Recommended listening: The Kia Whakanuia te Whenua podcast
If you’re looking for a new podcast to draw insights from, the team at Te Papa Tū Whirinaki – The Landscape Foundation have released their third season of episodes inspired by the landmark book Kia Whakanuia te Whenua | People, Place, Landscape (Mary Egan Publishing, 2021).
This recommended listening provides engaging kōrero with the book’s authors. Season one got the ball rolling in January 2024, with the next two seasons landing in June 2024 and June this year. Produced and hosted by Carolyn Hill, Marcus Fletcher, and Sarah Flynn, the series delves deeper into the chapters of the book with their authors, using conversation to explore their views on the complex challenges of te ao hurihuri - a world in change.
Kia Whakanuia te Whenua remains a groundbreaking and beautifully illustrated book - distinguished by the vitality of the 40 different authors who contributed articles, including perspectives from Aboriginal, American Indian and Irish landscape architects as well as Māori and Pakeha.
Seasons 1 and 2 of the podcast included in-depth interviews with 19 chapter authors representing a range of disciplines and backgrounds. And now Season 3 delivers seven new episodes featuring Timmah Ball, Rod Barnett, Lee Beattie, Jade Kake, Bruno Marques, Simon Smale, and Gayle Souter-Brown.
You can tune your taringa to the Kia Whakanuia te Whenua podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or I Heart Radio.
Season 3
Supplied episode teasers from season 3 of the Kia Whakanuia te Whenua podcast are:
Episode 1 - Raising voices and sharing truths: How Aboriginal People are reshaping cities
Marcus, Sarah and Carolyn talk to Timmah Ball about how Aboriginal people continue to reassert their voice and presence in cities that can seem overwhelmingly colonial.
Episode 2 – Carbon gardens: Garden research in the era of climate crisis
We talk with landscape architect Rod Barnett about how the concept of garden can be reimagined to respect and encourage diversity, and to remember humanity's place as part of the natural world.
Episode 3 – City growth: Transformational change to deliver liveability
Marcus and Carolyn talk to Professor Lee Beattie, planner and urban designer, about how urban development can happen in ways that create and enhance community. We talk about Hobsonville Point as an important case study.
Episode 4 – Indigenous urbanism: Seeking genuine decolonisation in the cities of Aotearoa
Jade Kake, architect and academic of Ngāpuhi, Te Arawa and Whakatōhea iwi, shares her whaakaro / thoughts on what it takes to genuinely engage in decolonising practices in the built environments of Aotearoa.
Episode 5 – The importance of collaborative design-led research for culturally-diverse communities
Dr Bruno Marques, President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects, talks to us about his students' collaborations with mana whenua that fosters good design outcomes through deep understandings of place.
Episode 6 – Adventures in a global biodiversity hotspot: Connectivity conservation in SW Australia
Landscape architect Simon Smale shares key learnings from his amazing work with Bush Heritage Australia in the Fitz-Stirling programme - healing places through landscape-scale restoration and reconnection to Country.
Episode 7 – Evidence-based landscape design practice
Gayle Souter-Brown talks to Marcus, Sarah and Carolyn about her work in evidence-based landscape design practice, focusing on ideas of rewilding and its connections to wellbeing.
Seasons 1 & 2
Season 1 Episode 1 – He kupu arataki
… a kōrero with Diane Menzies, instigator of Kia Whakanuia te Whenua, and Carolyn Hill, its editor, to talk about how the book came about, who's involved and what their vision is for an Indigenous-led paradigm shift in how we care for our landscapes.
Season 1 Episode 2 – How not to study ‘the spirit of landscape’
… a kōrero with Dr Alayna Pakinui Rā, chairperson of the Landscape Foundation and author of the chapter, 'How not to study "the spirit of the landscape"'.
Season 1 Episode 3 – The sounds of the whenua
.. a conversation with Rachel Shearer, sound artist and author of the chapter 'The sounds of the whenua'. Rachel shares how she works with whakapapa as a research methodology to (re)consider relationships between people, place and environment.
Season 1 Episode 4 – The dark and mysterious / researching the spirit of the land
… a kōrero with Jacky Bowring, professor of landscape architecture and author of the chapter, 'On the trail of the dark and mysterious: researching the spirit of the land'. What are the threads of commonality across different aspects of spirit and place, and how can we support these relationships in ways that enhance life and wellbeing?
Season 1 Episode 5 – Painting New Zealand’s geology
… a kōrero with artist Andrew Craig, author of the chapter 'Geo-vanitas: Painting New Zealand's geology'. Andrew explores the whenua itself in terms of how it informs his art and life, and how art - in not telling the full story - might inform landscape understanding and new ways of care.
Season 1 Episode 6 – Manaaki whenua, manaaki tangata
… a kōrero with William Hatton, landscape architect and author - with Jacqueline Paul - of the chapter 'Manaaki whenua, manaaki tangata: protecting cultural landscapes'. William gets pretty deep in terms of colonialism
Season 1 Episode 7 – Upholding Papatūānuku’s right to support life
… a kōrero with Fleur Palmer - architect, spatial activist and associate professor - about her chapter, 'Upholding Papatūānuku's right to support future generations'. Fleur talks about the amazing power of collaboration in co-creating alternative futures for our places.
Season 1 Episode 8 – Recalling the mauri
… a talk with ecologist Sarah Flynn about her chapter, 'Recalling the mauri'. Sarah relates how 'non-conforming' ecosystems - messy, weedy and neglected - still hold mauri, and this foregrounding may help restoration through whole environments, not their constituent parts.
Season 1 Episode 9 – Unforeseen effects in landscape management
… a kōrero with Clive Anstey, resource planning consultant and author of the chapter, 'Unforeseen effects: Integrating land/people wellbeing in landscape management'. Clive compares the creation of the Resource Management Act in 1991 with new directions in environmental planning, and questions if/how we can actually achieve 'integration' in a system prone to siloes.
Season 1 Episode 10 – Connecting tamariki with native wildlife
… a kōrero with Sterling Ruwhiu where she talks about her chapter with Hōhepa Waenga, 'Education at Auckland Zoo: Connecting tamariki with native wildlife' and her new directions and insights in people / place connectivity.
Season 2 Episode 1 – Te whakanuia te whenua
… a kōrero with the amazing Lynda Toki and Kim Penetito, where they share about their passion for karanga as part of healing and nurturing relationships between tāngata and te taiao.
Season 2 Episode 2 – Whenua and identity
… a talk with Wayne Knox about pepeha, whenua and tikanga as the bases for identity, recognition and relationships - and Wayne shares a beautiful pātere dedicated to the memory of Te Kawerau a Maki rangatira, Hariata Ewe.
Season 2 Episode 3 – Ahikāroa: To keep the fire burning
… a kōrero with Mere Whaanga on the deep importance of ahikāroa and the painful realities of whenua loss in a settler colonial legal system.
Season 2 Episode 4 – Whenua Māori
… a talk with Lena Henry about the problematic intersections between whenua Māori and state planning, and opportunities for future change.
Season 2 Episode 5 – Identity through whenua
… a kōrero with Te Kerekere Roycroft, unpacking how identities are shaped in many ways that link to place(s) in a web of relationships.
Season 2 Episode 6 – Whakarite whakaaro, whanake whenua
… a kōrero with Shaun Awatere and Nikki Harcourt on their innovative mahi in creating a kaupapa Māori decision-making framework for land use assessments - empowering mana whenua to step beyond Western economics-driven norms.
Season 2 Episode 7 – Aotearoa towns and cities have always been indigenous places
… a talk with Becky Kiddle on her incisive work about what urban design means when seeing cities as Indigenous places.
Season 2 Episode 8 – The Burren, a land of paradox
… a conversation with Brendan Dunford about the inspiring work in sustaining the deep bonds between people and place in the Burren, Ireland through environmentally-responsive farming.
Season 2 Episode 10 – Mitigation measures for good design?
… a talk with Nicole Thompson, where we honour the memory of Megan Wraight and discuss Nicole and Megan's critique of 'mitigation' approaches to landscape architecture and positive new directions in this space.