July 12, 2016

Dugald McTavish’s “seeds of activism” were sown when three projects threatened the Moeraki Boulders, and hewn as peak oil reared its head. As a water engineer he had the background knowledge, but how to get people interested? Thus the Hampden Community Energy Forum was born, filling the local community hall for three weekends in a row.

That group, started in 2004, is still going strong with a recycling shop at the local transfer station creating an ongoing revenue stream for its activities. It showed Dugald that lecturing didn’t work; “people don’t want to be preached to, so you have to do more projects.”

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June 27, 2016

Around 500 people visited “Luminescence: The Spectrum of Science” and left the one-day festival with a little more science lighting up their world. Most of the 500 attendees were our youngest bright sparks – primary school students from schools across the Wakatipu basin.

Audiences watched interactive demonstrations and met young scientists to talk about and explore the science and technology of light in this outreach project associated with the Dodd-Walls annual symposium and held in collaboration with Otago Museum and Catalyst.

Participants got to measure the width of their own hair with a laser beam, have their faces painted with fluorescent paint, discover how 3D movies and polarised sunglasses work, play with bre-optic cables like the ones which make the internet work, explore how white light splits into all the colours of the rainbow and lots more.

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May 23, 2016

Dr Tara Duncan from the University of Otago’s Department of Tourism wove together research and industry information to give a rich picture of the multifaceted nature of the budget backpacker and their value to our economy and communities.

“Backpackers are frequently also working holiday makers, visiting friends and relatives, and potential longer term employees. They contribute in many ways to local economies and communities as they travel, study, work and volunteer”, said Dr Duncan. “Recognising that backpackers are often more than travellers is essential, especially for destinations such as Queenstown”, she said.

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May 3, 2016

Dr Buchanan fell into fungi by accident – he was offered a job as an impoverished postgraduate. But he, like the audience of around 60 people from across all walks of Queenstown life, clearly has a fondness for fungi and is on a mission to increase its profile.

Often forgotten yet truly prolific, the fungal kingdom is five to six times the size of the plant kingdom (it’s estimated that there are around 1.5 million species, of which maybe only 5% are explored). Dr Peter Buchanan provided many reasons why this second kingdom of life deserves recognition for its economic, health and ecological contributions.

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April 24, 2016

Professor Tony Ballantyne, described as New Zealand’s ‘most innovative historian’, presented a new take on the cultural history of Otago and Soutland at this Catalyst Trust talk.

He challenged the prevailing narrative of New Zealand history that elevates ‘the nation’ as the best way of understanding our past. This focus on our national story, he said, obscures as much as it reveals: “We do not just live in a nation but in specific places, and our personal stories adhere to those places.”

Arguing that national identity – what it means to be a New Zealander – is not as important to us on a day-to-day level, Professor Ballantyne explained how place is essential to shaping us as people. Making a case for the relevance of local history, he prefers to examine in detail the histories of towns and suburbs that, though small, have big characters that shape communities, evoke a sense of belonging and imprint themselves onto the people that live, work and play there.

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March 29, 2016

Around 50 people from high school and university students to the chief economist of New Zealand Treasury took part in the McGuinness Institute “Tackling Poverty” workshop in Queenstown, kick-starting what is to become a New Zealand roadshow tour towards solutions for this growing nationwide issue.

Catalyst Trust approached McGuinness Institute in the wake of their TacklingPovertyNZ three-day workshop at Treasury last December to trigger the conversation at a local level. Six participants from this workshop came to give national context to the issue in Queenstown, alongside Treasury chief economist Dr Girol Karacaoglu and Dame Diane Robertson, chair of the Data Futures Partnership and former chief executive of Auckland City Mission. Nicky Mason from Happiness House and Salvation Army’s Hine Marchand provided the local context before participants spent the afternoon workshopping the issues and potential solutions.

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March 23, 2016

It takes only $300 to put a girl through school for a year in Sierra Leone, and yet the impact on her prospects, health and ultimately the education of her own children is huge.

“When a girl is educated, everything changes: she rises from poverty but also her family, community and country rises too,” said Danelle Jones, who is an ambassador for charity One Girl, which supports girls in Sierra Leone to stay in school.

Sixty-six million girls in the developing world are missing out on school. The barriers to education in Sierra Leone are significant. Girls get limited or no education because many are married when they are young (44% before they turn 18), become pregnant as teenagers and leave school (5 in 6 girls never get to high school), or cannot afford to attend (more than 70% of people in Sierra Leone earn less than $2 per day).

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The Road Map to a Good Supply and Mix of Healthy, Affordable Homes in Queenstown Lakes

Produced by Catalyst and the Queenstown Lakes Affordable Housing Community Work Group, published February 15, 2016:

• Affordable Housing Road Map; Our goal and what people want from affordable housing
• Road Map – two, 10 and 30 year horizons – and policy recommendations

Catalyst Trust held the “Affordable Housing – an Im/Possible Dream?” forum In July 2015, attracting over 200 locals. Economist Shamubeel Eaqub, developer and community housing trustee Peter Southwick, Community Housing Aotearoa CEO Scott Figenshow and urbanist Tommy Honey outlined issues and some solutions before questions and discussion.

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