Easter Monday

08:05 Art and whakapapa at the Venice Biennale

The 60th International Art Exhibition opens at the Venice Biennale on Saturday 20 April. The theme is Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere. 

The layout of the Venice Biennale encompasses the canals, the streets, the lanes of the medieval port city with the exhibition taking place in the Central Pavillion Giardini and in the Arsenale. 

Of the 331 artists invited by the Venice Biennale, eight are from Aotearoa New Zealand this year - Sandy Adsett, Mataaho Collective, Selwyn Te Ngareatua Wilson, and Fred and Brett Graham. 

Susana catches up with them at their Waiuku home 

08:35 Nicole Avant's "Think You'll Be Happy" transforms tragedy into celebration

Nicole Avant's father - Clarence - is known as the Black Godfather and her mother Jacqueline Avant - a philanthropist and community pillar. They opened their Beverly Hills home to an incredible array of impactful figures of both the 20th and 21st century including Sidney Poitier, Quincy Jones, Oprah Winfrey. 

Then the unthinkable happened. Nicole's mother was fatally shot in that home. In her book "Think You'll Be Happy" Nicole takes us with her in the hours, the days, the weeks and months since that day. 

Nicole joins Susana to talk about surviving grief.  

09:05 Rachel Petero champions indigenous women participating in global business  

Rise Global is a Māori owned and operated organisation which develops and implements indigenous-led development programmes for women and organisations globally with a particular focus in Aotearoa, Pacific Islands, Canada, Chile, Australia and USA. 

Founder Rachel Petero joins Susana Lei’ataua on easter Monday to discuss how to ensure indigenous women's voices are included in the global economic development conversation. 

09:27 Auckland’s new fine art destination 

Auckland based fine art dealer John Gow joins Susana to talk about the opening of the the new Gow Langsford gallery in Onehunga. 

09:45 Plabita Florence’s Feijoa Sherbet 

Plabita Florence is one of Auckland's best chefs. Her restaurant Forest was awarded one hat in the 2021/22 Cuisine Magazine Good Food Awards.  This year Cuisine also named her one the 50 most inspiring and influential women in food. 

Forest, which started out as a series of pop-ups in 2017 grew into a small Symonds St restaurant before finally expanding to its current location – a 30 seat venue on Dominion Road. 

 It focuses on seasonal, low waste vegetarian food, with a regularly rotating menu. One of the stars of that menu is a deep-fried feijoa served with feijoa skin sherbet...  

Plabita joins Susana Lei’ataua to talk about how her food philosophy and share that sherbet recipe.  

10:05 How to negotiate a better deal 

As well as being Easter Monday, and April Fools day, today is also something a little less exciting - the start of the new tax year. 

Many of us are taking stock of our finances and thinking ahead for the year to come. If you're planning to ask for a raise, buy a new car or even more house. 

Lance Burdett trained with the FBI and spent 13 years as a crisis negotiator for the NZ Police. Most famously he was head negotiator on the Napier siege and the Paremoremo prison hostage situation. 

He joins Susana Lei’ataua to share some tips to help you negotiate a good deal. 

10:30 Oceans Before Me: Songs Of Rangiaowhia live at RNZ studios 

Oceans before me is a charitable trust set up by Daphiney Owen and her husband Glynn. It exists to preserve and tell indigenous stories via music. It doesn't have a permanent line-up of musicians, but rather connects with individual artists on a per project basis. Drawing for the talent of the community whose stories are being told. 

Their first album Daughters Of The Dawn tells the story of the Dawn Raids from a Wāhine Māori perspective. 

There second album "Songs Of Rangiawhia", two years in the making, was released on February 21st 2024. It was released on that day to commemorate the 160th anniversary of the Rangiaowhia massacre.  

To perform some music from the album Daphiney Owen and Mara TK join us in the Wellington studio whilst Hawkings & Rakai Whauwhau preform in Auckland. 

11:05 Grace Yee's poems reveal the Chinese immigrant experience 

Grace Yee's book, Chinese Fish, is a collection of poems, which tells the story of the Chin family, Chinese immigrants who move to New Zealand in the 1960s. 

The poems explore themes of migration, family dynamics, cultural clashes, and the search for belonging. It's written in a unique style that blends poetry with prose and historical fragments, offering a rich and complex portrait of the immigrant experience. 

Grace joins Susana on Easter Monday. 

11:35 Aotearoa’s first Speed Climbers set for Olympic debut 

As we’re now just over three months away from the 2024 Paris Olympics. The first two athletes to qualify and be announced in the official team were twenty-three-year-old Sarah Tetzlaff & nineteen-year-old Julian David, both Speed Climbers. They are also the first ever New Zealand climbers to attend an Olympics. 

Climbing was introduced for the Tokyo 2020 games, where it featured as an event combining Bouldering, Speed, & Lead climbing. For Paris 2024 Speed climbing has been spun out as a solo event and given its own medal.  

Speed climbing involved scaling a 15-meter wall and hitting a stopwatch at the top as quickly as possible. The world record currently stands at 4.90s, or a pace of around 11km per hour. 

To talk about the sport's inclusive nature and explosion in popularity future Olympian Sarah Tetzlaff and her coach, Speed Climbing’s High-Performance Director Rob Moore join Susana Lei’ataua.