April & May Seminars
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You can register for seminars in 3 ways
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Email: kapitiwea@gmail.com
Phone: 027 715 3677
Cost per seminar depends what membership you have or if you are a casual visitor
#2506 Charles Fleming & Harold Wellman - Environmental Patriots
Speakers: Mary McEwen and Simon Nathan
Date: Saturday 5th April 10am - 1pm
Venue: Waikanae Presbyterian Church, 43 Ngaio Road,Waikanae
Dr Mary McEwen, daughter of Sir Charles Fleming has a PhD in Botany, and worked at the Forest Research Institute, the Department of Conservation and as an ecological consultant. She began researching her father’s life in 1995 and published his biography ten years later. Dr Simon Nathan (see #2502) has published biographies of scientists Harold Wellman and James Hector.
Mary will talk about Sir Charles Fleming and Simon will talk about Harold Wellman. Sir Charles Fleming has been described as a scientist, a geologist and an ornithologist and he published many papers on biogeology, birds and insects. He was a leader in the Save Manapouri Campaign in the 1970s, he fought to protect the land against logging of native forests and supported campaigns against housing developments around Waimeha Lagoon in Waikanae. One of his colleagues at the Geological Survey of the DSIR was another geologist, Harold Wellman, known for his work on plate tectonics and his discovery of the South Island’s Alpine Fault.
#2507 The Pain in Spain - NZ Medical Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
Speaker: Mark Derby
Date: Saturday 3rd May 10am - 1pm
Venue: Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae
Mark Derby is a freelance historian and writer and he has worked for the Waitangi Tribunal and Te Ara, the online encyclopedia of NZ. He has published books on NZ social history, most recently ‘Frontline Surgeon – NZ medical pioneer Douglas Jolly’. He has an ongoing interest in NZ’s response to the Spanish Civil War. Several doctors and nurses from NZ served with Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. One of these, the brilliant and pioneering Cromwell-born surgeon Douglas Jolly, has been described as “the most valuable volunteer to come from the BritishCommonwealth.”
Mark’s talk will discuss the contribution of these medical volunteers, exploring their motivations for travelling to Spain, the impact of their work there, and the after-effects both within this country and internationally. In the present era of global conflicts, it is timely to recall the actions and motives of these courageous and dedicated men and women and consider how their contributions may be relevant to our international obligations today.
#2508 Rethinking Colonial Art in Aotearoa NZ
Speaker Rebecca Rice
Date Saturday 10th May 10am - 1pm
Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae
Dr Rebecca Rice is Head of Art(Acting) at Te Papa Tongarewa. She is a curator and researcher dedicated to the study, interpretation and presentation of historical art in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her current research focuses on the visual culture of the New Zealand wars, and nineteenth-century women botanical artists. Rebecca has co-curated many exhibitions and the publication of related books.
In this talk Rebecca will focus on the histories of art in Aotearoa New Zealand, considering what it means to revisit colonial art and its legacies in the twenty-first century. In the first session Ngā Tai Whakarongorua—Legacies of Colonisation andResistance in Aotearoa New Zealand, she will analyse a painting by William Strutt, View of Mt Egmont Taranaki, New Zealand, taken from New Plymouth, with Maoris driving off settlers’ cattle from 1861. In the second session More than sentimental: Women and botanical publications in 19th-century Aotearoa and the Pacific, Rebecca will talk about the contributions of women ‘flower painters’ or ‘lady painters’ to the histories of botany and art, that have often been considered peripheral, having little to offer ‘High Art’ or‘Science’.
#2509 The Battle of Crete
Speaker Chris Pugsley
Date Saturday 17th May 10am - 1pm
Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae
A regular and engaging speaker at WEA Seminars, Chris Pugsley ONZM is a retired Lieutenant Colonel and military historian who has written widely on New Zealand’s war history. He was the Historical Director for the Te Papa Gallipoli Exhibition and, in 2022, together with Michael Keith and Puawai Cairns wrote Gallipoli: The Scale of our War, the story of a defining campaign and Te Papa’s largest and most popular exhibition.
This year Chris will talk about the Battle of Crete which followed the collapse of the Allied military support of the Government of Greece in April 1941. The military defence of theMediterranean island of Crete was under resourced from the German airborne invasion and New Zealand’s Major General Sir Bernard Freyberg was placed in command of the Allied defence of Crete.
#2510 From Farm to Forest - ecological transformation on Mana Island & birding the Te Araroa Trail
Speaker Colin Miskelly
Date Saturday 24th May 10am - 1pm
Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae
Dr Colin Miskelly is a curator of vertebrates at Te Papa Tongarewa, specialising in birds and reptiles. He previously worked for the Department of Conservation. He has been closely involved with the ecological restoration of Mana Island. He has written many scientific papers and books on the Chatham Islands, the ornithology of the subantarctic Auckland Islands’, and the 5th edition of Checklist of theBirds of New Zealand.
In the first session, Colin will discuss 50years of ecological transformation on Mana Island: what was involved, conservation successes and failures and research relevant to restoration ecology undertaken on the island. In the second session he will describe his recent walk along Te Araroa Trail. During this walk he recorded birds encountered along the trail and he will compare birds of the North vs South Islands, and the difference that pest control makes for selected species.
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