Creative Welly Episode #36 | Laurinda Thomas & Guy Marriage

Courageous conversations with bold humans (from the most creative little capital in the world).

Laurinda Thomas, Advocate for libraries, digital equity, and public spaces.

Curious librarian, local government person, optimist. I like kicking the tyres on stuff. I was once called the consummate public servant and I’m still not quite sure how to take that comment.

My career keeps on coming back to libraries. They’re so amazing! Who would dream up a library these days? I love their potential, the people they can help. They are such satisfying places to make things happen.

I like to make things happen. Finding the best opportunities out of a crisis. Getting in the thin end of the wedge. Figuring stuff out. My career has been about turning problems into good stuff: in libraries, IT, archives, information management.

In the weekends I watch the kids swim and the broccoli grow. Sometimes it rains, and we watch Disney movies.

Guy Marriage, Architect

Guy Marriage is an Architect. Teaching construction at Victoria University in Wellington, and practising architecture at First Light Studio, he is an architecturaholic and a bookaholic too. He not only reads lots of books, but writes them as well – Tall, Medium, MAD. And get this: he raves about buildings, and space, and knows a thing or two about libraries as well.

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Creative Welly Episode #26 | Glenis Hiria Philip-Barbara & Sam Trubridge

Courageous conversations with bold humans (from the most creative little capital in the world).

Glenis Hiria Philip-Barbara, Assistant Māori Commissioner for Children, Ngāti Porou/Ngāti Uepōhatu

Glenis has committed a lifetime to the restoration and recovery of matauranga Māori (Māori knowledge systems) as a direct response to the impact of colonisation on her whānau, hapū, iwi and the wider community. 

Her thirty year career serving the public sector, iwi and community has been primarily focused on bringing Te Tiriti o Waitangi to life in practical ways in order to address chronic disparities between Pakeha New Zealanders and Māori peoples across all measures of well-being. 

Glenis has been on a mission of late to figure out how to help end racism in Aotearoa and help create the conditions for peaceful co-existence for our collective mokopuna.

Sam Trubridge, Director, Designer, and Performance Artist

Sam Trubridge is founding director of The Performance Arcade: a festival of performance art on Wellington Waterfront that is attended by 60-90,000 people each year since 2011.

His exciting career has involved making performance art underwater in The Bahamas and Croatia; running a festival of NZ theatre in New York; collaborating with sleep scientists; staging productions in swimming pools, carparks and paddocks; and presenting work in London, Prague, Rome, Florence, Kyoto, Rio, Melbourne, and Sydney.

He is currently senior design tutor at Toi Whakaari O Aotearoa: NZ Drama School.

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