Ngā Ohaoha a Te Matatini Measuring the Kapa Haka Economy

<p>While this thesis largely examines the economic contribution of Kapa Haka, it also sets out a framework to inform future research to ensure that the inequalities of today will not be visited upon the mokopuna of tomorrow. Māori aspirations for a better future are inextricably linked to wellbeing and identity. This research builds on previous reports commissioned by Te Matatini Kapa Haka Aotearoa (Te Matatini) that provide qualitative research on the subject matter. It largely draws on new quantitative data and focusses on Te Matatini as a case study by investigating the nature and extent of funding disparities in its current funding compared with other national performing arts organisations. The research addresses two main research questions: whether funding currently allocated to Te Matatini under the Vote Arts, Culture and Heritage appropriation is equitable considering its biennial economic contribution and service performance record. Secondly, how can tikanga Māori inform a framework able to measure the broader wellbeing impacts of Kapa Haka and the social return on investment achieved by Te Matatini’s programme of regional and national Kapa Haka events. To assess whether government is realising the best value for money from its investment into the arts, culture and heritage sector, the thesis calls for greater transparency and consistency in the level of funding currently received by Māori agencies and initiatives across the sector. It concludes with a recommendation that the Executive Government should seek to undertake a review of the sector ecosystem to develop fit-for-purpose and targeted policy settings that ‘insure’ Māori arts are better valued and supported. The research argues that a central element of any future national arts strategy should provide for greater equity for Māori across the sector along with pathways to grow Māori arts, culture and heritage as a central pillar of Māori development and national wellbeing. Its key recommendation is that the Government should seek to increase its investment into Māori arts agencies and practitioners by establishing a new appropriation focused on growing the Māori cultural and creative sector.</p>

Ngā Ohaoha a Te Matatini Measuring the Kapa Haka Economy

<p>While this thesis largely examines the economic contribution of Kapa Haka, it also sets out a framework to inform future research to ensure that the inequalities of today will not be visited upon the mokopuna of tomorrow. Māori aspirations for a better future are inextricably linked to wellbeing and identity. This research builds on previous reports commissioned by Te Matatini Kapa Haka Aotearoa (Te Matatini) that provide qualitative research on the subject matter. It largely draws on new quantitative data and focusses on Te Matatini as a case study by investigating the nature and extent of funding disparities in its current funding compared with other national performing arts organisations. The research addresses two main research questions: whether funding currently allocated to Te Matatini under the Vote Arts, Culture and Heritage appropriation is equitable considering its biennial economic contribution and service performance record. Secondly, how can tikanga Māori inform a framework able to measure the broader wellbeing impacts of Kapa Haka and the social return on investment achieved by Te Matatini’s programme of regional and national Kapa Haka events. To assess whether government is realising the best value for money from its investment into the arts, culture and heritage sector, the thesis calls for greater transparency and consistency in the level of funding currently received by Māori agencies and initiatives across the sector. It concludes with a recommendation that the Executive Government should seek to undertake a review of the sector ecosystem to develop fit-for-purpose and targeted policy settings that ‘insure’ Māori arts are better valued and supported. The research argues that a central element of any future national arts strategy should provide for greater equity for Māori across the sector along with pathways to grow Māori arts, culture and heritage as a central pillar of Māori development and national wellbeing. Its key recommendation is that the Government should seek to increase its investment into Māori arts agencies and practitioners by establishing a new appropriation focused on growing the Māori cultural and creative sector.</p>

International Refugee Law in Crisis: Islands, Incarceration and Neo-Refoulement during COVID-19

Attempts by states to deter refugee movement have evolved to a point that routine and systematic breach of non-refoulement and associated human rights frequently constitutes a central pillar in their asylum architectures. The expansion of state policies and practices under which people seeking asylum are prevented from reaching safe places and lodging asylum claims has accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on examples from Australia and Europe, this article uses neo-refoulement—a concept introduced by geographers Jennifer Hyndman and Alison Mountz—to signal not only the rise in pushbacks at land and sea borders, but also practices that occur well within the boundaries of sovereign territory. These include the use of island incarceration, fast-track border procedures, and denial of legal presence on sovereign territory, even where physical presence is achieved. Such measures have often been introduced under the pretext of responding to situations of ‘mass influx’. And yet, far from providing an adequate response to a so-called ‘refugee crisis’, they serve only to facilitate a greater humanitarian crisis.

The Hokianga Dog Tax Uprising

Why was a seemingly mundane 19th-century fiscal measure—a tax levied on dog owners—met by Māori with widespread repudiation and an armed uprising? The significance of what is known as the ‘Hokianga Dog Tax Rebellion’ is often framed in terms of its apparent quashing by colonial forces in 1898, taken to signal the moment at which Crown sovereignty was finally imposed upon northern Māori. This paper questions the mainstream historical narrative, taking seriously the political stakes of taxation and locating the ‘dog tax’ within a disciplinary colonial regime that sought to interpellate Māori as financially and morally liable subjects. The dog tax was aimed at the protection of sheep, a central pillar of the early colonial economy, but was also viewed as a means of transforming Māori into citizen-subjects of the colonial regime. The doggedness with which colonial officials sought to enforce payment, and the steadfastness of Māori opposition to the tax, illuminate the highly politicised character of taxation in the colonial context. This article is an excerpt from Catherine Cumming’s The Financial Colonisation of Aotearoa, to be published by Economic and Social Research Aotearoa in late 2021.

A Cylindrical Molding Method for the Biofabrication of Plane-Shaped Skeletal Muscle Tissue

Muscle tissues can be fabricated in vitro by culturing myoblast-populated hydrogels. To counter the shrinkage of the myoblast-populated hydrogels during culture, a pair of anchors are generally utilized to fix the two ends of the hydrogel. Here, we propose an alternative method to counter the shrinkage of the hydrogel and fabricate plane-shaped skeletal muscle tissues. The method forms myoblast-populated hydrogel in a cylindrical cavity with a central pillar, which can prevent tissue shrinkage along the circumferential direction. By eliminating the usages of the anchor pairs, our proposed method can produce plane-shaped skeletal muscle tissues with uniform width and thickness. In experiments, we demonstrate the fabrication of plane-shaped (length: ca. 10 mm, width: 5~15 mm) skeletal muscle tissue with submillimeter thickness. The tissues have uniform shapes and are populated with differentiated muscle cells stained positive for myogenic differentiation markers (i.e., myosin heavy chains). In addition, we show the assembly of subcentimeter-order tissue blocks by stacking the plane-shaped skeletal muscle tissues. The proposed method can be further optimized and scaled up to produce cultured animal products such as cultured meat.

Targeting building energy efficiency using thermal infrared earth observation telescopes

Upgrading the energy performance of the UK’s entire building stock is the central pillar of any credible and cost-effective strategy to meeting net zero. This research aims to open up the revenue of using thermal infrared data from satellites to assist in processes on building energy performance improvement. High-resolution thermal infrared data output from space offers the potential for fast and effective monitoring provision that can cover large areas and targeted buildings or sites. We have interviewed a set of stakeholders from government, industry and community groups to build the specific use cases and find out detailed user requirements.

Approaches toward Community Participation Enhancement in Ecotourism

A vast majority of scholarship share a similar view that collective participation of different stakeholders serves as a prerequisite for ecotourism sustainable development. Local community participation is considered to be an important pillar of ecotourism development as local communities are capable of influencing success or failure of ecotourism development projects. Socio-economic and socio-cultural well-being of local communities are crucial ingredients for maintaining rapport amongst stakeholders and sustaining ecotourism development. Despite being promulgated as a central pillar of ecotourism development, literature reveals that local communities have not been actively participating in planning and decision-making processes regarding ecotourism development. Adoption of Western-centric oriented participation frameworks by numerous state authorities coupled with lacking necessary skills have been identified as the main factors that hinder active participation of local communities in ecotourism development initiatives. It has therefore, been suggested that ecotourism destinations need to adopt and implement participatory approaches that suit their specific contexts and promote bottom-up ecotourism development procedures. Based on its potential for influencing review and amendment of existing tourism-related policies, a local community participation improvement model has been developed. The model is aimed at facilitating inclusive and active participation of all stakeholders in ecotourism development processes.

Exploring the significance of control atmosphere of vegetables

The development and production of vegetables are increasing in every corner of the globe. Besides fresh and quality vegetables, which are the central pillar of generating economies and business, there is also demand and requirement to differentiate and create post harvest storage, transport, publicity, and preparing the foundation to broaden the utilization of vegetables beyond rising seasons and localities. However, numerous Western nations have created vegetables appropriate for cold environments, including potatoes and tomatoes, to tackle the issue. The countries of tropical areas, like China, India, Brazil, Pan American nations, and nations of Africa, South-East Asia, and Central Asia, have an appropriate environment and assets to cultivate numerous kinds of vegetables. However, the present paper examines the significance of control the atmosphere storage of vegetables and how it affects various foodstuff quality and marketing. The study is based on secondary data. The study systematically reviews many articles, reports and books. The results reveal that the control atmosphere storage enhances the quality of the product that increases the product's suppy and demand. Furthermore, it shows that controlled atmosphere storage is the one most appropriate innovation that can guarantee long storage of vegetables that enhances the freshness and best marketing of the products. The vegetables are kept up through the utilization of explicit CA storage conditions to every product and control of the gas elements, temperature, and relative humidity of the climate. Notwithstanding these components, digestion changes of vegetables have been considered to set up the ideal storage conditions. This is enlarging the improvement of a quick storage system.

#MeToo will sustain demands for US corporate diversity

Significance That turned the eleven-year-old MeToo movement into a central pillar of a broader drive in the United States to address gender, race and social inequality. Since then, the technology sector has become a bit more hospitable to women but still has much to do on employment and workplace culture. Impacts COVID-19 has stalled some of the momentum to #MeToo reforms. The tech sector's persistent poor gender diversity potentially hurts industry competitiveness. Few US states have yet extended sexual harassment protections to cover race, ethnicity and gender identity.

Role of Complement in Regulating Inflammation Processes in Renal and Prostate Cancers

For decades, the complement system, the central pillar of innate immune response, was recognized as a protective mechanism against cancer cells and the manipulation of complement effector functions in cancer setting offered a great opportunity to improve monoclonal antibody-based cancer immunotherapies. Similarly, cellular senescence, the process of cell cycle arrest that allow DNA and tissue repair has been traditionally thought to be able to suppress tumor progression. However, in recent years, extensive research has identified the complement system and cellular senescence as two main inducers of tumour growth in the context of chronic, persistent inflammation named inflammaging. Here, we discuss the data describing the ambivalent role of senescence in cancer with a particular focus on tumors that are strongly dependent on complement activation and can be understood by a new, senescence-related point of view: prostate cancer and renal cell carcinoma.