Cracker: History Repeating
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In contrast to the Whitlam government's radical liberalising of Australian abortion law, Kirk's conservatism on this issue, along with his diehard opposition to homosexual law reform, ensured that nothing changed in NZ. Let's not forget that Ruth Kirk was patron of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC)
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Was she indeed? Were the Kirks Catholics?
I was a mere adolescent at the time, thought their policies a breath of fresh. Visited one of the ohu later on, the one in Coromandel.
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OMG this takes me back to a time before YouTube, when "I Like That One 2" was a vital resource... to re-watch any snippet of a program, you had to write a letter to Jay Laga'aia. Lots of Billy T clips.
For some reason the title "frontline" keeps popping into my head, but it just sounds wrong?
Frontline was an Australian mockumentary about a current affairs program, but I also remember an actual current affairs show of the same name around the same time, and thinking "sucks for them". Strangely I also have that association with Ian Fraser.
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when "I Like That One 2" was a vital resource
I have told my American husband about this show. He was clearly incredulous but tried valiantly to look calm and accepting. Heh.
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Sparkles!!!
The only thing worse than their ads was the product itself.
Made Air NZ lollies taste like a delicacy.
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Were the Kirks Catholics?
Don't know. The contrast of 'Driver' Kirk's proletarian radicalism with the patrician Whitlam version is interesting. Whitlam's faction took on and defeated entrenched socially conservative factions within the federal ALP in the late 60s. Similar shakeouts didn't occur in NZ until the early 80s, after Lange replaced Rowling.
While Whitlam's social reforms were radical by NZ 3rd Labour Government standards, Kirk sent a frigate into the French nuclear test zone, while Whitlam took the lower profile option of providing an Australian navy refuelling ship in support of the NZ action.
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Were the Kirks Catholics?
Norm was of a Salvation Army family, then (dnzb) -
In time his adherence to the Salvation Army faltered; no other religion replaced it, although Kirk respected several, particularly Catholicism, mainly because of contact with colleagues and bishops whom he met and liked.
Ruth Kirk - not sure, but they married in an Anglican church so doubt it.
Not that broad-minded in the social sense, a curate's egg it might once have been said.
Three months after the election and contrary to prior commitments he cancelled the 1973 Springbok tour to NZ. His tone of confident, honest sincerity in accounting for his change of mind - police advice that it would be hard to control the strife and he decided the damage to society would not be worth whatever principles were involved - was most impressive and memorable. What a contrast to Muldoon and 1981.
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(Cath)Ode to a Night in (re)gale...
TV highlights from the flickering eras...
I'm sure the fresh young minds of tomorrow
would enjoy some of those old Country Calendar pranks - such as the "wire fence ensemble" and the "sheep with short front legs for hill grazing"
- well they amused me...
but it can be a fine line between
nostalgia and neuralgia...yrs regunned
Argy Bee
Photons and Phosphor... -
What a contrast to Muldoon and 1981.
It was. After Kiwi Keith he was very refreshing and quite gutsy i reckon.
I think it might be expecting too much to have got abortion/homosexual law reform in 1974. The Pill hadn't been available for long, that was rather disruptive to kiwi society as I recall. i do think his notion of giving people "a chance to develop alternative social models to everyday New Zealand society" in the form of communes on Crown land quite remarkable.
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Most of today's news offerings wouldn't be worth keeping, surely?
Let's not turn it into one of those threads eh Steve?
Honestly, most of the news back then was even worse. "In Parliament today...[insert still picture of Parliament]..." and large chunks of a newsreader just talking to the camera without any pics at all. Regardless of how it's used and abused, there's a lot more colour and pictures in the news right now. Those big events we remember (stay tuned for next week's Springbok special) were definitely the exception.
Funnily enough, "I Like That One 2" was my planned name for a request segment I wanted to include (and still might) in the longer TV version of This Week in TV History. Oh how the Christie Family of Waiouru enjoyed seeing their name scroll across the screen when we requested the Orangutan hiding an orange in its mouth from 'Silver Spoons'. Although I think in the early 80s it was Roger Gasgoine (sp?) who hosted it? Or was it a Leishman?
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Although I think in the early 80s it was Roger Gasgoine (sp?) who hosted it? Or was it a Leishman?
Oooohh, possibly; I remember Jay Laga'aia much later on, but couldn't for the life of me remember who preceded him. Even now both of the aforesaid sound like good candidates (Phillip Leishman in particular), but I still can't picture 'em.
Dammit, I hate it that my childhood predates the internet by so many years that noone's thought to write it up yet.
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i do think his notion of giving people "a chance to develop alternative social models to everyday New Zealand society" in the form of communes on Crown land quite remarkable.
From the vantage of now, when the neo-liberal consensus is impossible to escape, yes.
Maybe in the 70s, when Labour prime winisters were working class and socialism was still a concept people could straightforwardly support, it wasn't.
I don't know, I was four when Norman Kirk died and I still remember listening to the radio and wondering what it was that he was late for. But I do wonder if we aren't all a lot more jaded about the possibilities for radical in society than people were in 1972.
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EDIT BUTTON PLEASE.
possibilities for radical change in society
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But I do wonder if we aren't all a lot more jaded about the possibilities for radical in society than people were in 1972.
You wonder? As I was discussing with a very learned friend over coffee no longer than 40 hours ago, even the idea of full employment now is considered outlandish.
Wait, it was you.
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communes on Crown land
At least one of those Ohu was on dodgily confiscated Maori land, I discovered recently. Kind of a bummer.
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. . . in the 70s, when Labour prime winisters were working class . . .
Weren't there only two, and wasn't Bill Rowling a schoolteacher?
Kirk used the term kibbutz more than once when describing the ohu scheme. That seemed to give it a certain respectability. Overall I don't think it was a roaring success. Perhaps Muldoon's later PEP schemes were more generously socialistic. Most participants received award wages, it certainly wasn't a work for the dole scam.
Colin Scrimgeour once described Muldoon as NZ's last socialist PM, but his brand of socialism was extremely selective in terms of how the largesse was redistributed.
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Sorry Joe, that was meant more in the way of "and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were REAL small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri" and not so much as a statement of fact about the class origins of New Zealand premiers.
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"and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were REAL small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri"
In the good old days, when snow was snow
Snowmen lasted years you know
And didn't stand, they ran about
But that, of course, was years ago
In the good old days when snow was snow -
3410,
Although I think in the early 80s it was Roger Gasgoine (sp?) who hosted it? Or was it a Leishman?
Lloyd Scott?
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"and large chunks of a newsreader just talking to the camera without any pics at all"...
You say that like it's a bad thing? The counter-point is that these days**... it doesnt matter how earth-shattering the event, if there's no pictures then it's not news.
** admittedly, "no pictures" is now extremely rare due to the proliferation of cheap video gear and even camera equipped mobile phones... this "no pictures so it didnt happen" was more a '90s problem than current. -
Conversely, if there ARE pictures (air show crashes, no matter how minor, or how far away) then it IS news. Which in some ways is even more depressing.
And if my (increasingly holey, increasingly faulty) memory serves me rightly, it was the Gasgoine that hosted before Laga'ia, not one of the Leishmans.
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Apparently a Country Calender from April, 1998 detailed the AhuAhu Ohu on the Whanganui river. I can't imagine any PM since being so broad-minded.
oohooh! When I first came to NZ as a traveller I decided to go WWOOFing for a bit with my friend - and the first place we went to was AhuAhu Ohu. Drive for miles up the River Road out of Wanganui, park the car at the side of the road, jump in the row-boat that's tied up under the trees, row across the river, walk 4km along a bush track while being serenaded by willow warblers and fantails, and you arrive at the Ohu. No road access at all. Seriously isolated. 5 or 6 families with a bunch of kids between them and no-one else for miles and miles and miles.
We went for a week and stayed for a month and it was there that I began to fall in love with Aotearoa:
Hilltop behind hilltop
A mile of green pungas
In the grey afternoon
Bow their heads to the slanting spears of rainI remember the Country Calendar piece - quite a few of the people I'd lived with at the Ohu in 1992 were interviewed - I'd love to see that again!
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webweaver, you must have met Misty? I never got up to AhuAhu, but I met Misty in Wanganui when we both belonged to a wimmin's group about 1991ish. Fabulous woman, she used to tell us tales of the commune and all the hard work to keep it going. I did almost buy some land up the Whanganui River years ago, sounds v. similar as in the row across the river or flying fox access, but you didn't have to tramp further. An old hippie place, with avocadoes and tamarillo orchard. It was much harder to borrow money to buy land, then.
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remember Jay Laga'aia much later on
I think Jay Laga'aia hosted a later (early '90s?) clip request show called "Your Choice". What I remember the most is him singing (in a soulful falsetto) "Your choice, your choice - on channel 2!"
And my favourite memory of "I Like That One 2" were the petitions and giant envelopes* requesting that specific music videos be played. It usually seemed to be some Duran Duran clip. And it's a reminder of how few music vids were screened on NZ television back then - just RTR and RWP = 90 mins a week?
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Kerry - I did indeed spend quite a bit of time with the very wonderful Misty! She did my tarot cards for me at one point, I seem to remember.
The family had the best set of hippie names ever - except for the youngest who only got half a hippie name (their shared surname) - I guess maybe they ran out of inspiration by the time she was born. I'd love to share their names with y'all but it's probably not good netiquette to fully identify a family on a public board when they're not involved in the conversation - so I'll leave it at that :)
All the kids at the Ohu were an absolute joy - true free spirits and really sociable and loving. They had so many international WWOOFing visitors over the years that they'd all become quite adept at making friends with new people - even though they lived such an isolated life in other respects.
It was a wonderful place with magical people and will always have a special hold on my heart.
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