Strong Voices

Young Wellington woman Katrina Sneath has found work at a unique hotel in the New South Wales Blue Mountains.

There’s a huge gap at Hirepool in Lower Hutt where Colin Bailey used to work. He’s retired from the Hutt Road branch after more than 30 years on the job.

The Human Rights Review Tribunal and IHC are collecting evidence about the experiences of disabled children in the education system from parents, educators and community groups, ahead of a hearing in that tribunal.

Banks have put even more distance between them and their more vulnerable customers by ending cheques.

This year Dannevirke celebrates a long and special relationship between its indoor bowling clubs and IHC. This is a town that has always said yes to supporting local people with intellectual disabilities.

It all started with Timoti. He wanted to learn to take photographs and his dream expanded to include nine other people and a course with a professional photographer.

Timoti Schweizer-Marunui, who is keen on videography, says he spent most of his time filming “everything” and “everybody” on his tablet.

David Corner has spent 12 years representing people with intellectual disabilities internationally. He has spent 24 years promoting their rights in New Zealand.

But when the bathroom in the house he owns was renovated last year, he didn’t get to choose the paint, or the vinyl that went on the floor.

Just pull the curtains and your lounge becomes a stage. Tear an old white sheet into moonbeams. Then find a soft, fluffy jumper to be The Badger.

Now you are ready to hear, see, touch, taste and smell The Badger Story. This is new digital, multi-sensory theatre delivered online by the Glass Ceiling Arts Collective to people with profound and multiple learning disabilities.

Sarah Holten-Warren is under attack from the degenerative neurological condition Rett syndrome and is fighting back using her eyes and her art to communicate.

Sarah, 27, a Māori mixed-media artist, was one of five artists in the Studio One Toi Tū Creative Studio Residency last year.

Taonga Peita turned four years old in May. He’s probably the youngest social media influencer in New Zealand with 58,000 followers on Facebook.

But a spike a year ago sent him way above that. A video of Taonga singing and jiving to Alicia Keys’ This Girl is on Fire went viral just before lockdown with millions of views. Now every video posted and every milestone Taonga reaches are watched and celebrated by people across the globe.