Calling wonky wheels and squeaky joints! 🛠️
Plus: Ableist signage near you? 🚧
Kia ora e hoa mā,
In this week’s delicious edition:
Get your mobility aid repaired for free tomorrow 🔧
34 years at the Human Rights Commission with Cecelia O’Dell ✊🏽
Custom Club: featuring Umi Asaka and Robbie Francis Watene ♿️
🛵 Does your mobility aid have some wobbly or broken parts? Bring your mobility aid/s to the D*List Community Hub in Kingsland at 322 New North Road tomorrow (Saturday 18) for free repairs thanks to Independent Living! You can can call or text Ella (027 335 2459) to check if your item can be repaired. ☎️
Come any time between 10am-1pm. We’ll have coffee and kai, and you can enjoy an exhibition of Becki Moss’ beautiful Custom Club photos in full IRL glory.
Speaking of, the last installation of Custom Club series launched today, featuring Umi Asaka and her wheelchair which has taken her to 18 countries. She describes it as a lifeline to connect to the world. 🌏
Meanwhile, not too far from The D*List community hub, we discovered some new street signage, reading “CROSSING UNSUITABLE FOR MOBILITY DEVICES”. Eh? Has anyone seen this before?
In the same world, Umi can hitchhike with her wheelchair and then disabled people are told what they can and can’t do. Have you seen any deterring or hostile signage like this before?
🕊️ Disability advocate and public servant, Paul James Curry is remembered for his leadership in achieving better access and health outcomes for disabled people, in this NZ Herald obituary (paywalled). At one time, Curry served on 11 different boards. The first was the Wellington Paraplegic and Physically Disabled Trust which raised several million dollars to fund annual scholarship grants.
🎭 An NZSL interpreted recording of the Arts Access Aotearoa x NZ Fringe Festival workshop on improving accessibility in theatre is now online. It talks about increasing accessibility for artists and audiences, low cost and free accessibility solutions, budgeting and promotion.
👑 The Canterbury Chargers have just been crowned the national wheelchair rugby champions. The Press interviews some of the players and reports on the challenging funding context for para-sports.
🫠 Karen Barnett, who has terminal cancer and is on a disability allowance says every two years she has to prove to Work and Income that she’s still dying, reports Stuff NZ. Barnett wishes that Work and Income would be more accommodating to those in their final phase of life. Her bureaucratic challenges reflect many of the dying experiences in the Dying Reviews report published on Tuesday.
😷 TVNZ+’s story on young people with long Covid shows its unexpected impact on the brains of young people. Initially, cognitive impairment as a symptom was a concern for older adults, but young people are proving otherwise. With little support in the health system, some are being advised to live in retirement homes to get the level of care they need.
☕️ I met Cecelia O’Dell who recently retired from a 34-year-long career at Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission. Injured before ACC even existed, she remembers the days disability rights weren’t part of the Human Rights Act. Retirement hasn’t stopped her from working though, as she continues to advocate for disability rights in the local community in Te Tai Tokerau.
🍉 As we tentatively celebrate a ceasefire, disabled people in Gaza may not yet see an end to their fight. An Aotearoa-based, disabled activist writes why it’s important to continue to advocate for the recovery of Palestine, and provides some examples of ways we can do that.
Donate to reputable charities such as UNRWA, or the Palestine Childrens Relief Fund who are working on the ground
Follow Palestinian journalists and Al Jazeera for news on Gaza - bearing witness and staying informed is so important to resist complicity.
Protest! Boycott Israeli companies! Contact your representatives! - follow the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa. They have a list of actions you can take on their website and their Facebook page and newsletter keep you updated on protests around the motu.
🦿Robbie Francis Watene ‘came out’ as a disabled person when she painted her prosthetic artificial limb fluoro pink.
I would tell that younger Robbie that better times are coming, that there is a time very soon where you are going to embrace and celebrate this Lucy Leg that you have, and that you will actually come to understand Lucy as being an integral part of your being.
🖌️ Artists of Te Whanganui-a-Tara! Toi Pōneke is currently accepting applications for their 2026 residence for d/Deaf and/or disabled artists. Suitable types of practice include writing, drawing, painting, sculpting, print, textiles, mixed media, photography, film and video. Apply before 5pm Monday 17 November.
🚖 Here are two disability-related petitions you might be interested in: one to increase funding for the Total Mobility Scheme, and another to launch a public inquiry into the systemic harm to people with ADHD in Aotearoa.
Kia haumaru 🧡
Eda
