Edge Message #48 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM
TO NEW ZEALAND EDGE GLOBAL COMMUNITY
TO GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF NEW ZEALANDERS
Merry Christmas from the city of Middle- earth-on-the-edge, if I can mix metaphors. Hit your printers for holiday reading:
NEW HERO STORY: Te Rangi Hiroa/Sir Peter Buck’s achievements are astonishing for their diversity, reading more like a list of possible careers than a biography – a pioneering and internationally renowned anthropologist, the first Maori medical doctor, a politician, administrator, soldier, sportsperson and leader of the Maori people. Through exploring the Maori/Pakeha cross-cultural advantages of his birth and exercising a scientific rigour that was largely self-taught, Peter Buck extended the edges of knowledge. The story has been written by May-ana Tirikatene-Sullivan, who by various turns has been scholar, international fashion model, preacher and high jump champion. We thank her for her research, interpretation and storytelling.
Peter Buck
and a new newzedge.
/category/newzedge/
- New Zealand pays tribute to Sir Peter Blake
- Peter Jackson crowned Lord of the Screen
- This is your life Jonah Lomu
- Kevin Roberts appointed Cambridge CEO
- Reagan Cameron dubbed photographic master
- Shellia Laxon breaks the glass ceiling
- Frances Howie takes top honours
- Peter Hunter creates ‘virtual heart”
- Shakespeare goes Maori
- Toa Fraser tours the world
- Ken Gorby and Nigel Cox continue to revel in praise
- Tim Finn takes matters into his own hands
- Russell Crowe tipped for Oscar repeat
- Otago Polytech stay on the ball
- John Milner passes away
- All Blacks back to their best
- Reg Mombassa speaks his mind
- Kate Sylvester features in Spruce
- Frucor continues ascent
- Matt Goodman and Steve Westlake conquer Atlantic
- Japanese adopt NZ lambs
- Anna Weinberg and Paul Masters serve up the goods
- New Zealand remembers John Platts-Mills
- Tui Flower cooks up a storm
- Bill Sharplin is rough as guts
NEW PICTURES 52 fresh pictures of Edge country: landscapes, urban, sea, signs and symbols.https://www.nzedge.com/pictures/index.html
NEW EDGE MAILBOX 80 plus messages: affirmations, meditations, raps and a few roastings. This is New Zealand identity discussion and storytelling you won’t find elsewhere.https://www.nzedge.com/mailbox/21_novdec01.html
NEW SPEECHES Commencement and graduation. Kevin Roberts gave a speech “Nothing Is Impossible” in October to a careers evening at the Waikato Management School Te Raupara, University of Waikato; and I was invited to address the Long Bay High School prize- giving, North Shore. It’s called “Golden Weather” (after Bruce Mason).
NEW YEAR We’re very happy with the performance of NZEDGE in 2001. The metaphor and the website have been the access points for many conversations about the who/what/whereto of Aotearoa New Zealand. Site traffic has doubled; downloads of our Hero stories are up 400% (to over 100,000 for the year). We’ve done probably half the number of things I had intended; Sept 11 rocked the momentum to one’s core and recalibration has been extenuated in the working through of the various tributaries of 911. My response is crystalised in: “Step up, face out, act now.”
2002 has much promise; we have a beautiful shopping experience sitting on our server almost finished for an early February opening; a community networking and profile service in its software cut; some offline publications in train…02 will be a time when we hit our first point of critical mass. I feel like the Van Morrison song: “I’m a dweller on the threshold/And I’m waiting at the door/And I’m standing in the darkness/And I don’t want to wait no more.”
As I write the Lord of the Rings New Zealand premiere has just taken place. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh and their cast and crew of 2,500 have graced us all and we thank and applaud them for their vision and chutzpah. This, in the reflection of our other Peter-Hero: Capt Blake, taken away on the Amazon December 5 2001. I took a picture of him in Wellington early last year on the occasion of the America’s Cup victory tour. It’s just a snap, but it caught him, shouldering ticker-tape, receiving the accolade of a fan. Salut Peter Blake.
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My thanks to our NZEDGE team especially senior editor Paul Ward, who combined working with us and completing his MA (1st) at Oxford University; web publisher Carla Hofler and web producer Lynda Robinson. I thank everyone who has written messages to us and contributed in a whole variety of ways.
Kevin Roberts and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
BRIAN SWEENEY
Co-founder, Editor
The New Zealand Edge
www.nzedge.com
brian@nzedge.com
Thumbnail: Pohutukawa greets the summer Aotearoa-style
