HRFF Auckland MC and Speakers List
Ahmed Zaoui - Refugee
Ahmed was elected to parliament in Algeria but the government was not allowed to assume power. He was imprisoned on suspicion as a security risk, for 2 years upon arrival as a refugee in NZ, 10 months of which were in solitary confinement. During this time he wrote 24 contemplations, one for each month of imprisonment. Following his release on bail these were published in the book "Migrant Birds: 24 Contemplations by Ahmed Zaoui". Ahmed also wrote an additional poem "He Will Come Back, the One I am Waiting For" which he will read during the film festival opening night. This was selected as the most important poem of 2004 for the collection of Best New Zealand Poems, which is published annually by the International Institute of Modern Letters.
Andrew Lumsden – Documentary maker and satirist
Andrew is most commonly recognised as the comedian known as Te Radar, and has been combining comedy with documentary making for several years. Recipient of the Billy T Awards in 1998, he has written and starred in satirical shows for radio, theatre and television. His documentaries War Tourist; Christmas in Bethlehem,Dispatches from the Holy Lands, and The Battle for Pahrump - a look at one town’s struggle to help decide the next President of the USA - have featured on TV and radio. Te Radar was the director and writer of The Journey, winner of the 48 Hour Film Festival’s ‘Best Film’ (2004), and last year was awarded the Qantas Media Award for ‘Best Humour Column’ for his New Zealand Herald columns.
Anna Sussmilch – Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
Anna is the communications and appeals co-ordinator for Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand and has been in the role for the past three years. She feels that by bringing human rights into the public domain where people can debate and talk about the issues, greater awareness and understanding is achieved. Caritas, the Catholic agency for justice, peace and development is involved in justice and human rights issues both within NZ and an international context. Caritas is sponsoring the film Lost Children which looks at the rehabilitation of child soldiers in Northern Uganda.
Annie Goldson - University of Auckland
Annie is a producer/director of films that engage with issues of social justice. Her films have been seen widely internationally through festivals, cinema releases and TV. She teaches at the Dept of Film, Television and Media Studies at the University of Auckland, and is currently completing a new book on human rights and documentary for Temple University Press (USA).Recent documentaries include Punitive Damage (1999), Georgie Girl (2002) and Sheilas: 28 years on (2004) and she is currently completing Pacific Solution (2005). She is a member of the Directors Guild, WIFT and Screen Producers Association.
Antony Vallyon - United Nations Association of New Zealand
Antony is currently working for North Shore City Council helping manage water services as well as holding voluntary leadership roles in a number of NGO’s including UNANZ. He has previously worked for the United Nations in New York, NZ national and local government and in the private sector where he has gained an understanding of human rights and geo-politics, global governance and globalisation.
Barry Coates – Oxfam
Barry is the executive director of Oxfam New Zealand. He is also the Chair of the Aotearoa/New Zealand Make Poverty History Coalition linking NZ activities to the Global Call to Action againstPoverty and Live 8 campaigns and concerts; the Vice-Chair of the Council for International Development, an umbrella grouping of Development and Humanitarian Relief NGO’s; and formerly was based in London with the World Development Movement. He has extensive experience following and being in trade discussions at WTO level, including recent Doha Round in Hong Kong, and in the real world impacts of trade.
Barry Wilson - 1ZB
Barry is a barrister, a Newstalk ZB radio host, a leading advocate for the civil liberties and human rights of New Zealanders, and keeps in touch with liberties and rights in countries including Singapore. He is also involved with the International Law Association and is on the advisory committee of the Human Rights Commission led New Zealand Action Plan for Human Rights.
Bernard Moran - Voice For Life
Bernard is a freelance journalist and editor of the bi-monthly Pro-Life Times (circulation 10,500). He is currently the president of the Auckland branch of Voice for Life (formerly known as the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child). Voice for Life’s main focus is on education about issues related to abortion, assisted suicide and euthanasia, and more recently stem cell research.
Brent Mio – Maori Television
Brent is a Maori TV and Radio personality. From Te Teko but now residing in Tamaki Makaurau Brent is a seasoned music host. He has been fronting Mâori Television's urban live music series COAST for two seasons and holds court on Mai FM's morning breakfast show. Brent has his finger on the pulse when it comes to all things musical.
Cameron Bennett - TVNZ
Cameron is the Foreign Correspondent and Sunday correspondent presenter for TVNZ, and has reported on war stories from Bosnia to Baghdad. He has been a scriptwriter and a foreign correspondent personally covering human rights and international relations stories from inside a number of countries including Burma/Myanmar. He has also co-authored a book called Foreign Correspondents.
Darien Fenton - Labour Government MP, Trade Unionist
Darien was the Secretary of the 25,000 strong Service & Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota; a union representing low paid workers in the cleaning, hospitality, food manufacturing and caregiving industries. She was Vice President of the NZ Council of Trade Unions (1999-2003), actively involved in the Women's Council of the CTU, and represented NZ workers at the UN's International Labour Organisation, and part of the National Advisory Council for the development of a National Plan of Action for Human Rights in New Zealand. She chairs the Economic Transformation Committee of the Labour Caucus and serves on the Parliamentary Health Select Committee, as well as the Transport & Industrial Relations Committee.
Dr David Robie – Auckland University of Technology
David is a journalist, author and an associate professor in communication studies at Auckland University of Technology. He is editor of Pacific Journalism Review and convenor of the media freedom monitoring group Pacific Media Watch. As an international journalist, he worked in Africa for some years, covering conflicts, and was also an editor with Agence France Presse news agency in Paris.
Deborah Manning - Barrister
Deborah is a barrister specialising in refugee and immigration law. She represents asylum seekers at all levels in the determination system. She is currently counsel with Dr Rodney Harrison QC for the Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui representing him in the review of the first national security risk certificate issued in New Zealand. She is a member of the Auckland District Law Society Refugee and Immigration Committee, and was its convenor from 2001 - 2004. She is an Executive Member of the Human Rights Foundation.
Diane Winder - Odesee International
Diane Winder is an international consultant, entrepreneur and Harvard University microbiologist based in Auckland. Diane was born and educated in the United States. Her consulting firm served U.S. Fortune 100 organisations. Her work focuses on organisational change, transformational leadership and meta-learning. She communicates about social change and human rights through her work with boys "at promise" as cofounder of The B-Cool Programme for Boys in Auckland schools. Diane is currently secretary of the United Nations Association of New Zealand (UNANZ) Rodney Branch, and a Life Member of the Sierra Club Foundation.
Dr Eleanor Rimoldi - Massey University
Eleanor is a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at Massey University's Albany Campus. She carried out extensive fieldwork on Buka, Bougainville during the mid to late 1970s, worked with an Auckland-based Bougainville support group during the Crisis, and returned to teach university extension courses on Buka in 2000. Her research has focused on
women, ritual, social movements, and power.
Jennifer Kerr - University of Auckland
Jennifer is an accounting lecturer. She is active in public speaking, having won awards in Toastmasters for evaluations, and is involved in leadership development and the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants Sustainability Special Interest Group.
John Minto – Unite Union
John was a central leader of HART (Halt all Racist Tours) that co-ordinated the protests at Bastion point. For many years he has been a school teacher and a leader of the campaign for quality education, and a leader of Global Peace and Justice Auckland (GPJA) the main New Zealand body that organised protests against the invasion of Iraq.
Jon Carapiet - GE Free NZ
Jon is a writer, researcher and artist based in Auckland. He is a consumer-advocate and campaigner who has worked across a range of human rights issues. He is national spokeperson for GE Free NZ (in food and environment) and is actively involved in the ongoing BanTerminator.org campaign.
Jon Stephenson - Foreign correspondent
Jon is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has reported on conflicts from Afghanistan to Israel. A former staff writer for The Independent, he has worked as a freelance journalist, and was the only New Zealand journalist to report from Iraq during the 2003 US-led invasion. Jon's articles have been published in The Sunday Star-Times and in Metro magazine, and he is a regular commentator for Radio New Zealand. Jon has worked in Iraq and Gaza as a producer for TV3's Mike McRoberts. He actively lobbies for improved coverage of foreign affairs, and frequently speaks to journalism students about foreign affairs reporting and reporting conflict.
Julie Watson - Human Rights Commission
Julie is an educator at the Human Rights Commission. She has a passion for looking at ways the arts can facilitate dialogue around human rights issues - to appreciate our commonalities and to delight in our differences.
Kathryn Beckett - Oxfam
Kathryn has a BA Honours Degree in Anthropology and Cinema Studies, and a Masters Degree in International Development. She has been working in the international development industry for 6 years and before her role at Oxfam worked in Australia for a commercial contractor working to influence development practice. Her current role at Oxfam New Zealand is managing institutional relationships including those with corporates, schools, universities and public sector organisations.
Kirsty Wright - Oxfam
Kirsty studied Media, Culture and Community Studies in Brighton, England. She has travelled extensively in the Middle East and Central America where she worked on various projects with a wide range of people affected by poverty and injustice, including refugees, coffee farmers and women’s rights groups. Kirsty currently works as the Campaign Co-ordinator for Oxfam New Zealand where she is involved with the Make Poverty History and Make Trade Fair campaigns.
Lawrence Carter - Engineers for Social Responsibility
Lawrence is Chair of the Auckland Branch of Engineers for Social Responsibility (ESR), and a former National President of ESR. He is a member of the Auckland committee of Abolition 2000. He is a chartered electrical engineer, and an academic staff member at the University of Auckland, where he leads a group carrying out research on landmine and tripwire detection.
Louisa Wall - Human Rights Commission
Louisa (Ngati Tuwharetoa, Waikato) is currently a Policy Analyst/Advisor at Te Kahui Tika Tangata/The Human Rights Commission. Louisa is a member of the Northern 'X' Ethics Committee, Te Rapunga o Poutama Work and Educational Trust, Te Roopu Manawa Mai within ACC, Te Roopu Manaaki within Sport and Recreation NZ, Tamaki Pathways Trust and has been a member of Te Tohu Takaaro o Aotearoa/The Maori Sports Awards Trust, since April 2003. Louisa is a former NZ Netball and Rugby rep and has a degree in Social Policy and Social Work and an MPhil (Social Policy) from Massey University.
Mahinarangi Tocker
Mahinarangi is performing at the opening night of the film festival. Apart from Mahinarangi's critically acclaimed music around NZ, she continues to give music for creativitiy, learning and self esteem workshops through out the country, and is a trained workshop facilitator in Korowai Whaiora workshops about human rights issues for and by those who have experienced mental illness. She continues to give community concerts and benefit concerts when she is able to.
Maire Leadbeater - Indonesia Human Rights Committee
Maire is an active member of human rights NGO’s and is a spokesperson for the Indonesia Human Rights Committee. She has a deep knowledge of historical and human rights issues relating to Indonesia, including Aceh and West Papua. She was spokesperson for the East Timor Independence Committee, until that group disbanded following the changes in East Timor. Maire has a book in preparation on the subject of New Zealand's complicity in the Indonesian takeover of East Timor.
Marion Hancock - The Peace Foundation
Marion has been involved in peace education and campaigning since 1980. She is currently Director of The Peace Foundation, and its activities include conflict resolution training in schools through the cool Schools Peer Mediation Programme, the Media Peace Awards and international disarmament media work. Against a background of increasing global violence, she is passionately concerned for children, that they are able to learn to live peacefully together and realise their full potential.
Marama Davidson - Human Rights Commission
Marama (Ngapuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngati Porou) is an educator with the Human Rights Commission, and has a role in promoting the realisation of human rights in Aotearoa. She has a particular focus on working with children and young people, to encourage an often marginalised youth voice. Marama is a board member on the Human Rights Network Trust and also provided a Human Rights Commission liaison link to the Auckland Film Festival organising committee.
Margaret Taylor - Amnesty International
Margaret has a professional and personal interest in human rights. She is the Activism Support Manager and is based in the Auckland office of Amnesty helping promote human rights locally and globally.
Marilyn Waring - Nobel Peace Prize nominee
Marilyn is a professor at Auckland University of Technology, formerly of Massey University. She is a current Board member of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and a former National Party Member of Parliament. She recently conducted a ministerial inquiry into the New Zealand Agency for International Development. She is the author of the book Counting For Nothing, and remains a leading authority on Genuine Progress Indicators and other measures of wellbeing, as well economic development, systems of national governmental accounting, GDP and economic practices.
Dr Meriel Watts - Pesticide Action Network Aotearoa New Zealand
Meriel is co-ordinator for Pesticide Action Network Aotearoa New Zealand, and a member of the Steering Council of Pesticide Action Network Asia and Pacific. She has been working as a community advocate on pesticide issues for 16 years, and most recently, as a member of the steering committee of the Peoples Inquiry into Aerial Spraying in West Auckland. This committee made important links with people in India and Philippines struggling to address human rights abuses via aerial spraying, and highlighted links to this inquiry in New Zealand.
Michael Field - URS Ltd
Michael is a Sustainability Consultant from URS NZ, specialising in the areas of green buildings, sustainable business and sustainable industry (manufacturing). He moved from England via Australia last year, where he worked for Interface Inc, the world’s largest textile company and one of the world leaders in sustainable business practices, as their National Sustainability Manager.
Michael Shroff – United Nations Association of New Zealand
Michael is a public administrator and translator, and is an active toastmaster. He has worked for the United Nations in Chile for several years as a translator covering Latin American issues, and has obtained an appreciation of South American culture and history.
Mike McRoberts - Foreign Correspondent and presenter
Mike presents 3News and 60 minutes for TV3. In a journalism career spanning more than twenty years he's best known for his coverage of conflict like Afghanistan, Iraq, Fiji and the Solomon Islands. Last year he reported on the historic elections in Iraq and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. He also covered the earthquake in Pakistan and two months ago was at the Philippines landslide. He is familiar with film and how the medium can tell a story about human rights.
Prof Nigel Haworth - University of Auckland
Nigel is Professor of Human Resource Development at the University of Auckland. His major research focus since the mid 1970s has been on the impact of globalisation on the international labour movement. He has also undertaken research into the Chinese labour movement in the broader context of regional economic integration. Under the auspices of APEC, he has worked with the Chinese Government on capacity building projects associated with the labour markets and management training. He is an active trade unionist and is currently National President of the Association of University Staff.
Patsy Henderson-Watt - Social worker and Nobel Peace Prize nominee
Patsy has worked for 30 years as a social worker/ therapist in the area of violence and abuse. The voices of these children and adults have led her to realise the critical importance of not only facilitating individuals to heal, but also to empower families, communities and the care and protection and Justice systems to identify, face and address underlying issues or patterns that sustain or perpetuate the violence. Patsy is one of the 1000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize featured in 1000 women and a dream.
Prof Paul Buchanan – University of Auckland
Paul is a professor of, and commentator on, international relations and Latin American studies. In the 1980’s Paul worked as a consultant for Amnesty on issues of state terror and human rights abuses in the Southern Cone of Latin America before training US military in the belief that he could re-orient US security policy and practices from the inside. His experience consulting to the CIA, the US and NZ military and Argentina’s Foreign Ministry among many projects, give him a unique perspective on geo-strategic interests and human rights impacts.
Pauline Tangiora – Indigenous rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee
Pauline is a Maori elder from the Rongomaiwahine Tribe and affiliated to other tribes, former President of WILPF Aotearoa, and currently one of the Vice-Presidents. She is an Earth Charter commissioner and member of the Earth Council, a life member of the Maori Women's Welfare League, a committee member of Rigoberta Menchu Tum Nobel Laurette Indigenous Initiative for Peace, and Maori consultant and kuia for the Eastern Institute of Technology. Pauline works as an ‘outreach workers' for the Peace Foundation and was a Consultant to the International Steering Committee of the World Court Project.
Peter Stratford – United Nations Association of New Zealand
Peter is a software developer currently working in the private sector. He has co-ordinated the annual UNANZ High School Speech Awards for the last two years this year and is an experienced toastmaster.
Sapna Samant – Organiser Asia Film Festival Aotearoa
Sapna came to Aotearoa in December 2001. Before that she practiced medicine as a GP in Bombay, India. Here she practices freelance writing and production of documentaries for National Radio. Sapna is a keen advocate of breaking stereotypes through higher representation of and increased participation by Asian immigrants in the mainstream media. She also helps with promotes health related issues to the communities.
Steve Abel – Musician
Steve is performing at the opening night of the film festival. "The background footage to his segment it was filmed by Te Radar in December 2004, for his film "Christmas in Bethlehem, a naivety story", a version of which appeared on TV2 late last year, and the audio of which was used for the footage for his National Radio series "Dispatches from the Holy land". He has been active in human rights and environmental fields.
Tarek Cherkaoui – Middle Eastern Affairs Expert
Tarek is a communicator and has an academic background in international affairs. He is an expert in the international relations and politics of the Middle East and North Africa with a particular specialty on propaganda studies.
Terry Creighton - Prometheus Finances Ltd
Terry has worked as an economist at both the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the Bank of England, is currently a Director of New Zealand's largest environmentally and socially responsible finance organisation Prometheus Finance Ltd, and has stood as a Green Party candidate at the last three general elections. He sees the ‘Socially Responsible Investment’ sector as a strong force for positive change in corporate engagement with society and the environment.
Tony Jurgeleit - Company Director
Tony is currently a director of a company that designs and imports clothing from both the China and India. He has travelled extensively within China, visiting many factories in small towns and cities often many hours by road or train from the main business centres. In the late eighties their company also manufactured in Fiji and Tony lived in there with his family in 1980 and 1981. Tony has been active in supporting a work in Bali that develops and supports micro-enterprise amongst very poor villages.
Walescka Pino-Ojeda – University of Auckland
Walescka is a senior lecturer in Spanish and in Latin American Studies. She lectures and has published on Latin American music and film. She was also a very active participant in the cultural movement in Chile during the 1980s prior to the end of the dictatorial regime of Augusto Pinochet.
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