Saturday Morning for Saturday 22 October 2022

8.10 Shehan Karunatilaka: NZ can claim some of Booker Prize winner’s success

The dead do tell tales: sometimes they are the only ones who can speak to the living about the costs of civil war, terror and corruption. Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka won the Man Booker Prize on Monday for his second novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. In it the ghost of a dead war photographer tells the tale of a mission to solve his own murder. 

The judges unanimously gave the novel one of the most prestigious awards in literature, describing it as “an entirely serious philosophical romp that takes the reader to ’the world’s dark heart’.” 

Karunatilaka himself escaped some of the worst of Sri Lanka’s civil war, spending time in New Zealand at Whanganui Collegiate and Massey University. 

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida will be available widely here in December.

 

8.40  Ned Fletcher: are the English and Māori texts so different?  

The English text of the Treaty of Waitangi is widely considered to be different from the Māori version signed by rangatira - the latter held to reflect that Māori never ceded sovereignty, and retained tino rangatiratanga. 

Flowing from his interest in the Colonial Office of the 1830s and how English law was brought to New Zealand, historian and lawyer Ned Fletcher argues in The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi that the authors of the English version saw ‘sovereignty’ as consistent with continued Māori self-government. 

While Fletcher's interest in the treaty is quite separate from his day job as a Crown prosecutor, it does run in the family: his mother is former Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, who acted for the Māori Council in treaty cases, including the famous 1987 Court of Appeal case, which recognised the preeminence of the Māori version.

 

9.05  Karen O and Nick Zinner: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs still spitting

Indie-sleaze darlings the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are back with their fifth album, Cool It Down. The New York triple-Grammy nominated band started out over two decades ago opening for the White Stripes. 

Famous for her edgy stagewear, Karen Lee Orzolek - Karen O - fronts the band, supported by guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase.

 

9.30 Dr Matt Baker: life on ancient Mars and Rubisco 

Sydney-based New Zealander Dr Matt Baker returns for a chat about some of the latest science news.

This week: there are reports that ancient Mars may have had an environment capable of harbouring an underground world teeming with microscopic organisms and, what is probably the most abundant enzyme back on Earth: Rubisco. This enzyme is key in taking carbon out of CO2 and turning it into carbons that become biomass. And yet it’s only now we are discovering how it has developed after emerging billions of years ago. 

Dr Baker is Scientia Associate Professor in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of New South Wales.

 

10.05 Megan Dunn: what’s art got to do with mermaids?

Our regular art correspondent Megan Dunn has an exhibition of her own just opened at Wellington’s Adam Art Gallery, revealing another long standing obsession: mermaids. 

For two years Dunn interviewed women worldwide who perform as mermaids. Now she’s curated an exhibition which not only features several mermaid performers but also artefacts (yes, there are tails),  painting, sculpture, photographs, and videos by artists and professional photographers. 

Megan Dunn is an author and a self-described reformed video artist. She is the 2022 Writer in Residence at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters, working on a memoir about motherhood, menopause and mermaids. 

For details on The Mermaid Chronicles go here. 

 

10.30 Russell Tregonning: from sawing bones to sexism in the medical system

The knee is the largest and most complex joint in the body and retired orthopaedic surgeon Russell Tregonning is passionate about the evolving science of knee injuries and replacement surgery. 

In his memoir Blood and Bone: Revelations of an Orthopaedic Surgeon Tregonning reflects on his career, pioneering techniques of keyhole surgery and his own hospitalisation due to the overwhelming demands of the job. He also interviewed several of his colleagues about their experiences of sexism while trying to make a career in medicine as women.

A member of OraTaiao, the New Zealand Climate and Health Council, Tregonning is part of a team of professionals working to alert the public to the detrimental impacts of the climate crisis on human health.

 

11.05 Playing Favourites with Lorde and Taylor Swift collaborator Joel Little

In a spectacular philanthropic move, producer, songwriter and Grammy Award-winning musician Joel Little has opened Big Fan, a recording studio and 180-person venue with his wife Gemma in Morningside, Auckland. Its intended to help a new generation fulfill their musical ambitions

Little kicked off his own music career fronting the band Goodnight Nurse before achieving global fame producing multi-platinum album Pure Heroine with Lorde. He’s since collaborated with Taylor Swift, Khalid, Imagine Dragons and many more. 

Little joins Kim from LA to play some of favourites. For information on Big Fan go here.

 

Books mentioned in this show:

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
Shehan Karunatilaka 
ISBN: 132406482X
Published by: W. W. Norton & Company
 

The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi
Ned Fletcher
ISBN: 9781990046537
Published by: Bridget Williams Books
 

Blood and Bone
Russell Tregonning
ISBN:  9781991159137
Published by:  Atuanui Press

Music featured on this show:

Maps
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Played at 9.06am

Spitting off the edge of the world
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Played at 9.20am

Mars
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Played at 9.35am

Song to the Siren
This Mortal Coil
Played at 10.25am