Royal Society of New Zealand 2012 Research Honours Dinner

Cross Posted from my usual home-base.

The annual awards evening celebrating top NewZealand researchers was held at Auckland Museum on Wednesday.

Huge congratulations to Distinguished Professor Margaret Brimble, CNZM FRSNZ, School of Chemical Sciences, The University of Auckland, who last night became the second woman to win the Royal Society of New Zealand's Rutherford Medal.

She was quoted by Fairfax at stuff.co.nz

“I am personally very pleased that New Zealand has now recognised me, not for being a woman in science, but for my science.”

The Rutherford Medal was awarded to chemist Professor Brimble, for her world-leading contributions to the synthesis of bioactive natural products. Part of her work in chemical sciences has been research benefitting those who have experienced brain injury by modifying a naturally occurring peptide found in the brain after an injury, which helps to prevent secondary cell death.

If you are interested in reading more about her research, please go to the university website for more information.

Other women who won during the presentation of thirteen awards on Wednesday night were:

The Dame Joan Metge Medal for excellence and building relationships in the social science research community.

Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development, University of Waikato, for inspiring, mentoring and developing Māori researchers.

Professor Janet Holmes FRSNZ, Chair in Linguistics, Victoria University of Wellington, for her outstanding contribution to linguistics.

Congratulations to all the winners on Wednesday night, you are inspirations.

I am going to try and focus more on the amazing work of New Zealand women, who, unless they are in film and television tend to slip through the cracks of NZ media, making small headlines no matter how outstanding their work is. Those who are already in their field appreciate them for the work they do, lives they change, and ideas they bring forward.

I will be recognising them here with the original drive due to the fact this is a feminist space, but in the hope that the circle of people who appreciate the work being done will widen. Please don’t hesitate to link to further information on the work these women are doing, or information about their achievements.

Saying no to the All Blacks

Another rugby tour, another allegation of sexual assault by a rugby player, this time Junior All Black Nathan Harris, accused of raping a woman in a South African hotel after losing a big rugby match.

It's worth paying attention to how this case is reported - whatever the outcome - because it's instructive of how "mainstream" New Zealand deals with sexual violence.

Firstly, there was point blank denial:

The New Zealand Rugby Union has spoken with 3 News and completely denies their players were involved. 

The same day, the story changed somewhat, with NZ Rugby Union general manager acknowledging that there had been some kind of discussion with Police before the Baby All Blacks left South Africa and that the NZRU will co-operate fully:

“Neither team management, nor NZRU have been contacted by the local authorities since then or advised of any further issues or inquiries. If we are contacted we will cooperate and help in any way we can.  The team has just returned from South Africa, and we will discuss the matter further with team management in due course.   Our understanding of the matter is that the allegation is focused on one player.” 

It's at this point we also find out that the woman concerned had come to the hotel to meet player/s, and that she may have been drunk.  Neither of these things mean, of course, that she could not be raped - because rape is simply about non-consensual intercourse - but nonetheless, we know these things now.

The next day, we hear more from the NZRU.  It turns out one of their players was actually asked for a DNA sample before leaving South Africa.  We also find out the woman concerned cannot remember what happened, and cannot identify the alleged rapist.  If this is true of course, it makes any sexual contact at all illegal.  In South Africa, as in New Zealand, it is not possible to give consent if you are so drunk or incapacitated by drugs that your judgment is negatively impacted.  This is tricky in court - how drunk is too drunk? But if someone says what happened to them wasn't what they wanted, and they are so drunk they cannot remember, consent is definitely compromised.

At this point, we also find out that the NZRU see this allegation as "as serious as it gets" with Chief Executive Steve Tew discussing his concerns about Junior All Blacks:

They get an awful lot of advice, and the dangers of being in a foreign country where you put yourself at risk if you make poor decisions and obviously this young man has made a poor decision and he's now dealing with it.

So the "dangers of being in a foreign country" include making "poor decisions" which you have to deal with afterwards.  Too true.  I'm just not sure I've heard forcing someone else to do sexual things they don't want to do described in this way before.

It's clear at this point who we should have sympathy with - and in fact the player concerned is described as "very upset", what with all the danger in the foreign country I guess.

A couple of days later, the player concerned tells the world who he is, and that he's innocent, but that he shouldn't have let the woman alleging rape into his room.  This is interesting, because now we no longer have a sexual assault case hinging on identification.  Perhaps he knew his DNA test was going to positively confirm sexual contact.  Now, this case is all about consent.

The Baby All Black is innocent, he tells us, and he's sorry he invited the woman back to his room, sorry he let down his team-mates, and sorry his family are having a hard time.  He is hoping for a "good outcome" so he can "get on with his life." 

Another article the same day talks about the "pressure cooker" situation players selected to play rugby for New Zealand face, and notes that some players "transgress".  We also start to get character references from neighbours about what a nice bloke the alleged rapist is.

Can you be a "nice bloke" and rape someone?  Of course you can - otherwise we would have far fewer rapes in New Zealand.  They are not all carried out by scary dudes with "Rapist" tatooed on their forehead.  They are mostly carried out by men who do not recognise, or decide not to recognise, when positive consent has NOT been given.  Alcohol is a factor the majority of the time - it makes it harder to resist, makes it easier to overcome internal barriers around over-riding someone else's wishes, and it makes it more likely afterwards that alleging rape will be difficult, precisely because recall will be diminished and people will consider the victim's drinking makes them partially culpable.

I have some prevention tips for the All Blacks, and they are not about danger in foreign countries.  It's time we started preparing our sportsmen to think about their responsibilities as role models for masculinity.  It's time we started openly talking about consent - what it looks like, how you negotiate it - and insisting it is part of every sexual encounter.  And it's time we demand that the All Blacks, our prime brand, representing all of us in Aotearoa New Zealand, understand consent and respectful relating so well that we never hear another rape or domestic violence allegation made against any of them, ever again.

Other countries do it.  The US and Canada provide sexual violence prevention training for male athletes.  So does rugby league in Australia.  It's not good enough for the NZRU to lie, then claim to take seriously, then excuse allegations of sexual violence.  It's not Andy Haden's world anymore.

GUEST POST: Gender based violence and the Pacific Island Forum

On the outskirts of Honiara, quite a drive off the main road, through abandoned cacao plantations and out by the ocean sits the Christian Care Centre; the Solomon Islands’ only refuge for women and children who have experienced violence.

It’s a small facility, run on the smell of an ocean-soaked rag by the formidable Sister Doreen, and staffed by volunteers. It offers women and children who are survivors of physical and sexual violence a place and space to be. The Christian Care Centre works closely with the Family Support Centre and the police to provide legal support; that is, when there is a law to support them. There are no specific domestic violence laws in the Solomons, and gaping holes in other laws which could be used to help protect against violence.

In a country where 64% of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence,* the Christian Care Centre provides an essential service and is always full to capacity. Sister Doreen shared her concern about the inevitability of having to ‘move people on’, only to find them returning a few months later – often following worse injuries.

I spent a day at the Christian Care Centre during a recent visit to Honiara. Sister Doreen and Annie – the Chair of the Centre, and a regular volunteer – showed us around the complex, the main building of which was opened by Dame Silvia Cartwright in 2004.

The grounds were welcoming, the people generous, and I was surprised by the amount of time we spent laughing (though I get the feeling Sister Doreen, Annie and everyone else at the centre laugh a lot). They laughed at me not knowing that pineapples grew on bushes; we laughed as they reenacted Mr Bean sketches – the favourite DVD to play during the hour a day the generator is on; we laughed at the people with good intentions who had sent them the washing machine and dryer that were still in their packaging in a corner of the ‘classroom’ (clearly they’d not understood the limitations of generator power and a lack of running water).

There are a lot of children at the centre. Some of them are there with their mothers; others are there independently, as survivors of violence and sexual abuse. The majority of the time the classroom lacks a teacher. There’s currently a high school teacher who is at the Centre for the second time – she’s just had the stitches taken out of her forehead where her husband hit her so hard it split the skin – and she has been helping in the classroom occasionally.

As the grown-ups talk I’m laughing again, playing air guitar with a boy across the garden who’s rocking out on the casing for a puzzle which has lost its pieces. Soon we’re sitting on the floor and I’m reading a dull book about a worm that eventually figures out the scarf he’s carrying around belongs to him. Before long all the children, and some of the adults, are listening. They are gripped. Another book is brought for me to read, a tatty ‘Life of Winston Churchill’. Followed by ‘Tales of New Zealanders in WWII’, the Jurassic Park movie book, and finally a story about an English woman who went to Africa in the olden days and met cannibals. That’s the whole library.

Later, after the hilarity and the reading, once they’d sussed me out a bit, I hear story after story of violence, rape, and abuses of power.

The only woman at the Centre who hasn’t experienced violence is Sister Doreen. When asked whether any security arrangements are needed for the centre, or if she’s ever been threatened, she cackles ‘Ha! I’m a nun! Nobody would dare.’

I won’t recount the personal stories, or the complex system of compensation (one of the women at the centre was forced to pay compensation for the shame she brought upon her brother-in-law when she refused to have sex with him). Ahead of the 2011 Pacific Island Forum this week, I wanted to use this post to highlight, and possibly remind leaders of the promise they made at the 2009 Pacific Island Forum in Cairns.

In the Cairns Communiqué Pacific leaders acknowledged the high rates of gender-based violence in the region, and committed to eradicating sexual and gender based violence, ensuring that all individuals have equal protection and access to justice. It was the first time the Pacific Island Forum declared sexual and gender-based violence a risk to human security.

Let’s remind them of the commitment they have made. Let’s remind them of the legal reforms necessary to ensure all individuals have equal protection and access to justice. Let’s remind them to develop legislation that works and ensure it’s implemented.

I have also resolved to get some more books for the Christian Care Centre library. I’m thinking Hairy Maclary would be a good start; it’s hard to be worse than Winston Churchill and cannibals.

Branwen Millar works for Family Planning International

* SPC (2009) Solomon Islands Family Health and Safety Study, SPC, Noumea.

Topp Twins in Toronto.

This summer I had the opportunity to see the Top Twins live at Womad.
Their music set was fabulous and had me and all the rest of the crowd laughing, singing along and kicking up our heels to the great music.
But what I really enjoyed was ‘Ken and Ken’,
They did an hour long show on the food stage and their fabulous warm hearted characterization of the typical kiwi bloke was so neat to see live.
My partner had heard me rant about their political awareness work for nuclear-free New Zealand, the bastion point protests, and gay rights. I had tried to explain how most kiwis knew these twins who were gay, and they felt like family.
In essence, anyone with a TV could be educated out of fear of the “otherness” of gay people, by the sheer goodwill and approachability of these women.
I think I told him; “If you don’t love them, there is something missing in your chest cavity.”

He loved them.

After their food show I hovered by the stage hoping just to say hello and get a pic with either Jools or Linda. I was pleasantly surprised that when I approached Linda and she took the time to step away and grab Jules so they could both be in the picture.
I’ve met Zach Braff, Mandy More, Jon Cryer and a bunch of other celebrities and I’ve never felt out of depth.
With the twins I only just managed to stutter out an awkward blushing “I love you both – you are AMAZING” before they saved me from idiocy by making inane chit chat and posing for the photo.
I will treasure that photo forever.
While waiting to say hello, I saw a young woman throw herself at them and gush that they gave her courage to come out, and a heavily pierced woman break down in tears, unable to express exactly why they meant so much to her.
They have impacted an entire country.

I was pleased to see this write up on the Women’s media centre website by Emily Wilson.
An international audience is starting to sit up and take notice of the pair, now that their film “Untouchable Girls” won the audience award at the Toronto film festival.
It’s a shame they aren’t getting tvnz show spots for their shows, because the two of them are both still very keen to work, and it is simply a lack of interest from NZ broadcasters that stands between the NZ audience and them.

I will be very embarrassed if they get better recognition from an international audience than their own home, where they work so hard for their communities.