Outstanding Minds Join Wānaka Festival Of Colour’s Aspiring Conversations

The Wānaka Festival of Colour presented by Milford Asset Management, returns from 29 March – 6 April, featuring the popular Aspiring Conversations programme running throughout the festival’s final weekend.. This year, a diverse range of more than twenty speakers, who have grappled with the big issues and made an impact on the world we live in, will delve into discussions that traverse politics, Te Tiriti, food foraging, media and personal stories.

Check out the full Wānaka Festival of Colour programme, including Aspiring Conversations, now at www.festivalofcolour.co.nz

Following the huge success of her first two novels, the festival will host the critically acclaimed author and bookseller, Ruth Shaw, with a world premiere. On 1 April she will launch her new memoir, Three Wee Bookshops at the End of the World. ‘Accidental botanist’ Peter Langlands, author of Foraging New Zealand, will run an explorative workshop on Wānaka’s lakefront on 30 March, before he also hosts a unique foraged lunch with acclaimed local chef James Stapley at his restaurant Kika on 31 March.

In two important conversations on the state of our nation, leading investigative journalist Rebecca Macfie and researcher, writer and speaker Max Rashbrooke explore the systems that create poverty and how we could redesign the country to eradicate it, in Poverty By Design. In Tearing Up The Treaty, Kassie Hartendorp (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa), director of ActionStation and leader in the vital campaign for Te Tiriti justice, and distinguished professor Dame Anne Salmond kōrero on the Treaty’s vital role, what the new attacks on the Treaty are all about, and how people have responded.

On 4 April, distinguished archaeologist, author and scholar Atholl Anderson (Ngāi Tahu) joins the conversation, sharing a new edition of his groundbreaking book from 1998, The Welcome of Strangers: A History of Southern Māori. Following this, on 5 April, three distinguished academics Robert Patman, Dr Marco de John and Anna Powles explore our tiny Pacific nation’s role in the global political landscape with Aotearoa and the World.

Four storytellers take to the stage on 4 April, to respond to the provocation ‘History Repeats.’ From the funny, to the heartbreaking, to the strange-but-true True Stories Told Live features comedian, writer and clinical psychologist Nicola Brown, folk musician Adam McGrath of The Eastern, novelist and book reviewer Rachael King and actor, playwright and writer Julian Noel. Also catch King on 5 April sharing tales from her novel for all ages, The Grimmelings, in the unique setting of the Waterfall Equestrian Centre. The session will even include afternoon tea and a chance to pat the ponies.

On 6 April grab a paper and join three of Aotearoa’s top journalists Susie Ferguson, Lisette Reymer and Mike McRoberts (Ngāti Kahungunu) as they discuss stories from today’s breaking news in the ever-popular perennial, Breakfast with Papers. McRoberts also joins former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett and world squash champion and former Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy for a conversation on their career wins and losses and the lessons learned from their failures in Sometimes You WIn.

On the final day of the festival, the iconic Kiwi comic, country music, yodelling, lesbian duo The Topp Twins share their incredible story in their own words, with laugh-out-loud anecdotes and heart-warming tales.

The festival is pleased to once again have RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan chair several of this year’s sessions.

Once again the festival offers The Aspiring Pass, offering access to all Aspiring Conversations. Priced at $270+BF, the pass secures a seat at every session, excluding the Kika Foraged Lunch and Rachael King’s The Grimmelings. A limited number of passes are available.

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