U3A Ōpāwaho

Mark Soltero is an artist living and working in Ōtautahi, Christchurch. Mark holds an MFA – Dunedin School of Art, a B.Design – Ara Institute of Canterbury and a PGDipTchg, Art & Art History – NZGSE. Mark is a member of Art Associates Aotearoa collective. He was awarded the inaugural Head of School Award for Excellence in Post-Graduate Drawing from the Dunedin School of Art in 2014. He has been a finalist in the National Contemporary Art Awards three times, twice a finalist in the Adam Portraiture Award. Mark has exhibited at the Centre of Contemporary Art (2009, 2018-2019), ArtsPost Waikato Museum (2011), Chambers Art Gallery (2019, 2021, 2023) and Ashburton Art Gallery (2021).

Professor Ryan has a strong national and international research involvement in the sub-disciplines of sports history and the social history of alcohol in New Zealand. He is recognised as a leader in advancing the discipline of sports history in New Zealand and is now developing a similar niche within the history of alcohol. In late 2023 he published a major history of beer and brewing in New Zealand. Prior to that, with a co-author, he published the first substantial academic social history of sport in New Zealand. He is the Managing Editor of The International Journal of the History of Sport and on the editorial boards, and reviews for, other leading international journals. His talk to our U3A will be on the history of alcohol in New Zealand.

Vivienne is a writer, former journalist and consultant in strategic communications. She has recently written 'The Revised History of Nurse Maude: Leading Community Nursing and Homecare in Aotearoa New Zealand from 1896 to 2024'. Vivienne will talk about Sibylla Maude and the extraordinary contribution she made to district nursing in Canterbury. She will also cover the heroic work the Nurse Maude organisation achieved during the Canterbury earthquakes and during Covid and the impact successive governments have had on nursing and public health in general.

Daniel is the Managing Director of ITStuffed, a Christchurch IT consultancy business that focuses on online security. He will speak about internet scams, security online and the things we can individually do, to recognise and reduce our online risk.

On Tuesday 8th April we welcomed Diane Turner. Diane is the Director of the Office for Seniors. 'We are all ageing. It matters to all of us that New Zealand is a place where we have the opportunity to age positively and well.' Diane holds a BSC (Waikato) and an MBA (Massey). She spent two years with CERA as Deputy Chief Executive of Recovery Strategy and then three years with Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. Her address attracted a large audience keen to learn more about the Office and its work. Diane explained her role and that of her 11-member team which is currently working to implement the 'Better Later Life' strategy 2019-2034. The five elements are: Achieving financial security and economic participation, Promoting healthy ageing and improving access to services, Creating diverse housing choices and options, Enhancing opportunities for participation and social connection, Making environments accessible. Diane also talked about the UN designated Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021-2030 and the key components: Combatting ageism, age-friendly environments, integrated care and long-term care. Many of the Office of Seniors' strategies are complementary to the UN's goals.

On Friday 4 April, we welcomed the Minister for the South Island Hon James Meager who gave an address on his portfolio and the work that needs to be done to highlight and promote the southern regions. He was invited by our Current Affairs Group which has a mandate to discuss and debate everything from politics to religion and everything in between. Importantly, the Minister stressed the population gap between north and south and at the same time the level of exports particularly agriculture (including horticulture and viticulture) that come from the south. His 20 minute address included some of the key issues including the poor state of some of the bridges particularly on SH1 and the amount of time it takes when detours are required. Part of his brief is to meet with local authorities and runanga to discuss their issues and what they perceive the solutions to be. His presentation is included in the link below.

This month's speaker is Roger Chapman who will present a pictorial view of what our blood looks like. He trained as a Medical Laboratory Scientist in Pathology at Christchurch Hospital specialising in Haematology. On qualification he worked in Melbourne for 5 years before returning to the private pathology sector in Christchurch working at Medlab South. Later in his career he changed his focus from lab testing to managing lab IT systems. In semi retirement he has provided IT Management services in the Intellectual Disability sector as well as being an Operations Manager for the CDHB during the Covid-19 response. He has been a member at U3A Pegasus with a committee role of IT advisor until the formation of U3A Ōpāwaho.

Christchurch Deputy Mayor, and City Councillor for the Heathcote Ward which covers from Waltham to Taylor’s Mistake. She holds the Council’s Climate Change Portfolio and her areas of interest are sustainability, climate change and enabling communities to connect and strengthen for long term wellbeing and resilience, which in many ways, are the key aspects of U3A.