Where to start with local elections 🗳️
Plus: Waiata mai! Join us today for Mahuru Māori! 🎵
Mauri ora!
In this week’s delicious edition:
Your guide to exercising your democratic duties 📩
Housing utopia to arrive in Tauranga 😍
What was your experience of NCEA with disability? 🧑🏫
☎️ Local elections are coming up and we’ve got some tips to help you vote and understand local government. In our last local election in 2022, we had the lowest average voter turnout for metropolitan councils in over a decade (39.8%). The good news is that we’ve got the opportunity to see much larger voter turnouts which will more accurately reflect the needs of community.
Not sure where to start with this local elections business? We’ve got you. Our guide outlines the difference between local and central government, who you can vote for and how you can vote. It even dives into the grittier stuff like the difference between a ward and a local board, and the difference between the mayor and the council’s chief executive.
Voting in the Auckland local elections isn’t about picking the lesser of the evils; it’s time to be aspirational about what a thriving community looks like. Imagine what achieving climate goals, an accessible events centre and what a pumping arts and culture scene looks like for your region.
Did you know you can vote by telephone dictation? Accessibility in elections continues to be a work in progress and varies region to region, so check out what your council offers.
E te whānau, we’re 12 days out from when voting in local elections begins, so now is a great time to get clued up and start looking at what the candidates in your area are proposing.
💭🌈 Folks living in Tāmaki! Do you have ideas of what a more accessible Auckland would look like? Join us at The D*List Community Hub on Friday September 5 from 10am - 1pm to dream, discuss and design alongside Auckland Council staff and Council Disability Panel members. We’ll provide the resources and kai, you just RSVP and show up 🫱🏾🫲🏼
The days are starting to get warmer and the gardens begin to bloom; it’s Mahuru: the fourth month of the maramataka Māori. At the D*List, we’re celebrating Mahuru Māori, a month-long intention to learn and challenge ourselves to use more reo Māori.
If you’d like to join us, come along today for our first weekly Friday waiata sessions in Tāmaki (more details at the bottom of this newsie), and I’ll be including a kupu hou (new word) with examples in each newsletter of Mahuru 👩💻
Kupu o te wiki: pōti (to vote)
Examples:
Kua pōti koe? Have you voted?
Kei wareware ki te pōti! Don’t forget to vote!
🏗️ Universally-designed public housing just makes sense. Two blocks of “affordable”, Lifemark Level 4-compliant apartments are being built in Tauranga as part of the $100 million housing equity fund launched last year, The Bay of Plenty Times reports.
Not only is the housing physically accessible, but rents would be capped at 25% of each tenant’s weekly income, regardless of what the private rental market is doing. The Tauranga Community Housing Trust would also provide additional wraparound support and wellbeing services for tenants.
👩🦯➡️ Here’s a great example of how local government can have an impact on day to day accessibility in your region. Tasman District Council has recently enforced a by-law to ban advertising flags on footpaths, where they may be a hazard to blind and low vision pedestrians.
🦠 A new study on Long Covid in Australia was published this week, examining its effect on daily life. The researchers lay out their findings on The Conversation. One of the key insights is that although Long Covid has no diagnostic test, people’s own ratings of recovery strongly predicted their disability and quality of life.
This shows self-reports are not just “stories”. They are valid and reliable indicators of health. They also capture what medical tests cannot.
🧠 Aroha Tamihana interviews Jessica Hita (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) from Kanorau about reclaiming neurodiversity in te ao Māori.
“...It’s important to note that for us as Maaori, we don’t just see our tamariki through a medical lens. We see them through whakapapa, wairua, and whaanau. Where the clinical system sees deficit, we see taonga. Where the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) draws boundaries, tikanga opens doors. So for us, takiwaatanga isn’t about what’s ‘wrong,’ it’s about recognising and nurturing a unique way of being in the world, one that carries value and mana in its own right.”
📚 Cait Ruth Lawrence reflects on their schooling, saying that NCEA saved their livelihood as a disabled adult due to its flexibility and ability to adapt to their strengths, opportunities and disabilities. What’s your experience? Comment on Cait’s video over on Instagram👇
🎭 Watch an NZSL-interpreted performance of Creation Creation, a moving family comedy about life’s biggest questions, at the Aotea Centre in Tāmaki Makaurau on Saturday September 27 at 2pm. Tickets are $15 and include a pre-show briefing at 12.30pm for introductory notes about the show, plot, story and sign-names for the characters. There are seats set aside for d/Deaf audience members for a clear view of the interpreters.
Book online and enter the code SIGNED when instructed. To book over the phone, call 09 970 9745 or email groups@ticketmaster.co.nz. NZSL-interpreted tickets for Creation Creation will be available until the allocation is exhausted.
🖤🎶 E ngā manu tīoriori, today begins our first of four waiata Māori sessions open to d/Deaf and disabled people, whānau and friends. Every Friday 3pm until September 18 at 322 New North Road Kingsland, Joegen Daniels and I will be facilitating a one-hour session to learn waiata Māori. There will be trilingual NZSL interpreters available on the 12th and 19th of September. Reply to this email or text Ella on 027 335 2459 to let us know you’re coming.
👋🏼 Come say hello to The D*List at our stall at the Transition Expo next Wednesday 3rd of September at the Auckland Netball Centre.
Pai tū pai hinga nā wai, nā oti
(Whether you stand or fall, in time, the work will be complete.)
Eda
