Smart Talk moderator, Finlay Macdonald is a widely respected contributor to newspapers and publications throughout the country. He is the former editor of NZ Listener, commissioning editor for Penguin Books, and now writes columns, social commentary and edits the Sunday Star-Times books pages.
He has also worked for Metro Magazine, and as a writer for television, including documentary, serial drama and comedy.
At this year's Qantas Media Awards, Finlay was given the Best Overall Columnist Award for his weekly Sunday Star Times column. British-born Macdonald recently joined Radio Live, hosting a Sunday morning show with a focus on current events, politics and reviews.
Jock Phillips
Jock Phillips is the General Editor of Te Ara: The On-Line Encyclopedia of New Zealand, produced by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Jock Phillips was born and educated in Christchurch, studied at Victoria University in Wellington, and then at Harvard University where he took his doctorate in 1978. From 1973 until 1988 he was a lecturer and Reader at Victoria. There he founded and was first Director of the Stout Research Centre for the Study of New Zealand History, Society, and Culture.
In 1989 Dr Phillips became Chief Historian of the Historical Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs. From this position he was appointed to lead the research, compilation, and presentation of the Encyclopedia.
Dr Jock Phillips has written or shared in the writing of many books on a remarkable range of historical topics. He won special recognition for Te Whenua, Te Iwi - The Land and the People and A Man's Country?: The Image of the Pakeha Male.
Geoffrey Irwin
Professor of Archaeology at Auckland University, Geoffrey Irwin’s research is focussed on the colonisation of the Pacific. He believes the exploration and colonisation of the Pacific was one of the most remarkable episodes of human history.
Geoff Irwin has carried out fieldwork in Papau New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Indonesia and New Zealand over a period of 30 years. In the Pacific he has studied early colonisation, navigation and the emergence of seaborne trading systems. On one occasion he took his small yacht across the western Pacific, retracing the path of the Lapita culture that was ancestral to Polynesian and Maori. That experience, alongside excavations and computer simulations, have influenced his views about the settlement of the Pacific.
Matahi Brightwell
Matahi Brightwell is a Tohunga Tarai Waka and taught at Takapuwahia marae in Toa Rangatira Wananga (1973-1981). Recently he has been working on the Hawaiki Nui 2 project in Moorea, French Polynesia. This double-hulled canoe will be sailing to Peru to re-enact one of the many great voyages of the ancestors. Matahi has been instrumental in the revival of traditional methods in building, navigating and sailing and is well regarded for his facilitation of waka ama wananga throughout the Pacific.
Matahi Brightwell traced his lineage directly back to Rakataura, builder of the Tainui waka, and master navigators who explored the Pacific and made the islands home thousands of years ago.
Great Music Artist Profiles
David Kilgour and Sam Hunt
As a teenager in the late 1970's David Kilgour and his brother Hamish, inspired by the do-it-yourself spirit of punk, rock formed The Clean in their hometown of Dunedin. The Clean went on to become one of New Zealand’s most popular bands. Their legend as founding fathers of an influential ‘scene’ in underground music quickly spread to all corners of the globe. In the decades since David’s solo work has seen him become one of our most respected musicians.
Sam Hunt is possibly New Zealand’s best-known poet and performer. His impressive number of publications and memorable recitals have contributed to his popularity and wide readership. He has read his work throughout the world, and is best known for his intimate and unpredictable performances in numerous pubs, bars, community halls, cafes, and in concert venues, as well as touring with fellow poet and personality, Gary McCormick. Sam Hunt was awarded a Queens Service Medal in 1986 for his contribution to New Zealand poetry.
Finding themselves stuck at Dunedin airport in 2007, both men felt too star struck to strike up a conversation with the other. Eventually they overcame themselves though and began a conversation that would lead to their collaboration, in which Sam’s poetry is put to David’s beautiful music.
SJD
Asked recently how SJD was formed Sean James Donnelly replied, “I was formed at some point in the late 60s and was SJD for a while by myself, until I was joined by my bandmates in 2002, and altogether we became a sort of SJD v 2.0.”
Amongst the top selling independent albums of 2001, SJD’s Lost Soul Music grazed the lower reaches of the charts, saw Sean nominated for a veritable swag of b–Net Awards, and heralded the emergence of a major songwriting and production talent. Having taken his finger–snapping and crooning solo live shows to their natural conclusion, Sean set about making SJD a live reality, incorporating the talents of guitarist James Duncan, keyboard don Dominic Blaazer and vocalist Sandy Mill, who would later be joined by guitarist Paul McLaney and drummer Chris O Connor.
Since that time, SJD, whose music is uninterested in high-octane dance-floor posturing, opting instead for beautiful melodies, has released three more albums and developed an avid following in New Zealand.
Elena
Described by Wellington’s mayor as a ‘cultural icon’, Elena is one of the country’s most talented and innovative violinists. Her ability to breathe new life into classical compositions by drawing on the musical and cultural traditions of the tangata whenua, defines both her work and her reputation. Of Ngati Kahungunu, Rongomaiwahine descent, Elena’s love of music saw her winning an exclusive place to study in Wellington at the NZSO training school and further study in London.
Elena is a member of the Vector Wellington Orchestra and enjoys the versatility of a freelance musician. Elena regularly performs to an array of audiences that have included the Queen, Chinese Premiere and David Beckham. Elena has successfully delivered her brand of cultural fusion to audiences in China. Her production Elena’s Cultural Symphony was the first New Zealand group to be invited to the China Shanghai International Arts Festival in 2006.
Russel Walder
Russel Walder is the founder of Nomad Soul Records and one of the top contemporary oboists in the world, composing, recording, touring and furthering the possibilities of the oboe. He has ventured in Feature Film Soundtracks and has scored several soundtracks for the Discovery Channel.
In 2005 he produced and co-composed Kura Huna with New Zealand singer, WhiriMako Black. Kura Huna was based around stories from the Tuhoe Tribe that were hundreds of years old. These laments were highly poetic and mournful. Walder has developed a unique signature style of improvisation. This musical language is a combination of jazz, North African chant, Arabic melisma, contemporary European Classicism, ancient Hebrew psalms and modal scales. He has called it 'Nomad Soul Style'.
