Culture 101
Episodes
Bruce Mason Playwriting Winner: Tainui Tukiwaho
16 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Actor, director, producer and writer, Tainui Tukiwaho (Te Arawa, Tūhoe) is the recent winner of the 2023 Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. Known for rol...
Connecting to our landscapes through artist Marilynn Webb
16 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When we talk about the pioneering generation of modern Māori artists, the names most typically heard are men: Ralph Hotere, Sandy Adsett, Selwyn Wils...
Fast Favourites: Grace Palmer on landing an American sitcom
16 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Each week Culture 101 invites a guest to share their cultural favourites and shout-out to other artists. This week it’s former Shortland Street and ...
Dame Anne Salmond: connecting people through culture
10 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The journey anthropologist and award-winning writer Dame Anne Salmond has made into Te Ao Māori as a Pākehā over 50 years - creating a bridge for o...
Regional Wrap: Motueka with Donna McLeod
10 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every week on Culture 101 we check the pulse of a different area of Aotearoa. This week, we’re in Motueka with Donna McLeod.
Ngahuia Harrison: the consequences of cannibal capitalism on the land
10 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In her major exhibition Coastal Cannibals at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi, with a camera, Ngahuia Harrison offers different views on our lands...
Renowned Chinese haute couture designer Guo Pei in Aotearoa
09 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Just a glimpse of Guo Pei’s magnificent gowns reveal her vivid imagination.
Fast Favourites: Paul Goldsmith, Aotearoa's new Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage
09 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In former government minister Chris Finlayson’s 2022 book Yes Minister he wrote that “The primary responsibility of a National minister for arts, ...
Fixing the desperate state of arts and culture coverage in the media
03 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On the brink of collapse - that’s the stark portrayal of the state of the arts media in a new report New Mirrors, commissioned by Creative New Zeala...
Manu Vaea: the spiritual and mundane in being fakaleitī - Tongan third gender
03 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Koe Tau’atāina o e Leitī (The Freedom/ Emancipation of the Leitī), Tongan New Zealand artist Manuaha’apai Vaeatangitau (or Manu Vaea for s...
Regional Wrap: Marton building turns into an ‘unsettling immersive’ sculpture
03 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2021 artist Isabella Loudon returned to her family home in the town of Marton Tutaenui in the lower North Island to recover from glandular fever. ...
Kauae Raro Research Collective's passion for earth pigments
03 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Raro Research Collective's passion for earth pigments
Celebrating traditional Fijian hair practice from a Wairarapa farm
02 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The buiniga is a traditional Fijian unisex hairstyle. Similar to the afro, but more sculpted, it’s become a source of national pride. Increasingly y...
Moutere valley jeweller wins gold at Florence Biennale
02 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A New Zealand jeweller has won big at the XIV Florence Biennale Exhibition and Awards, taking first prize for Jewellery Art and Design.
Fast Favourites: The Brokenwood Mysteries star Fern Sutherland
02 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Actor and star of The Brokenwood Mysteries Fern Sutherland has just wrapped her 10th season on the television detective drama. A feat for any show in ...
Madison Kelly’s call and response with the kakī
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The black stilt or kakī is one of the world's most endangered birds. It is central to the latest work of Kāi Tahu Otepoti artist Madison Kelly’s n...
Ōtautahi’s whiskey-chasing advocate for mental health and poetry
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On the back cover of his recently published first book of poems, Crackle in the Rain, Ciaran Fox describes himself as a whisky-chasing sensualist, poe...
Culture 101 Arts News Sunday 26 November
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Arts news this week as read on the show.
Gamblers, monks and courtesans: a fifth century play in 2023
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Prayas Theater is bringing the masterpiece, The Clay Cart or Mricchakatika to stage in an adaptation for modern audiences.
Ōtautahi’s great inner-city cultural revitalisation
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A panel with Michael Bell, Steph Walker and Kiri Jarden. It’s almost 13 years since the devastating earthquake of 22 February 2011, which forced 70 ...
Using AI photography to reconnect with humanity
25 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Whether you like it or not, the age of AI is here. In his latest exhibition Legacy, photographer Jon Carapiet uses AI technology to reanimate curre...
‘Anything can be art’ an eight year old artist and curator’s Ōtautahi exhibition
25 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Artist Pia Hill was four when she held her first group exhibition as a curator, in her bedroom. The Bat Show raised hundreds of dollars towards these ...
Snort: the end of an era
25 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the end of an era. A Snort era. What was supposed to be one month, became one decade. The weekly improv comedy show in Tamaki Makaurau which qu...
Dr Huhana Smith: the quiet revolution in Māori art
19 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Huhana Smith (Ngāti Tukorehe) was the first graduate from Toioho ki Apiti with a Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts in 1998. She now holds a PhD in M...
A ‘Māori Elite’ tours the nation
19 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Living in the Kāpiti Coast town of Ōtaki, where he runs a gallery and shop with his wife Mia Brennan, Hohepa 'Hori' Thompson says his art and expres...
Culture 101 Arts News: November 19 2023
19 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Culture 101 Arts News: November 19 2023
Sweeping up the road tacks: cycling performance artist Marcus McShane
18 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Marcus McShane’s latest experiment is to employ his cargo bike as a mobile video projection unit, screening commissioned audiovisual animation onto ...
The time warp turns 50: Rocky Horror’s Richard O’Brien and his Kingdom of Bling
18 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It is 50 years since The Rocky Horror Show premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London.
Tana Tupai on making Pasifika music symphonic
18 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The NZSO will accompany an 80-strong choir this week in a celebration of Pasifika music, combining symphony with songs from the Pacific.
Dr Rebecca Rice: our early colonial women botanical artists recovered
18 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Rebecca Rice, Curator in Historical New Zealand Art has been rethinking Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonial visual culture, and her current research ...
From lighthouse keepers to taxi drivers: publishing lesser read voices with Adrienne Jansen
12 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are many books about lighthouse keepers. And many iconic images of lighthouses on our coastline. Yet the lighthouse keeper was pretty much made ...
Greta Anderson’s strange, psychically charged images of the ordinary
12 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Spooky, beautiful, yet funny, Greta Anderson’s photography transforms day into night, while invasive flora and domestic objects glow with spiritual...
Regional Wrap: Ōtepoti Dunedin with Pip Laufiso
12 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Each week Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different region around the motu - for our regional wrap. This week we're in culture-rich Ōtepoti, D...
Celebrity Treasure Island winner James Mustapic goes back to school
12 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“Sharpen your pencils and limp your wrists, Queer Academy is upon us.”
Irish chef in Japan breaks world record for non-stop cooking
11 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Records are made to be broken right?
Making Moriori and Rēkohu Chatham Island culture contemporary
11 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Born and raised in Rēkohu, the largest of the Chatham Islands, musician and storyteller Ajay Peni is a young ambassador for the revitalisation of Mor...
Fast Favourites with Te Kohe Tuhaka
11 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every week on Culture 101 we invite a guest to share their love of culture and shout out to other artists. This week it's actor, director and producer...
Turning 50: Hannah Playhouse, Playmarket and director Murray Lynch
05 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Three theatre institutions are celebrating 50th anniversaries this year.
Phil Dadson on Jim Allen: NZs centenarian father of arts experimentalism and education
05 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A pioneer artist across the ‘60s and ‘70s and one of the most influential arts educators of his generation, Jim Allen passed away just shy of tu...
Pacific Arts Aotearoa recorded: Lana Lopesi in conversation with Susana Lei'ataua
05 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An ambitious new book - Pacific Arts Aotearoa - has been released, spanning six decades of multi-disciplinary contributions from Pacific artists to...
Regional Wrap: Raglan’s Karin Bettley
05 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Karin Bettley tells Culture 101 about how her love of creative life in the coastal town of Raglan.
Former Vogelmorn Bowling Club now a trailblazing community cultural centre
05 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An annual Spooky Disco means Halloween proves the busiest day of the year for a community and arts centre established on the green and surrounding bui...
Our birds and landscapes defined: the complex cultural legacy of painter Don Binney
04 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the handsome just released book Don Binney Flight Path Gregory O’Brien tracks the avian-like swoops in the career of the late Tāmaki Makaurau pa...
Jon Toogood: 'In a solo show, I can actually talk to people in the room'
04 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
He’s best known for fronting rock band Shihad, but musician Jon Toogood says playing acoustic solo shows is now where he feels most “human”.
American slime mould tours Aotearoa
29 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
American slime mould tours Aotearoa creating giant kinetic sculpture of rubbish
Regional wrap: Wairoa's Denise Eaglesome-Karekare
29 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The name of the northern Hawkes Bay river town of Wairoa has been translated as "the long water which bubbles, swirls and is uneven". That certainly b...
Making visible the relationship between hard labour and the Pacific: John Vea and Jasmine Togo-Brisby
29 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While other kids went to kindergarten, when he was a small child Tongan New Zealand artist John Vea was on the factory floor where his father worked. ...
Small, precious and shiny new: Kāpiti Coast regional gallery opens
28 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Toi Mahara gallery director Janet Bayly offers the whakatauki: ‘ahakoa he iti he pounamu’, when she speaks of the Kāpiti Coast’s regional Galle...
Ballet legend Sir Jon Trimmer remembered by young and old close to him
28 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week saw the passing of a legend in the arts in Aotearoa. Sir Jon Trimmer, arguably New Zealand’s most beloved dancer has died aged 84. With h...
Fast Favourites: Dr Mike Joy on the role of artists in preventing ecological collapse
28 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Freshwater ecologist, environmental science researcher and activist Dr Mike Joy is a well known outspoken voice in the need for our society to make ra...
All Buttons Great and Small: Lucy Godoroja
28 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lucy Godoroja unfastens the miniature world of wonder and the surprising history of the button. In her book, All Buttons Great and Small.
Rosie Dawson-Hewes' art table for others in Tauranga
22 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Culture lover and curator Rosie Dawson-Hewes is passionate about accessibility in the arts. It led her to collaborate with a new Bay of Plenty art pat...
Bernie Harfleet and Turtle Sarten: art through acts of community kindness
22 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Henderson artists Bernie Harfleet and Turtle Sarten make visible the things we often find uncomfortable to talk about. Urgent social issues all around...
Cat Lovett’s weaving adventures in Mexico's colourful textile capital, Oaxaca
22 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Cat Lovett is a New Zealand textile designer with a passion for the sustainable. Her interest in design has led her to live in Mexico's textile capita...
Regional wrap: Waitati pirate queen turned councillor Mandy Mayhem
22 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Self declared pirate queen Mandy Mayhem gives Maggie Tweedie a slice of life in Waitati. The celebrant, MC and Dunedin City Councillor gives the regio...
Tokomaru Bay’s Māori clay art pioneer Baye Riddell
22 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It took until the 1970s for Toi Māori (Māori art) to develop a tradition in clay (uku). One that in part looks back to an ancestral Lapita pottery...
Jo Ann Firestone: the art of storytelling on a Nelson couch
21 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jo Ann Firestone is a teller of tales, a producer, host, and co-founder of Couch Stories. A sold out storytelling series that has taken the Nels...
Fast Favourites: Michael Galvin aka Dr Chris Warner shares on boy bands
21 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rather than Boys II Men, it’s Boys II Middle Age: playwright and actor Michael Galvin has written a play about boy bands, with a difference.
Dr Maia Nuku: taking Pacific power back at The Met
15 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Museums are really theatres of political power, says Maia Nuku, curator of Oceania at one of the biggest: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. ...
Can sculpture help you sleep at night?
15 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Wellington artist Bailee Lobb has had a "combative" relationship with sleep her whole life. In the upcoming performance-installation How do you sle...
The enduring legacy of visionary architect Rewi Thompson
15 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2016 Aotearoa lost architect and teacher Rewi Thompson too young. But as an innovative new book reveals - Rewi: Āta haere, kia tere - Thompson’...
Regional Wrap: Balmy in Palmy with Spankie Jackzon
15 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Award winning drag queen Spankie Jackzon joins Maggie Tweedie for Culture 101’s regional wrap to spill the tea on what makes Palmy so bloody balmy....
Sounds of the underground: Dunedin’s Lines of Flight Festival
15 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Porteous is a musician based in Dunedin who organises an experimental music festival called Lines of Flight. The idea was bred from a friendship...
John ‘Happy Feet’ Vaifale: Aotearoa’s world-beating hip hop dancer
14 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Samoan New Zealand dancer John Vaifale (Lalovaea and Solosolo) is packing his bags to head to Germany and represent Aotearoa at the Red Bull Dance You...
Fast Favourites with Raised by Refugees creator Pax Assadi
14 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From the opening scenes of the second series of Raised by Refugees - the comedy sitcom created by award winning comedian Pax Assadi - monocultural vie...
Jamie McCaskill: recovering te reo and tikanga with two guitars
08 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An award-winning playwright, actor, musician and founder of the Maori Sidesteps, Jamie McCaskill’s latest play Two Guitars is a musical journey exam...
Carcass: picking over the bones of our political parties' cultural policy
08 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In a 2023 election countdown special ‘Carcass’ brings you lively banter on where culture and politics is and isn’t meeting on the hustings.
Making photographs with mud and glowworms
08 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Madison Emond from Rhode Island has been building pinhole cameras from clay in Wellington’s Kaiwharawhara stream. Her photographic work is a vessel...
NZ’s role in the peace and culture of Bougainville
08 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Artist Taloi Havini began life in Bougainville but fled with her family to Australia aged 9 due to a civil war which claimed 15,000 lives.
Regional Wrap: in Hastings with Pitsch Leiser
08 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every week on Culture 101 we check the pulse of a different area of Aotearoa. This week, we’re off to Hastings, ahead of the Hawkes Bay Arts Festiva...
Why Polynesia remains still there, still strong in inner city Tamaki Makaurau
08 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Still Here director Litia Tuiburelevu takes us inside the homes, centres and churches that carry forward the different island community's stories...
Tokyo's Techno Kiwi: George Nelson
07 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
George Nelson is a New Zealander living in Japan with a passion for haiku, techno and fashion. The pages of, The Techno Kiwi reveal a delightful fu...
Taking cinema back to Dunedin’s ‘81 tour with Uproar
07 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Uproar, a new movie inspired by the Springbok Tour of the 1980s comes with a star-studded cast - Julian Dennison, James Rolleston, Minnie Driver, Rhys...
Fast favourites with vampire turned goth Jonny Brugh
07 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Best known as a vampire, and lately, a goth, actor and comedian Johnny Brugh has been leaving us well amused since his time as one half of comedy duo ...
Briar Grace Smith’s stories of skin, screen and stage
01 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Touring to five regional centres across the North Island from 6 to 25 October Upu sees performances by seven leading actors of almost 40 texts by Māo...
Gordon Walters and our changing taste for abstraction
01 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A new, sumptuous Auckland University Press book Gordon Walters reveals the diversity of the painter’s exploration of form beyond the koru, and the r...
91-year-old indigenous Canadian filmmaker reflects on career
01 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After a career spanning almost six decades, Alanis Obomsawin is still busy working on her 56th and 57th film aged 91.
Regional Wrap: Waikato turns pink for Cherry Blossom festival
01 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every week on Culture 101 we check the pulse of a different area of Aotearoa. This week it's Waikato.
The phenomenon of ‘Girl Dinner’
01 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Most trends on social media, have their moment in the spotlight, then the next one comes along. But some trends catch on and stick around. One of tho...
Reclaiming Crip Culture
30 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Just released, Henrietta Bollinger’s debut essay collection, Articulations published by Tender Press speaks to their experiences as queer, disabled ...
31,872 bottles mark Aotearoa's suffrage anniversary
30 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Liberty - Herekoretanga by artist Wendy Hannah is a camellia chandelier made from 31 thousand 872 recycled plastic bottles - each one representing the...
Fast Favourites with country & rock 'n' roll’s most creative dresser Tami Neilson
30 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every week on Culture 101 we invite a guest to share their love of culture and shout out to other artists. This week it’s - Tami Neilson - a beloved...
Does this year’s World of Wearable Arts have the wow factor?
24 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Described by Sam Brooks in The Spinoff as the largest catwalk show in the world, an art exhibition blown up to epic proportions, and the closest New Z...
Introducing Pōneke poets The Meow Gurrrls
24 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re joined on Culture 101 by three poets and artists from Pōneke and Kāpiti Coast who are part of a collective known as the Meow Gurrls.
Regional Wrap: wai and words from the Wairarapa
24 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every week on Culture 101 we check the pulse of a different area of Aotearoa. This week it’s between the Tararua ranges and the Pacific: the Wairara...
Carcass: picking over 2023 cultural policy with Jason (Political Cutz) Muir and Jane Yonge
24 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In a 2023 election campaign special, panel series ‘Carcass’ brings you lively banter on where culture and politics did and didn’t meet on the ...
Rising NZ music producer EDY on ‘hustle culture’
24 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rising Tamaki Makaurau music producer EDY’s debut single ‘Help Myself’ reflects on working and striving in a hustle culture.
Switzerland: Finding yourself in a psychological thriller
24 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Following seasons in Australia and Poneke at Circa, Celebrated Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland has landed in Tamaki Makaurau...
Looking after contemporary art history - curator Christina Barton
23 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After 35 years working in public galleries and as an art historian, for Christina Barton’s last show as director of Wellington’s Adam Art Gallery,...
Could AI change music culture for the better?
17 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A PR manager passionate about helping get Indie artist cut-through, the UK’s Debbie Ball has developed an expertise in how best to work with digital...
Drumming for a healthy mind and body
17 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Could the tapping, beating and bashing of drums be your path towards better mental health?
At the movies for 17 September 2023
17 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Simon Morris is confronted with several movies that come with a pre-booked audience, you'd think - a popular ethnic comedy, one for anyone who's been ...
Regional Wrap: remote but creative Karamea
17 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
At the last census 714 people were living in Karamea, but resident Jessie Creedmore has counted 54 artists, and 21 different nationalities. People spa...
Steamed Hams! Internet memes turned art
17 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Steamed Hams shows artists using humour and popular digital storytelling devices to explore how our worldview is being filtered through everything f...
Is there life after Lego?
17 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For 2022 LEGO master NZ winner Jake Roos, Lego life continues.
How to sing opera with soprano Deborah Wai Kapohe
17 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Deborah Wai Kapohe is both a singing teacher and one of Aotearoa’s most respected sopranos. So who better to teach Culture 101 to sing opera?
Culture meets rugby with All Black George Bower in France
17 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
All Black prop George Bower was ruled out of the Rugby World Cup due to a knee injury, but ended up in France with the team in a cultural role.
Carcass: picking over the bones of cultural policy over 2023 election year
10 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In a 2023 election campaign special, panel series ‘Carcass’ provides you lively banter on where arts and politics did and didn’t meet on the hus...
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra CEO reflects on 17 years
10 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After 17 years as CEO of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Barbara Glaser has stepped down.
Regional Wrap: Rotorua with Mercia Dawn-Yates
10 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Each week Culture 101 shines the spotlight on a different region. This week we’re in Rotorua with Mercia Dawn-Yates.