminars

#2517 Human Evolution from a Female Point of View

Speaker         Dr Rochelle Wilson     

Date               Saturday 2^nd August 10am – 1pm

Venue                        Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Dr Rochelle Wilson is a retired Anaesthetist and GP, graduating from University College and University College Hospital London. From a young age, she has been interested in botany, zoology, ecology and human evolution. In 1972, Rochelle came across the alternative theory of Human Evolution, and hoped it would become the standard narrative, but it has not. She believes this theory will interest all who accept that we humans - homo sapiens - evolved from a small ape at some time in the distant past.

In this seminar Rochelle will background prevalent theories on human evolution and then focus on an alternative theory. In the first session, she will give an overview of how evolution works and how we seem to have forgotten this when it comes to humankind. She will assess the prevalent Savanna theories, unanswered questions and missing links. In the second session she will expound an alternative theory, its supporting evidence and how this has been received. She will discuss some of the scars we bear as the result of this, our evolutionary journey.

#2518 Astronomy - the building blocks of the Universe

Speaker         Antony Gomez

Date               Saturday 9^th August 10am - 1pm

Venue            Waikanae Presbyterian Church, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Antony is the NZ Outreach Coordinator for the Office of Astronomy Outreach of the International Astronomical Unions. He is a former Vice-president of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand and a former President of the Wellington Astronomical Society. He is passionate about promoting astronomy through public outreach and education, showing others the wonders of the night sky. He has a keen interest in the physical sciences, especially in quantum physics and cosmology, which looks at the birth of the Universe and its ultimate fate.

In the first session Strings, Loops& Illusions Antony will talk about the fundamental building blocks of the Universe; what our Universe is made of, how it was formed and what its fate might be. It may seem that our Universe is not what it seems to be and our reality is something completely different. In the second session Picture Stories from Space Antony will show us some spectacular images of deep space objects each of which tell a story of their part in the evolution of our Universe.

#2519 Ikat-weaving traditions - from saree to sarong

Speakers       Shani Pillai and Joji Jacob

Date               Saturday 30^th August 10am - 1pm

Venue            Waikanae Presbyterian Church, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Shani Pillai and Joji Jacob are collectors and enthusiasts of world heritage textiles. Their passion for cultural heritage and artistic expression has led them to curate an impressive collection of textiles from around the globe. They have given many talks to the NZ Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington and Friends of Te Papa, offering a captivating glimpse into the diverse world of textiles. Shani and Joji are also actively involved in supporting textile artisans and communities. They have organised specialised tours to India and Sri Lanka and they fund community-based textile revival projects in these countries.

Their presentation will take us on a journey from the Ikat saree weaving Indian subcontinent to the sarong or panel Ikat-weaving traditions of Southeast Asia and show how they have been historically linked. They will talk about the types of Ikat-weaving unique to different countries, the stories they tell, and their cultural significance.Examples of Ikat weaves from Thailand, Cambodia, India, and Indonesia will be on display.

#2520 George Eliot (1819-1880) - her life and context

Speaker         Heidi Thomson

Date               Saturday 6^th September 10am - 1pm

Venue:           Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Dr Heidi Thomson is Emeritus Professor ofEnglish Literature at Victoria University of Wellington, where she taught from 1990 until 2021. She has published widely on the life and works of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats. George Eliot is one of her favourite writers. When she died in 1880 George Eliot (born Mary Anne Evans) was one of the most celebrated English novelists of her time.

In this talk Heidi explores Eliot’s life, her unconventional ideas and her career in the Victorian context. Highly intelligent and articulate, Eliot combines philosophy and psychology in her pursuits of journalism, translation, and fiction. Her works probe the leading philosophical and scientific questions of the era: the breakdown of conventional religion, the rise of evolutionary thinking, rapid industrialisation and economic change. Her novels provide an opportunity to understand fundamental changes in 19^th century Britain.

#2521 Why you should read Middlemarch (1871)

Speaker         Heidi Thomson

Date               Saturday 13^th September 10am - 1pm

Venue            Waikanae Presbyterian Church, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Often considered the best English novel, Middlemarch is set in 1829-1832, the period leading up to the 1832 Reform Act. Its subtitle, A Study of Provincial Life, points to the novel’s focus. Concentrated on the Midlands, the novel explores parallel lives in a small community, primarily through the lens of marriage. Unlike Jane Austen, George Eliot does not aim for the portrayal of happy endings. She uses the well-worn marriage plot to explore the disintegration of ideals, the tensions between action and intention, the confusion of love and lust. Eliot’s interweaving of her characters’ preoccupations with the history of the local and national political movements at the time provides us with a vision of English life which still reverberates in the 21st century. While the novel dwells on the darker aspects of human life-decisions, it does so with generous empathy and humour. You will benefit most from this seminar if you have read Middlemarch but it is not absolutely necessary.

#2522 The power of law in climate action

Speaker         Jessica Palairet

Date               Saturday 20^th September 10am – 1pm

Venue            Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Jessica has been Executive Director at Lawyers for Climate Action since late 2023. She has a Master of Law degree from New York University specialising in international climate litigation. Before working at Lawyers for Climate Action NZ, Jessica worked at the High Court as a judges’ clerk, at Shortland Chambers as a junior barrister, and as an International Human Rights Law Fellow at the United Nations in New York.

Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc. is an incorporated society registered charity established in 2019 whose members are lawyers, legal academics and law students committed to using their legal skills to help drive the change needed to address climate change. Jessica will discuss the ways in which Lawyers for Climate Action has used legal processes to ensure that New Zealand meets its obligations under the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions and that it does so in a way that is evidence-based, effective and consistent with the rule of law, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, international law and the NewZealand Bill of Rights Act.