From Left Melanie Chandler-Ward from Creative Northland, the winners of the Wall Art competition Alex Moyse, Lance Hadfield and Logan White, and Annika Dickey from Our Kerikeri. Photo/Claire Gordon
From Left Melanie Chandler-Ward from Creative Northland, the winners of the Wall Art competition Alex Moyse, Lance Hadfield and Logan White, and Annika Dickey from Our Kerikeri. Photo/Claire Gordon
Kerikeri wall art competition
The Kerikeri Community Charitable Trust ran a wall art competition recently with artists presenting works for judging. All entries were displayed at the library.
Three winners were chosen by more than 1400 people who voted. They are Alex Moyse, Lance Hadfield and Logan White and theirartworks will now be turned into 2.4 sq m panels that will be erected on the exterior concrete wall of Cathay Cinema in Hobson Avenue.
Alex Moyse is Whangarei based and has been painting for some time. Of her work, she said the use of colour, along with the application of iconography, is how she decided to best depict this, along with attempting to represent the power that creativity and compassion can have within a community.
"My narrative for this piece is based around the innovative and often creative ways in which our community holds tight to its history, traditions and the environment around us."
Lance Hadfield (Te Aupouri and Ngati Kuri) has been drawing since he first picked up a pen and tattooing professionally for 15 years. He felt that nature, being green (forest) with rivers (black) running out to the ocean (blue) represents the tide pushing up onto the land.
The winning creations on the exterior concrete wall of Cathay Cinema in Hobson Avenue, Kerikeri. Photo/Claire Gordon
"Being framed by gold corners like you would see on porches of older heritage buildings and infused with Māori art-patterning (culture) it also creates a circle at the same time symbolic of the world (opportunity for all)."
Logan White said he has been making art since he was a child and is a self-taught aerosol artist. He said he painted Rainbow Falls, Waianiwaniwa, as it links to the Town Basin showing connection where there is a lot of cultural heritage.
"The historic weir supplied the first electrical power to early Kerikeri representing innovation for ease of living remaining close to nature."
The three winners each received $1000 cash and $500 worth of Resene art supplies. The 20 semi-finalists also received prizes courtesy of Resene.
Community health delivers
The Russell Community Health Care Group is a team of volunteers run under the auspices of St John. They have been delivering food boxes and medicines to those in the community who are isolating at home with Covid or staying at home with influenza.
The group was formed late last year as a continuation of the Covid 19 vaccine programme they had orchestrated and managed. Coordinator Bridget Hughes, said when Delta looked so threatening, they decided to establish a plan to help care for people isolating at home with Covid 19.
Russell Community Health Group volunteers loaded up for delivery to those isolating with Covid or influenza. From left Bridget Hughes, Patu Sigley and Nigel Fiu. Photo/Supplied
"We met Dr Chris Calcott from the Russell Medical Centre and came up with a cohesive plan to care for our community, knowing full well that even with the best of intentions of the health authorities, this community would not get the care it needed if we didn't do it ourselves," she said.
They set up a dedicated 0800 number which is manned 24 hours a day by a group of clinically trained volunteers. Calls to the medical centre are from people who need support, advice and help with food supply. They deliver one food box per family as required and extra groceries are delivered from the local Four Square.
Patients are called daily to assess their health and along with the 0800 number the volunteers manage to cover most, if not all, patient needs. There is an estimated 200 cases of Covid, mainly the Ormicron variety, in the extended Russell community at present and the group has delivered more than 50 food boxes, many urgent medications and pulsoximeters to those in need.
Bridget Hughes said they are trying to stay ahead of what's happening locally and have recently extended the programme to cover influenza and other winter illnesses and they encourage people to stay at home if unwell.
Supervised tooth brushing in schools
In late June the Northland DHB supervised a tooth-brushing programme that commenced in the Far North.
It started at Pukenui School near the Houhora Harbour, 45 minutes' drive north of Kaitaia, and at Pukepoto School, a small contributing school of just 29 students on the Kaitaia-Awaroa Highway. The role is 100 per cent Māori.
The Northland DHB chose to start in these areas to address the higher decay rates of 5-12-year-olds living there. The long-term plan is for the programme to be rolled out at all schools in Northland.
Some of the Pukepoto school students involved in the Supervised Toothbrushing Programme managed by the Northland District Health Board. Photo/Supplied
The Wellington-based philanthropic Clare Foundation covered a substantial portion of the costs of the programme, which is expected to be around $650,000. The funding is managed by Northland Community Foundation as part of Health Fund Plus.
Each child enrolled in the programme is supervised each day at school, brushing their teeth with their gifted toothbrush and case and toothpaste. An assigned oral health coordinator provides ongoing oral health education at the schools participating in the programme.
Dental care is also provided at Northland DHB hospitals, at 18 school-based mobile dental clinics and seven fixed community dental clinics across Northland.
Kerikeri writer wins award
Kerikeri writer, Vera Hua Dong, has won first place in the National Flash Fiction Day writing awards for 2022.
Her story Golden Phoenix, Grey Hen won over Helen Waaka from Hawke's Bay and Rebecca Ball from Christchurch.
One of the judges remarked about the story that there is a seamless time jump and she seems to write very much in the present but often reaches to the past. Vera says the story comes directly from her life in Kerikeri.
Vera Hua Dong, the Kerikeri writer who captured the top prize in the National Flash Fiction Day awards for 2022. Photo/Supplied
"I could not feel the beauty of the Kerikeri landscape when I first settled here, I was preoccupied with my identity crisis, a sense of guilt about not achieving a social status that had been expected of me and a struggle over the differences in children's education.
"One day I picked up some worms and returned them to our worm cafe and did it so naturally, it was quite an achievement for me who had a phobia about anything slimy and wriggly and that was an epiphany and I finally found I was a local."
The Flash Fiction awards entail writing 300-word short stories. Some submit several entries. This year, the 10th anniversary of the awards, 500 entries were received. The prize money helps, $1000 for first, $400 for second place and $200 for third.
Other Northland writers have been successful in the competition. Among NFFD winners there is Vivian Thonger from the Bay of Islands, Kathy Derrick and Jac Jenkins who both grew up on a dairy farm near Maungatapere outside of Whangarei.
Last year Vera Dong's story won the Northland regional prize and this year she captured the top prize. Of her win Vera said she was delighted to see that others see such quality in her writing and now she is conscious of it she will work harder to see where it may lead her.
