Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

The Auckland Museum Store presents Kōkōwai, a one-night-only, evening of fashion, art, live music and performance on Friday 12 September at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Kōkōwai, named for the sacred red ochre pigment once used to adorn bodies and mark the tapu, will showcase the work of two acclaimed wāhine ringatoi Māori, Shona Tāwhiao (Ngāi Te Rangi) and Stevei Houkāmau (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui).

Shona Tāwhiao is know for her distinctive “Harakeke Couture” style, which has been presented at fashion weeks in New Zealand, London, Malaysia, and beyond. Tāwhiao will present a special showing of her woven couture and streetwear, and will showcase new works that fuse traditional weaving with contemporary design, highlighting her unique blend of heritage and innovation.

Stevei Houkāmau carved uku (clay) works speak to whakapapa, whenua and tīpuna, and have earned national and international recognition, including winning the 2023 Kiingi Tūheitia Portraiture Award and representing Aotearoa at Munich Jewellery Week. At Kōkōwai, Houkāmau’s clay forms will be brought into dialogue with movement and ritual, extending her practice into a live performance setting.

The evening will culminate in a performance taking place under the Museum’s tanoa. Invoking the sacred, the ancestral, and the earthly, Tāwhiao and Houkāmau’s works will be brought to life through movement and ritual.

Charged with the sonic force of 2025 Taite award-winner Mokotron’s live fusion of hiko (Māori electronic music), with taonga puoro, and expertly woven together by director Te ‘Okota’i Paitai, Kōkōwai is no ordinary night at the Museum.

Hokohoko Musuem Store, Retail Manager, Karyn Watson invites visitors to be curious, “Kōkōwai is a chance to experience firsthand the powerful creativity of two extraordinary wāhine ringatoi we represent at Hokohoko Museum Store. Along with DIVA open late for the evening, audiences can immerse themselves in artistry, story telling and cultural expression. A stunning selection of Shona and Stevei’s work will be available to purchase on the night. Come and explore, come adorned, be inspired!”

Tickets also include entry to DIVA, the spectacular international exhibition direct from London’s V&A. Featuring over 50 looks rarely seen by the public, DIVA showcases costumes worn by some of the world’s most iconic performers, some from their own collections.

Highlights include Maria Callas’ stage ensemble as Norma (1952), Marilyn Monroe’s fringed black dress from Some Like it Hot (1959), and the only known surviving dress worn by silent film star Clara Bow. Visitors can also see Bob Mackie designs worn by Tina Turner, P!nk and Cher; Elton John’s Louis XIV–inspired 50th birthday costume with a towering powdered wig and train, designed by Sandy Powell; and Shirley Bassey’s couture pink gown by Julien MacDonald, complete with diamanté-studded wellington boots, worn at Glastonbury in 2007.

Tickets for Museum Store Presents: Kōkōwai are on sale now at aucklandmuseum.com

Museum Store Presents: Kōkōwai
Friday 12 September 2025 7pm–10:30pm
Te Ao Mārama South Atrium, Auckland Museum
$55 adults, $65 door sales. Includes entry to DIVA. 10% discount for Museum Members.

7 pm – Doors open / DIVA open
8 pm – Kōkōwai performance
8:30 pm – DJ Miss Bee
10:30 pm – Event ends

About the artists:

Shona Tāwhiao
Artist, designer, and weaver Shona Tāwhiao, Ngāi Te Rangi, has exhibited her distinct style of raranga woven work for 25 years.

Having trained in traditional Māori raranga weaving techniques and methods, by Kahutoi Te Kanawa, Tāwhiao’s talent has been described as exquisite and undeniably unique.

The fusing of her love of fashion and culture with her specialised techniques in weaving has enabled Tāwhiao to create Haute Couture from flax fibre known to Māori as harakeke. This has resulted in her unique style being dubbed “Harakeke Couture”.

Tāwhiao’s multi award-winning collections of Harakeke Couture have been presented at New Zealand London Malaysia Fiji Hong Kong and Melbourne Fashion Weeks since 2010.

Tāwhiao has showcased her works internationally at the MaMo Arts Festival in Honolulu, Chapel St Roch in Paris and in London at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich to an international group of museum curators.

In 2016 Tāwhiao was invited by Dr Maia Nuku to participate in a three-week residency at the Oceanic Department of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Tāwhiao leant her creative influence to films such as the Māori Merchant of Venice and River Queen and in 2012 designed costumes for ‘The Māori Troilus and Cressida’ that opened Shakespeare’s Olympics at The Globe Theatre in London to rave reviews. This led to her being nominated and winning the Brancott Estate ‘Best Costume Designer of the Year’ at The Chapman Tripp Theatre awards in Wellington New Zealand.

Stevei Houkāmau
Stevei Houkāmau, Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, is a Wellington‑based contemporary Māori uku (clay) artist whose work speaks to whakapapa, whenua, and tīpuna. Since 2011, she’s drawn on traditional Māori patterns and narratives to craft sculptural, carved clay forms embodying spiritual and ancestral connection.  

Her acclaimed work Kia Whakatōmuri te haere whakamua, a derived lineage piece honoring her great-great-grandmother Hinemaurea, earned her the prestigious 2023 Kiingi Tūheitia Portraiture Award, judged at Pipitea Marae before King Tūheitia.  

In March 2025, Stevei represented Aotearoa at Munich Jewellery Week through KOHĀ Moana, a collaborative activation with Neke Moa and Sofia Tekela‑Smith, that explored koha, reciprocity and connection with moana in public adornment performances.  

Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including FESTPAC (Guahan), various Indigenous art gatherings, and a solo exhibition at Objectspace, Auckland. Stevei was also the inaugural Māori Artist-in-Residence at Toi Pōneke Arts Centre and maintains pieces in public and private collections at home and abroad.

MOKOTRON
MOKOTRON is a Tāmaki-based Māori producer from Ngāti Hine, who spreads seismic waves of low frequency Indigenous electronic music. Exploring ancient futurism through music, MOKOTRON imagines a reality without colonisation, where the ancestors transition from the ancient world into the modern, creating futures of hope juxtaposed with the hard realities of urban disconnection.

2022 was a breakout year for MOKOTRON, releasing three 12” EPs on Spanish label Electro Records, as well as featuring on a number of digital compilations at home and abroad.

In March 2024 MOKOTRON released THE UNITED TRIBES OF BASS, a landmark remix project, exclusively featuring Māori and Cook Island Māori electronic practitioners from throughout the motu. This was followed in December by the release of the album WAEREA, Mokotron’s debut album which reached Number 4 on the Aotearoa Album Charts and is close to selling out its third pressing on vinyl. MOKOTRON rounded off the year by winning Te Tohu Kaipuoro Toa (Favourite Solo Act) at the 2024 Mighty Aotearoa Alternative Awards and performing at Boiler Room Aotearoa.  

2025 has seen MOKOTRON reaching new levels of national and international recognition. After headlining Port Noise Festival and touring across the country, they were awarded the prestigious Taite Music Prize and Te Manu Taki Tāhiko o te Tau Best Electronic Artist at the Aotearoa Music Awards for the album WAEREA. MOKOTRON has just returned from their first UK tour, performing at Glastonbury Festival and London dates at Foundation FM and Colour Factory in East London as part of Lady Shaka’s Pulotu Underworld collective.    

Te ‘Okota’i Paitai
Teokotai Paitai (Ta’i) is a multidisciplinary artist with ancestral ties to Rarotonga, Mangaia, Samoa (Moata‘a), and Scotland (Clan Colquhoun). Born and raised in Central Auckland, Ta’i’s creative practice is grounded in both lineage and lived experience.

It’s been over 30 years since Ta’i entered into the contemporary performing arts scene, starting out as a dancer. He’s been fortunate to work alongside and for many of his heroes, some of whom are now shining stars looking down at us.

He is currently exploring and teaching weaving, not only as an artistic expression but also as a tool for well-being. Through this practice, Ta’i actively challenges colonial narratives that seek to dismiss or erase the living cultural traditions of Oceania and Indigenous communities worldwide. For him, weaving is an act of resistance, reclamation, and cultural continuity.

Watch:min World
Amplifying the voice of Wāhine through movement since 2017. Watch:min have been leading in spaces within Street Dance and Krump in Aotearoa uplifting women through programmes, shows, and events.  

ABOUT AUCKLAND WAR MEMORIAL MUSEUM

Auckland War Memorial Museum is one of New Zealand's first museums and is free for Aucklanders. The Museum tells the story of New Zealand, its place in the Pacific and its people. The Museum is a war memorial for the province of Auckland and holds one of New Zealand's top three heritage libraries.

It has pre-eminent Māori and Pacific collections, significant natural history resources and major social and military history collections, as well as decorative arts and pictorial collections.

28 August 2025 – The People's Bank of China (PBOC) and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand today announced the renewal of a reciprocal currency arrangement (swap line) to support the settlement of cross border transactions between New Zealand and Chinese businesses.

The size of the swap facility is RMB 25 billion, and it has a five-year maturity which may be extended if both parties agree. The arrangement was first agreed in 2011 and was previously renewed in 2014, 2017 and 2020.

The aim of the swap line is to help promote bilateral trade and economic development between the two countries while also supporting financial stability.

Covering period of Thursday 28th – Sunday 31st August – A wild, windy end to winter.

Meteorological spring begins on Monday.

A Welcoming Plan for Porirua City was adopted by Te Puna Kōrero at its meeting this morning.

New research from the Education Review Office has found how we can provide our teachers with better professional development.

Alongside core-topics like plastics and polymer recycling, this year’s program explores new developments in biochemical, textile and automotive recycling, plus digital tools supporting scalable solutions for circular systems.

On 19-20 November 2025, the Advanced Recycling Conference (ARC) in Cologne, Germany, once more unites industry leaders, technology providers, researchers, innovators, and policy-makers to address urgent recycling challenges in various waste-streams. Alongside core-topics like plastics and polymer recycling, this year’s event places strong emphasis on pollution-intensive sectors like textile and automotive, that pose significant environmental problems due to their complex material streams. While textile recycling rates in the EU remain below 20 %, hindered by difficult fibre blends, automotive plastics and rubbers face regulatory pressure and material complexity under the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive.

To address these challenges, ARC 2025 spotlights four new focus areas: biochemical recycling, textile and automotive recycling, and advanced digital tools such as AI-enabled sorting, traceability systems, and process optimisation for scale up. These solutions complement established recycling methods across physical processes (extrusion, dissolution), chemical recycling (solvolysis), and thermochemical techniques (pyrolysis, thermal depolymerisation, gasification), as well as carbon capture and utilisation (CCU), that remain key-elements of the ARC program.

At ARC 2025, attendees will gain valuable insights into the latest technological developments, regulatory frameworks, and market conditions shaping the future of advanced recycling and the circular economy. Putting partnership at centre, the event facilitates collaboration and informed decision-making across sectors and industries, proving that sometimes success is only a handshake away.

Responding to EU recycling targets and industry needs

The conference comes at a critical time when significant changes in recycling target across several legislations are taking place. For example, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation introduced quotas for 2030 of recycled post-consumer plastic ranging from 10 % to 35 % for different packaging plastics which should be increased by 2040. Moreover, the End-of-Life Vehicle Proposal includes a mandate for a minimum of 25 % recycled plastic in new vehicles, which, if approved, can considerably increase the demand of recycled post-consumer plastic. Meeting these targets demands the deployment and implementation of innovative recycling technologies and expansion of necessary infrastructure. The event will therefore also address regulatory impacts, market dynamics, and environmental considerations.

Full conference programme now available

Packed with international expertise, ARC 2025 features experts from a broad range of sectors and industries, e.g., BASF, Covestro, Evonik, Fluor, Green Dot, ISCC, LEGO, LyondellBasell, NFIA, Siemens, Sulzer, Trinseo, Vaude, but also research and academic institutions like Chalmers University of Technology, Fraunhofer IVV, Research Centre Jülich, Recycario Data Science – Institut for Economic Plastics Recycling and TU Bergakademie Freiberg (Institute of Energy Process Engineering and Chemical Engineering).

While putting a focus on plastics and polymers, the programme provides a comprehensive overview in different focus-sessions:

Advanced Recycling as a Pillar of Renewable Carbon and its Challenges
Thermochemical Recycling
Biochemical Recycling
Textile Sorting and Recycling
From Py-Oil Quality to Valuable Resources and the Chain of Custody in Advanced Recycling
Recycling Solutions for End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV)
Sustainable Polymers
Thermochemical Solutions for the Recovery of Valuable Resources and Energy
Physical Recycling via Dissolution.

The full conference program is available at https://advanced-recycling.eu/program/.

The Advanced Recycling Conference provides a unique platform for technology providers, waste management companies, brands, investors, policymakers, and scientists to exchange knowledge, build partnerships, and advance towards circular value chains.

ARC 2025 is supported by visionary sponsors, dedicated to advancing circular solutions. nova-Institute thanks Gold Sponsor Siemens and Bronze sponsors BUSS ChemTech, Erema Group and Starlinger.

The Advanced Recycling Conference is supported by industry and trade associations, non- profit organisations, research institutions and interest groups that are thematically linked to the conference: BCNP Consultants (DE), C.A.R.M.E.N. (DE), ChemCologne (DE), Chemical Recycling Europe (EU), Chemie-Cluster Bayern (DE), CLIB (DE), IBB Netzwerk (DE), ITA – International Centre for Sustainable Textiles (DE), kunststoffland.NRW (DE), Plastics Europe (DE), Renewable Carbon Initiative (International).

For detailed information and registration, visit https://advanced-recycling.eu/

nova-Institut GmbH has been working in the field of sustainability since the mid-1990s and focuses today primarily on the topic of renewable carbon cycles (recycling, bioeconomy and CO2utilisation/CCU).

As an independent research institute, nova supports in particular customers in chemical, plastics and materials industries with the transformation from fossil to renewable carbon from biomass, direct CO2utilisation and recycling.

Both in the accompanying research of international innovation projects and in individual, scientifically based management consulting, a multidisciplinary team of scientists at nova deals with the entire range of topics from renewable raw materials, technologies and markets, economics, political framework conditions, life cycle assessments and sustainability to communication, target groups and strategy development.

50 experts from various disciplines are working together on the defossilization of the industry and for a climate neutral future. More information at: nova-institute.eu – renewable-carbon.eu

Lower mortgage rates, steady income growth and a decline in property values have combined to improve housing affordability across New Zealand, easing the burden on households.

The Official Cash Rate is now at its lowest level in three years, having been reduced by 250 basis points since August 2024, while national property values remain almost 17% below their post-COVID peak despite more recent signs of stabilisation.

Cotality NZ’s latest Housing Affordability Report shows these factors have contributed to a national value-to-income ratio of 7.5 in Q2 2025, the lowest level since mid-2019. The time required to save a deposit has also reduced to 10 years, compared to almost 14 in 2021 and not far above the long-term average of 9.1.

While the metrics remain higher than their historical norms the differences aren’t huge, and Cotality NZ Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson said the most significant change has been in mortgage serviceability.

“Mortgage repayments now absorb around 44% of median household income, compared with a peak of 57% in 2022. That takes servicing costs back to their lowest level in more than four years and only marginally above their long-run average of 43%,” he said.

“Servicing costs at or near their long-term average suggest that affordability is no longer the handbrake it was during the downturn. That doesn’t mean housing is suddenly cheap, but it does mean buyers and existing borrowers are operating in conditions that are much more manageable than they were a few years ago.”

Regional differences

Affordability gains have been most visible in Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington, where mortgage repayments are now sitting slightly below their long-term norms, a notable turnaround from conditions only 18 months ago.

Tauranga remains the least affordable of the main centres in absolute terms, with house values sitting around 8.5 times household incomes.
Mr Davidson said while the figure remained relatively high, it was a significant improvement from the peak of nearly 12 in late 2021.
 
“Relative to its own history, Tauranga is now only a little more stretched than normal, and in fact looks more fairly priced than Hamilton, Christchurch and Dunedin, where affordability has not improved to the same extent,” he said.

Auckland’s conditions have also improved, with a value-to-income ratio of 7.9 the lowest level in a decade, while Wellington sits at 6.4, back in line with its long-run average for the first time since 2016.

“Wellington is not suddenly a cheap market, but it is more affordable than it has been for many years,” Mr Davidson said.

“The fact that key measures are now back at long-term norms in a number of key centres is a clear sign of how far conditions have adjusted, and helps to explain the renewed interest we are seeing from some buyer groups.”

By contrast, Hamilton, Christchurch and Dunedin have seen more limited improvements, as property values in those cities have been more resilient.

Rental affordability

Nationally, the rent-to-income ratio sits at 28%, compared to a long-term average of 26%.

Auckland and Wellington are broadly aligned with their historical levels, at 25% and 23% respectively.

Mr Davidson said while those figures suggested conditions in the two largest centres had normalised, the picture was more challenging elsewhere.

“In Hamilton, Christchurch and Dunedin, households are now spending close to 30% of their income on rent, which is a record high for each of those markets,” he said.

“That’s at least three percentage points above normal, and reflects the fact that incomes in those cities have not kept pace with the steady increases in rents.”

He added that rental conditions in Tauranga had not improved either, with the highest rent-to-income ratio of any of the main centres at 34%.
 
“Overall, although housing affordability has improved for buyers, renting remains challenging. It’s even more stretched for households that are having to pay typical rents but perhaps have below average incomes.”

Affordability outlook

Mr Davidson said the August rate cut and the possibility of further easing, could provide additional relief for borrowers and underpin housing activity in the months ahead.

“With mortgage servicing costs already back around long-term norms, affordability is unlikely to constrain the market to the same degree it did during the downturn,” he said.

“However, the wider backdrop remains important. The labour market is subdued, debt-to-income restrictions are in place, and housing supply is still elevated in many areas. These factors are likely to moderate the speed of any recovery, which is great for housing affordability”

Beyond the immediate cycle, Mr Davidson noted that structural factors remain critical to the country’s long-term affordability issues.

“New Zealand’s affordability challenges have been driven by a persistent imbalance between demand and supply,” he said.

“Sustained progress will depend on delivering more dwellings, more land and the infrastructure to support growth – both in terms of property available to buy and for renters. Recent policy moves are encouraging, but addressing supply will take sustained effort over many years.”