D*LIVERED BUMPER EDITION ❤️🔥 🪅 🐳
Plus: Come to our market day tomorrow!
Happy Disabled and Delicious Week! 🔥🔥🔥
In this week’s delicious edition:
Play = a wellbeing top up 🛝
Community kōrero: From pole dancing to special interest travelling 🌀
Our 10 year-old national Disability Strategy is getting a makeover ✳️
Wednesday was International Day of Persons with Disabilities, but heck, a day isn’t enough (especially in crip time). That’s why we’ve decided to celebrate the whole week!
We published a call out for community contributors for Disabled and Delicious Week and were delighted by all of the submissions, so we are publishing all of them over this week and next. This edition of the D*List Delivered will be pushing the Substack character limit with how packed it is with courageous and creative community kōrero.
All week we’ve been talking about play and what it means to us as disabled people. At first glance it could seem like a bit of a shallow topic, but play is powerful; play can be funny, creative, peaceful, sexy, and even healing.
Play helps with emotion regulation and cognitive flexibility. When you think about topping up your mental wellbeing, you might want to think about ways of approaching it playfully, because you’re more likely to stick to habits you’re having fun with.
Connect: host an online games night with some friends, or join a Dungeons and Dragons group
Be active: play on a playground or go to a dance class
Take notice: play I Spy in the park, or take photos of the flowers you can find on your street
Keep learning: embrace a niche special interest and spend an evening researching it
Give: craft a wholesome meme about a friend, or offer to take a whānau member to do a fun activity they’ve been meaning to do
Bonus: If you’re based in Tāmaki Makaurau, join us for a day of play at tomorrow’s Market and Crafting Day!
For more of this kōrero, visit topupwellbeing.nz
Brought to you in partnership with Te Whatu Ora
♿️ The team at iLead brought communities together for the IDPD by hosting 140 wheelchair users at Eden Park in an attempt to break the world record for the longest moving line of wheelchairs. Check out some of the photos here by Stuff.
💡 The new NZ Disability Strategy for the next five years was released by Whaikaha on Tuesday. The new strategy includes the EGL principles in its foundation alongside the UNCRPD and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and five priority outcome areas in education, employment, health, housing and justice, which will be monitored in real time on a later to be published website.
📚 Kara Technologies and the National Foundation for Deaf and Hard of Hearing is launching a new digital NZSL library with more than 10,000 signs in NZSL. The library is expected to be operational early next year. Security Brief NZ reported:
Each recorded sign is reviewed by a Deaf person for accuracy and cultural suitability. The AI system assigns parameters to each clip, including possible actions and emotional context, to enable natural transitions when building sentences.
⛰️ Turi Māori leaders have partnered with Te Taura Whiri to develop reo Māori signs for tāngata turi. Jon Tai Rakena, told Te Ao Māori News historically, tāngata turi haven’t been able to access what is happening at marae.
If we don’t have that, there is a risk for the language being lost, there’s a risk of us not learning and not connecting with Te Ao Māori.
✋🏽 Kiwikiwi Hawes tells us five dreamy ways they are planning to play this summer: being in nature, Māoritanga, connecting with their body, journalling, and being with community.
I’m looking forward to eating ice cream to recreate our first proper date, to having him lean on my shoulder as we watch Bluey with breakfast each morning, to slow dancing with them on the balcony of my house. I’m looking forward to enjoying the moments we have of love and connection before they get really busy with important mahi for therapy for the rest of the year
🪩 A year ago, Claudia Rose was roped into pole dancing which turned out to be one the the best decisions she’s ever made. It allows her to discover what her body can do, rather than what it can’t.
I was talking to someone at an aerials showcase. She gestured to the aerial apparatuses and asked if I did anything like the gravity-defying performers who would soon appear. I admit, I was very shocked at the question and initially wasn’t sure how to answer other than a surprised ‘no’, gesturing to my wheelchair. Her response? “Well, why not?”
🔠 Ever heard of a pun battle? I hadn’t until Lucy Croft’s story on how being “a bit shit at sports” led her to her first pun battle at a fringe festival. After that, Croft continued to chase the high of wordplay.
The backstage of the Fringe bar became familiar, with all the posters from previous bands ever-changing. There was a regular cast of characters entered into each pun battle. And it was accessible. My hearing was no issue. I was no issue. I could volley puns back and forth over the net with the best of them. The adrenaline rush from being onstage was better than any runners high I’d experienced.
📜 The United Nations Conventions of Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) was completed in 2006 and Robyn Hunt was in the room where it happened. Olivia Shivas spoke to Hunt about the Convention, how well New Zealand complies with it, and the things we can do as a community to advance disability rights.
“we have to stand with all the different disability groups, because we all have different issues at different times… when I first joined the disability community, there was quite a hierarchy, and blokes in chairs were at the top and people with learning disabilities were at the bottom.”
✈️ Nicolina Newcombe needs purpose in her form of play, because “strange things are hard work, not relaxation.” Through aligning travel with special interests in a recent trip to the Netherlands, Newcombe has found a way to make travel joyful, rather than stressful.
🐢 You don’t always need to be having as much fun as humanly possible, says Kitty Wasasala. After her first Covid-19 infection, Wasasala’s relationship with play was challenged and now, play feels slower and natural.
Becoming disabled has actually only made me more creative. I’ve had to learn how to listen to my body and how to work with rather than against my brain, whether that be through gamifying chores, parallel play or using visual aids for scheduling. If my love for play means I lose my value to capitalism, then hooray and so be it.
👛 To conclude Disabled and Delicious Week, we’re hosting a market and crafting day tomorrow 6 December at the D*List Community Hub in Tāmaki (322 New North Road). From 10am to 2pm there’ll be clothing, art, zine making, kai and more!
🎭 The accessible programme for Auckland Arts Festival 2026 is out now! Deaf and disabled whānau can access reduced cost tickets and bring along a free companion. Check out the accessible shows which would make great Christmas gifting.
🎨 This weekend tāngata whaikaha in Ōtautahi will rally to oppose the funding decisions that have made it more difficult for support workers and disabled clients to lead a normal life. Artist Maungarongo ‘Ron’ Te Kawa has lead a group in the creation of colourful, cheeky banners to capture the attention of decision makers. You can join the rally at the Bridge of Remembrance at 11.30am tomorrow (Saturday) morning.
Kia pai te wīkene 🥳
Eda
