Water loving activist Sam Mahon, who made a bust of Environment Minister Nick Smith out of dairy-cow dung and created a painting of prime minister John Key dead in an alley to protest against National Party Politics, invites you to the launch of his new book .This summer potentially toxic algae (benthic Cyanobacteria ) is appearing in our Canterbury rivers a sign that all is not well in our environment. Sam’s Mahon is writing about the water politics leading to our degraded and ravaged rivers.

Book launch at Rudolf Steiner auditorium: 19 Ombersley Tce, St Martins:
March 2nd 7-9 pm:. Contact: sammahonart@gmail.com Ph 027 220 1691

Sam Mahon’s new book, ‘Franzi and the great terrain robbery’ is a
description of fighting on a broad environmental battlefield, it is a
portrait gallery of those who continue to abstract, partition, and
deliver by stealth the commons into private hands. It is a protest
against the disinheritance of our children.
One of the leading chapters is based on an interview with professor
of law Philip Joseph and his opinion that the Ecan Act is an affront
to natural justice, constitutional law and the Bill of Rights. The
last chapter describes the building of a stone cairn in Cathedral
Square, a monument to our hobbled democracy and dying rivers. It was
built on a sleet-driven June afternoon by three thousand aggrieved
citizens. As Chris Todd quipped; “How can anyone take it away? It has
been crafted by nature, built by the people, explained by a dean and
blessed by a bishop. It is a true work of public art.”

The evening will begin with a brief synopsis of the book followed by
an audience-driven discussion on the topics of:
- art as a political tool
- The tragedy of the commons
- Law and pragmatism
- Economy and the environment

Chair/moderator Jo Kane

Please bring a question with you, and a biscuit in your pocket.

diary cows in Silversream Spring Creek photo Peter Langlands

The earthquake provides perfect cover to steal the water from the river as everyone is to concerned with the life dramas around them. Wrybills are endangered as the proposed flow regime will lead to more weeds and provide cover for stalking predators.
The Rakaia was the first river in New Zealand to be protected by a Water Conservation Order (WCO) in 1988 – Water Conservation Orders are the equivalent of national parks for rivers.
The Rakaia River is the greatest of the remaining untamed braided rivers. Starting in the Southern Alps it reaches the ocean south of Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora. It is one of the rivers that literally formed the Canterbury plains by moving rocks and stones down from the Southern Alps over millions of years.
The WCO protects minimum flows in the river and draws a line in the sand against irrigators and hydro companies.
And that’s why Trustpower (owned by Infratil) and the National Party Government are determined to break the WCO protecting the Rakaia River to extract water to irrigate up to 140,000 hectares of south Canterbury. There’s money in that river and they want it.
They plan to mine this national park.
As ordinary New Zealanders who like to swim, to hunt and fish and enjoy the outdoors we are confronted with with the giant dairy corporations with all their money, and with the Selwyn District Council and the government in their pocket.
They want to drain the Rakaia for more dairying. Forest and Bird’s Official Information Act requests revealed that as far back as September 2009 central government was meeting with Trustpower and had decided that they needed to change the WCO on the Rakaia if Trustpower’s irrigation scheme using Lake Coleridge for storage was to proceed. Here’s one abstract

Aide Memoire from Gerry Brownlee and David Carter to John Key, 4/9/09:

To accelerate the TrustPower Lake Coleridge proposal, application could be made to MfE to amend or revoke the existing Rakaia WCO.

Officials and Ministers were looking at how to change the WCO so they could get access to the water and lower the minimum flow. The Government was looking for a way forward when an opportunity presented itself in the form of the Canterbury mayors attacking ECAN. When the Government removed the elected councillors at ECAN, they simultaneously undermined WCOs in Canterbury with the same legislation. The earthquake has now provided perfect cover to steal the water from the river.

Flow minimums and flow variability are essential to the health of the river. Minimum flows mean that there is enough habitat for freshwater fish; medium flow events clean out the periphyton that grows on the shingle underwater; and big flows are essential for cleaning out the vegetation that grows on the islands between the braids. This vegetation can act as habitat for stoats and other predators of the birds on the river. If you eliminate the variability by controlling the flow, you eliminate the flora and fauna adapted to that variability.

Nearly three quarters of all the wrybills in the world live on the Rakaia – wrybills are the only bird to have a a right bending beak – to poke under the shingle for food. Black fronted terns are endangered but common on the river . On the 19 december the Key appointed commissioners are having a hearing initiated by Trustpower to vary the conservation order.

WAI WURRI’ says artist Jane Zusters, ‘Why Worry about Water?’
Where : Tivoli / art/books / Film
Central Oneroa , Waiheke Island
Opening 5 pm saturday December 3, 2011
Bunny Mcdiamid will open the exhibition and Sue Fitchett will read her poetry

Jane Zusters is a major, award-winning contemporary New Zealand artist known for for her dynamic imagery in many media from her early exhibitions in 1975 to the present. Jane, known to many on Waiheke, is based in Christchurch but also spends time at her studio-bach there.

This upcoming exhibit on Tivoli’s Art Wall sees Jane merging art and politics with a focus on her passionate involvement in water issues. Jane has made exhibits and films around the issues of pollution, conservation and corporatisation of water – some of these short films will be screened at Tivoli alongside the exhibit.

In 2010 she journeyed from the Murray River Mouth at Gulwa to the Hume Dam photographing her impressions of this ravaged wonderland as a cautionary tale for our New Zealand rivers.

In Canterbury the Government wants to fast-track irrigation schemes for more intensive farming.
One of the environmental battles being fought, is protecting the Lake Sumner water level from being raised by a dam on the South Branch of the Hurunui River.

In Australia settler culture has created a vision in which the water of the Murray is stored, regulated and allocated for human consumption and economic production. The relationships between people, insects, water, birds, fish, trees and the needs of the river have been discounted. This resulting over-allocation of water and resulting destruction of freshwater ecology is also happening here in New Zealand demanding a rethink of our water water management, law and policy.

Jane says ‘ ‘Wai Wurri’ is a themed exhibition on the subject of water with images of the Murray and Hurunui Rivers. In the 21st century water is shaping up to be one of the major issues facing our community. Water has been called the ‘New Gold’ ‘. Jane has participated in Artists for Save Our Water exhibitions, where artists use art to initiate dialogue around water issues. On Waiheke Island, she says, ‘we collect our own rainwater, so why do we need to worry about water? These images are an invitation to consider a resource we all take for granted. However without water there is no life.’

Liz Greenslade for Tivoli

Thanks to our forefathers, New Zealand’s rivers have always been owned by ALL New Zealanders.

Many of our greatest rivers are currently controlled by publicly-owned companies, directly impacting the surrounding wetlands, fish and bird environments.

All New Zealanders have contributed to the building of these companies and benefit from renewable energy and public profits.

Now there is a proposal to sell a large part of these companies to private buyers.

WHAT would this MEAN for our RIVERS?

Should New Zealand’s rivers and their waters continue to belong to all New Zealanders, as our forefathers wished?
Are the clean, fast flowing rivers that we inherited a legacy we wish to pass to our children and grandchildren?
In the long-run, is it not safer for the environment and more economic to retain full ownership?
Will investor profit be increasingly prioritized over the well-being of our rivers?
Will this accelerate the ever-increasing loss of so many of our bird and fish species?
Would we ever be able to buy them back if we changed our minds?
Is THIS what we want to DO?

Picnic with Brian Turner

Join us for BYO picnic to reflect on Brian’s thoughts and poems on our rivers

Thursday 24th Nov 12.30pm. Harbourside Gardens, cnr Itchen and Humber St,Oamaru . If wet, at Loan and Merc Building.

There is more information and download options at our website at http://riversnotforsale.wordpress.com

This is a general Appeal for our Rivers from a small core of veterans of 10 years of planning battles to protect the Lower Waitaki River from various new hydro development proposals.

We are deeply concerned that none of our leaders, or would-be leaders, are drawing attention to the link between asset sales of our major generation companies and the risk of associated loss of public control of our rivers with that transaction.

These publicly-owned energy companies have a very big influence on our hydro river catchments. On the Waitaki River, for example, among other things they have legal claim over waters, own big tracts of land, can have interests in irrigation supply networks, and can secure “requiring authority” to purchase land that they need for their schemes.

We don’t think that the the majority of NZers have made these crucial connections and therefore risk making under-informed decisions.

The list of questions below is intended to stimulate people’s thinking about this issue. If you agree that it’s important people think about these, we would be very grateful if you would forward this email generally to friends and lists. Even though we consider this a non-partisan initiative, there should be no dissemination after midnight on Friday 25 November.

Sorry this is all so late, but we did expect these aspects to have emerged as debate issues before now. Besides, if everyone sends it to several friends in the next 36hours then it will reach a massive number of people.

Environment Minister Nick Smith formerly immortalised by Sam Mahon – in a cow dung bust, now has a pistol aimed at him by a young girl in a music video called Blood on the Stones. Canterbury artist and campaigner Sam Mahon created the manure sculpture as a protest against water pollution in the region. At the time Mahon said the cow manure was the perfect medium for a sculpture of Smith, who he believed was doing too little to protect New Zealand’s waterways from dairy farm pollution.

We understand there is soon to be a release of the decision on the Mackenzie Country water applications and it is not going to be good for birds and fish and the public’s right to enjoy their rivers so this video by Sam is a timely trigger.

After all WE ARE THE ENVIRONMENT AND WE ARE THE ONES BEING CRAPPED ON.

Fracking is a commonly accepted term for hydro-fracturing, a process where water, sand and millions of gallons of toxic chemicals are injected into the earth at high pressure. The aim of hydro-fracturing is to fracture rock formations deep underground in the hopes of liberating natural gas that would be otherwise inaccessible, and to bring it to the surface.

With hydrofracking, a well can produce over a million gallons of waste water that is often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens like benzene and radioactive elements like radium. Other carcinogenic materials can be added to the waste water by the chemicals used in the hydrofracking itself.

Through the processes of fracking, our underground water supplies (artesian wells / aquifers) are being poisoned. This is occurring in every continent on earth for the purpose of extracting more fossil fuels. Large companies are moving in on peoples property (which governments are allowing) and drilling for natural gas via fracking, and this process is destroying local water supplies.

The pond of the Christchurch Model Yacht Club at Victoria Lake, Hagley Park is empty and they don’t know where the water went. Christchurch has been pumping its acquifers dry like there is no tomorrow for years .We act like our braided rivers have no connection with our aquifers and we can exploit them till kingdom come.The recent Canterbury earthquake not only disrupted lives and property, it also altered the movement of water across and under the Canterbury Plains. Groundwater levels spiked, springs started flowing, and the Hororata River changed its course.

We need to examine how the earthquake has affected the region’s rivers and aquifers and review possible potential over allocation of our water from ill conceived grandiose schemes like Central Plains Water. The truth is long-term we maybe can’t afford to play with our environment in this way.

Water supply for our future city needs is a key issue. The importance of securing water supply for Cantabrians in an economic and sustainable manner cannot be underestimated. We are the city that has potentially lost control of our water through recent decisions such as Central Plains water being allocated half the flow of the Waimakariri River to irrigate marginal farmland for yet more dairy conversions.

In Christchurch where water until recently – pure, potable water table has provided a plentiful resource, this has not been considered a high priority.
But times are changing: the value, and indeed the cost, of maintaining clean water can only rise as population pressures grow. Christchurch’s water supply systems were badly damaged during the 4 September, 22 February and 13 June earthquakes, the results of which have meant water restrictions are being imposed for the city for the first time since the drought of 1998.

“This is a citywide issue. If we don’t start conserving water now, with an aim to reduce the traditional summer-time outdoor water demand, total outdoor watering bans will have to be imposed for the city,” Mr Christison, council water and waste manager Water restrictions started on 8 October 2011 this year. We need to reduce the outdoor water consumption across the city this summer, as the damaged water infrastructure cannot support this level of demand over the summer months. The restrictions are necessary to ensure the Council can supply Christchurch residents with the indoor water they need as summer approaches. If residents do not comply with the restrictions from October, watering bans may have to be imposed for the city. Residents will be banned from outdoor watering on Mondays. Odd-numbered street addresses can water their gardens on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Residents with even-numbered street addresses can water their gardens on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.Sprinklers, garden irrigation systems and unattended hoses are not permitted at any time but car washing is permitted on allocated days.

Lets ask some real questions about what is happening to our water. Like our bodies and the blood that pumps through our veins you can’t extract water and preform by pass surgery with dams and diversions and fracking without threatening the health of the whole ecosystem.

These is a rise in earthquakes after oil companies use contemporary hydraulic fracturing methods (fracking) to extract oil, natural gas and coal seam gas and right now the National Government has been issuing permits for this kind of activity in Canterbury. The Spreydon-Heathcote Community Board is seeking an urgent briefing from the Ministry of Economic Development and Environment Canterbury regarding Exploration Permits 52614 and 38264. The Board wishes to hear:
(a) whether the granting of permit 52614 will allow hydraulic fracturing to take place in the Christchurch region.
(b) whether the above authorities will permit hydraulic fracturing to be used as an extraction method in the Christchurch region if Coal Seam Gas is found.
(c) whether the above authorities have considered, or will consider, the increase in seismic activity in the processing of 52614.
(d) what the results are from the exploration of the 38264 permit area and if deep sea drilling is likely to be required to extract petroleum there.
(e) whether MED will be extending 38264 beyond its expiration date on 7/11/2011.

We like to think we control nature but the aftermath of recent earthquakes in Christchurch has shown we don’t.

The earthquake has shown that we cannot take having a good public supply of water for granted. Water is our treasure and we need to plan for the future of our water.

It was great to see the above exhibition that so eloquently brought home to us what has been happening to our rivers.

AQUA VITAE: Claire Earlie Maxwell ( Shown Aigantigne Gallery 2 Jul 2011 – Wed 10 Aug 2011 and Forester Gallery 13 August – 25 September 2011)

Claire Earlie Maxwell says “Acqua Vitae presents South Island coastal rivers as women whose waters sustain a nation. Beside each work is a jug of water taken from the river represented. The viewer is invited to look at the image and then at the water from the river it represents. The unappetizing brew helps the artist to stir up the debate of river pollution and what needs to be done about it.

On one side of the argument are agribusiness and hydro-electric generation companies for whom the water is liquid gold. On the other side are naturalists, fishing communities and those who are passionate about our beautiful landscape and are keen to keep the rivers flowing strongly with little or no pollution. Both groups are having difficulties in coming to terms with each others’ viewpoint. There is no doubt, however, that without
some kind of intervention, our New Zealand rivers are in jeopardy.

My view is that the rivers belong to and are in the care of the nation. If awareness can be raised on the plight of our rivers, then it is up to us as New Zealanders to make the rules about how rivers are to be managed.

We must think like a river. Only then will we be able to look after ourselves and our rivers properly.
To this end, each river artwork in this exhibition is represented by a woman. The woman is the river.
Go speak to her and see how you can help her to survive.
Drink her water, if you dare!”

In 2010 Ramonda Te Maiharoa and Jane Zusters journeyed from the Murray river mouth at Goolwa to the Hume Dam photographing their impressions of this ravaged wonderland as a cautionary tale facing their Canterbury rivers, which the NZ government wants to fast track irrigation schemes for more intensive farming.

water protesters Christchurch 2010

the Murray River from the air

The Murray Matters

How to explain that what is so beautiful is not acceptable? Nobody listens to angry people. The Murray’s dying appearance presents this conundrum; if the representation is ugly nobody wants to look. If the representation shows it’s beauty the viewer sees it’s pretty and understands it as such.
These works are an original and beautiful solution to this problem. They are unsettling; something is wrong, but the images please and nobody’s angry. They are a visual plea to investigate what is going on.
These are composite images; all truthful in their selected components; [as are the media’s selection of examples to support editorial positions]. The final images here [unlike the media] are metaphorically truthful but physically impossible; their recombination conveying the Murray’s devastation poetically and with gentle irony but without the imposition of a political agenda. These images speak for the Murray and in their paradoxical reconstructions, the predicament of human habitation and its depredations.

As in de Chirico’s paintings these images are ‘real” to the eye but closer inspection shows the improbability of the representation; as in 8 where the lack of water makes a mockery of the ferry sign [you can walk across the river]; the gasping fish is huge [a real but concrete one; no fish swim here]; the bridge high overhead and the buildings of Tocumwal right up to the rivers side. Should the river flow the buildings will drown. Should the river not flow: it is dead; the bridge redundant. The conflicting requirements of human and environment made concrete.

These images meanings are layered. At first the scenic beauty absorbs until the realisation of the impossibility of its physical nature dawns, forcing a re-reading. Within this individual components work as a mnemonic to change the meaning of the whole as in the pivoting irrigation atop the drained river [3] and in notices such as “Give Way To Stock” where there is no stock, no water and disconsolate pelicans. Look too at “Haynes Butchery” shop astride the land emerging from the mouth of the Murray [1]. Such devices are not just poetic irony; they point to conflicting interests as in 5 where the lock holds water the river, the irrigators, the birds and the trees need.

Beware of taking what you see for granted here; some aspects are subtle and conveyed as much by the visual finish of the image as in the recombination of parts. Some aspects are softly “watercolour” offering a romantic tinge; some so much so the effect is “ghostly” as in the sky of approaching history [1] where, as the water recedes the trees will move in: in turn dying in the dry – or in the water itself [4]. Also note that in others the treatment is hard edge; a “supereality” close to the photorealism of 1970’s painters such as Ralf Goings and Richard Estes in which the painters made mundane urban scenes beautiful with their precise, detailed “cleaned up” idealisations. Ramonda Te Maiharoa uses this finish to reveal how the landscape is itself “idealised” – in 7 which is bled of water through dams to feed a manmade “water world” for tourists and suburban development: an environment whose leached foreground [and accusatory expressions of the dogs] demonstrate.
Look, appreciate and consider the implications.

Venetia Sieveking