June & July Seminars

#2611 Promoting Human Rights Internationally and in New Zealand

Speaker Marianne Elliott

Date Saturday 6th June 2026  10am-1pm

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Marianne Elliott is a writer, researcher and human rights and environmental advocate, known for using narrative and storytelling for social change. Trained as a lawyer, she has worked internationally in human rights in Timor-Leste, the Gaza Strip, and Afghanistan where she co-wrote a UN report on Gender-based Violence in Afghanistan. In 2012, she wrote a memoir Zen Under Fire, a New Zealand Woman’s Story of Love and War in Afghanistan. After returning to NZ, Marianne worked for OXFAM, and co-founded not-for-profit organisations, ActionStation and The Workshop to promote community-based engagement in actions for justice and democracy, and to increase support and demand for better public policy. More recently Marianne was Head of Engagement at Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission. She is currently studying for an MA in Creative Writing at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington.

Every day, we hear or read about human rights violations across the world and the failure of countries to take responsibility for or address abuses. In NZ, human rights issues are frequently discussed in the media. In this seminar, Marianne will talk about efforts within the multilateral system to hold countries to account for human rights abuses and citizens' efforts to respond, as well as her experiences overseas. She will also talk about human rights mechanisms in New Zealand, the role of the Human Rights Commission and the significance of community-based organisations in working for a just and equitable society.

#2612 Conquering Cervical Cancer: a good news story

Speaker  Margaret Sage

Date Saturday 20th June 2026  10am-1pm

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Dr Margaret Sage is a cytopathologist with a focus on gynaecological cytology and cervical cancer prevention. She has worked as an anatomic lab pathologist and coordinated a national training programme covering cervical cytology, histology and HPV testing. Recently she has been employed as the National Cervical Screening Programme (NCSP) clinical lead in pathology during the transition to HPV primary screening.

Changing cervical screening from cytology to a Human Papillomavirus (HPV) test in 2023 is achieving better outcomes while costing less and being easier to administer. It’s a game-changer, particularly for the unscreened and under-screened. Margaret will discuss the story of cervical cancer prevention in NZ including the success of national cytology screening, the explosion of knowledge about HPV and research showing that HPV screening prevents more cancers than cytology screening. The highly effective HPV vaccine that prevents cervical cancer is an international success and prevents oropharyngeal and anal cancers also. HPV vaccination is for everyone.

While New Zealand is close to meeting the World Health Organisation (WHO) threshold for cervical cancer elimination, significant ethnic disparities remain. The elimination goal will only be achieved when the threshold is reached for Māori and Pacific peoples, as well as for the total population. The path has not been easy, but we now have the tools to reach this remarkable goal.

#2613 Finding the voices we rarely hear: peoples poetry

Speaker Adrienne Jansen

Date Saturday 27th June 2026  10am-1pm

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Adrienne Jansen is a writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. With a background in both writing and teaching, she founded both the Porirua Language Project, and the Whitireia Polytechnic Creative Writing Programme. She has had a long involvement with the teaching of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), and much of her writing has focussed on the migrant experience in Aotearoa New Zealand. She has written alongside migrants, enabling them to tell their own story, and resulting in books of interviews with taxi drivers, women, Asian Muslims, among others. More recently, she has been the lead publisher at Landing Press, a small not-for-profit publisher that publishes anthologies of poetry that many people can enjoy, with a social justice edge. Their vision is to include voices rarely heard in the New Zealand literary landscape, alongside poets we all recognise. For more information see: www.adriennejansen.co.nz

Adrienne will talk about some larger projects she has worked on – travelling through New Zealand with photographer Ans Westra, interviewing Asian Muslims, or the difficulties of finding women drivers willing to take part in a project on migrant taxi drivers. She will also talk about finding the unheard voices for Landing Press anthologies – meeting with cleaners on the railway station, or in an office late at night, or writing for a year with men in Wellington City Mission’s transitional housing or joining people queueing for free food. And how by writing with them, they find their own voice, and sometimes it’s transformational.Fiona will take you behind the lens of her extraordinary career, offering a rare glimpse into the world of forensic and medical photography, and how these experiences have shaped her life today.

#2614 NZ Curriculum Reforms: the drivers of change

Speaker  Bronwyn Wood

Date Saturday 18th July 2026

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Bronwyn Wood is an Associate Professor in Education at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. Her specialist research areas include youth participation and citizenship and education and curriculum policy development. She has been involved in several iterations of NZ curriculum writing and has presented internationally (Scotland, England, Sweden) on the latest curriculum reforms in Aotearoa New Zealand.

New Zealand is currently in the middle of a particularly tumultuous period of curriculum reform. Initiated in 2019 (Aotearoa New Zealand Histories curriculum project), all curriculum areas have since been ‘refreshed’ or revised at least once, with subject like Mathematics revised three times between 2023 and 2025. In this seminar, Bronwyn will look at the history behind these reforms and the state of NZ education that led to Te Mātaiaho (the NZ Curriculum 2023) and then the refreshed version in 2025. She will examine some of the factors behind these reforms and the countries (especially England) from which the Minister of Education has ‘borrowed’ policy ideas. Understanding these drivers of change gives us deeper insights into the implications and consequences of these reforms.

#2615 Astronomy: Just six numbers and the Sun

Speaker Antony Gomez

Date Saturday 25th July 2026  10am-1pm

Venue Waikanae Presbyterian Church Hall, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Antony is National Outreach Coordinator (NZ) for the International Astronomical Union’s Office of Astronomy Outreach. He is a former Vice-president of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand and a former President of the Wellington Astronomical Society. As a

child he looked up at the stars but it wasn’t till 2000 that he had his first look through a

telescope. Now 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.

Antony will discuss two topics. In the first session, Just Six Numbers, Antony discusses how six numbers govern the shape, size, and texture of our universe. If their values were only fractionally different, we would not exist, nor, in many cases, would matter have had a chance to form. Was the universe “tweaked”; or is it one of many universes, all run by slightly different, but equally messy, rules? This presentation is based upon the book by the 15th Astronomer Royal, Lord Martin Rees.

In the second session, The Sun: Our Nearest Star, Antony looks at the life cycle of the Sun and other stars, The sun is the centre of our solar system, which provides light and heat essential for life on Earth, including why auroras are prominent at this time. If it is a clear sunny day, there will be an opportunity to look at the Sun through a solar telescope after the presentation.