April & May Seminars

#2605 The “New” NZ: demographic change transforming Aotearoa

Speaker Paul Spoonley

Date Saturday 9th May 2026  10am-1pm

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall

43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Distinguished Emeritus Professor Paul Spoonley, ONZM, is one of New Zealand's foremost social scientists, renowned for his research on social and demographic change. Paul Spoonley has spent just over four decades researching and understanding the drivers of rapid social change in Aotearoa. He was awarded the Science and Technology Medal by the Royal Society in 2009 for cross-cultural understanding and the following year, he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of California Berkeley. He was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Massey University. Once he stepped down, he was appointed to advise the Police Commissioner (2022-25) and as Co-Director of the National Centre for Countering Violent Extremism (2022-23). He is a Fellow of the Auckland Museum and a Board member and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany. He is the author or editor of 29 books including: The “New” New Zealand. Facing Demographic Disruption (2021) and Histories of Hate. The Radical Right in Aotearoa New Zealand (2022).

In this seminar, Paul will discuss the major demographic changes or disruption occurring in New Zealand. It is a rapidly ageing society, and this combined with declining (and sub-replacement) fertility is changing the age distribution of the country. Moreover, some centres and regions are growing rapidly while others are experiencing population stagnation or even depopulation. International migration has been high over the last decade or so and this is changing the cultural mix of our communities. A very different country will have emerged by the 2030s.

#2606 Kapiti Island: A human history focus

Speaker John Barrett

Date Saturday 18th April 2026  10am-1pm

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

John Barrett is the Chairman and founder of Kāpiti Island Nature Tours and Nature Lodge; a Māori family-operated, multi-award-winning tourism business, located on one of New Zealand’s premier nature reserves. The business is strongly focused on developing whanau, hapu and Iwi members into tourism and conservation work that is meaningful financially, culturally, environmentally and socially. In recent years more focus has been on regional and national historical narrative associated with Kāpiti Island. John is active within his tribes; Ngati Raukawa, Te Ati Awa and Ngati Toarangatira. He has 40+ years of management and governance experience in a range of private and public organisations and enterprises. John is a foundation member of the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance Leadership Council.

In this seminar, John will give a version of events that have shaped the historical importance of Kāpiti Island; from the time of the New Zealand Company settlements and interaction with Ngatitoa chief Te Rauparaha. He will discuss settlement patterns around the Wellington region and “top o the south”, the impact of whaling, trading, farming and eventually conservation activity leading to the development of one of our finest nature reserves.

#2607 Can nations cooperate to make the world a better place?

Speaker Colin Keating

Date Saturday 2nd May 2026  10am-1pm

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Colin Keating is a former New Zealand diplomat who has served in Samoa, London and Washington. He was New Zealand’s Ambassador to the UN in New York and represented New Zealand on the UN Security Council. He is recognised as a leading global authority on the UN Security Council. For seven years he worked for Colombia University in New York as Executive Director of the organisation “Security Council Report”. Colin is an international lawyer and served as the Legal Adviser of the New Zealand Foreign Ministry. He was responsible for leading the policy and legal work in New Zealand for

the ratification of the Human Rights Covenants and a number of other UN Human rights treaties. He was also appointed as Secretary for Justice and has worked in the private sector in New Zealand as a partner in legal practice. Currently, Mr Keating advises on a range of international and other matters.

International cooperation in an increasingly inter-dependent yet polarised world is complex and hard to achieve. Yet efforts towards peace and security, economic and social development, human rights and fair trade through agreed rules and collective action have been promoted through multilateral institutions since early in the 20th century. What has been achieved, why is it not really working today, who’s undermining it and what are the prospects for the future? Colin will trace the establishment and evolution of multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and its specialised agencies, the World Bank and IMF, the World Trade Organisation and regional blocs to explore what the future holds and the role New Zealand has and is playing in these organisations.

#2609 The (fl)eye witness: how maggots can solve a crime

Speaker Julia Kasper

Date Saturday 16th May 2026  10am-1pm

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Jullia Kasper is the Lead Curator of Invertebrates at Te Papa Tongarewa and a trained entomologist from Berlin, specialising in diptera taxonomy and medical entomology (parasitology and forensic entomology). Currently she is revising several fly groups and their association with subterranean habitats, such as caves. A large part of her work is improving research and quality standards in forensic entomology in NZ. She has worked on forensic cases in Germany and NZ, subcontracted by the NZ institute for Public Health and Forensic Science (formerly ESR). She recently represented the NZ Police at the Australia/NZ Police Forensic Entomology Technical Advisory Group meeting.

Most people know forensic entomology from crime shows, where insects help pinpoint a victim’s time of death. It does far more. It shows if a body was moved, reveals whether wounds occurred before or after death, detects drugs or poisons, uncovers neglect, and even traces the origin of narcotics. Outside the courtroom, forensic entomology has civil uses too; from tracking food contamination to investigating pesticide misuse. In these cases, insects can expose whether contamination happened in the factory or were staged later. In this seminar Julia will explore not only the history, methods and interesting case studies of forensic entomology, but also shed light on the glaring gaps in NZ.

Improving Post-Mortem Interval accuracy (the estimated time that has passed since a person died) means collecting local data on carrion insects; their species, succession patterns, and seasonal development. The top priorities are measuring development rates of the most common species and linking case data to environmental context to drive targeted, impactful research.

#2610 Aging and the response to vaccination

Speaker Michelle Linterman

Date Saturday 23rd May 2026  10am-1pm

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Inspired by a great teacher at Paraparaumu College, Dr Michelle Linterman began her science career with study at VUW, followed by a PHD at the Australian National University then 16 years in the UK at Cambridge University and the Babraham Institute. She returned to NZ in 2025 and is the Chief Scientist and Programme Leader at the Malaghan Institute and an Associate Group Leader at Babraham Institute in the UK. Michelle is one of the relatively small number of scientists around the world actively looking into the ageing immune system and how to improve the way it responds to vaccination.

“It doesn’t matter what other complications you may have, when it comes to health the impact of ageing trumps everything. Almost everything has an intersection with age and, in research, for the most part, it gets ignored,” said Michelle in a recent interview. Michelle believes that we can develop better vaccines that specifically support good immune responses in the later years of life, which is why it’s a focus of her team’s research at the Malaghan Institute.

Most vaccines provide protection by generating long-lived antibody-secreting plasma cells that block the ability of a pathogen to establish an infection. The production of vaccine-specific antibody can occur via the germinal centre response, a specialised microenvironment that produces memory B cells and long-lived antibody secreting plasma cells. With advancing age, the magnitude of germinal centre response declines, resulting in decreased production of long-lived high-affinity plasma cells, decreased serum antibody levels after vaccination, and thus impaired protection against subsequent infection. Although B cells are the cellular source of long-lived plasma cells, age-dependent changes in B cells are not responsible for the decline in the germinal centre with age.  

Michelle’s presentation will focus on the age-dependent changes that are causally linked to diminished vaccine responses in older individuals and potential ways to bolster the immunity by vaccines.