Strong Voices

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

Michael Holdsworth was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, making him the first person with Down syndrome to receive this honour.

The small Rangitīkei town of Hunterville doesn’t have a lot on offer for a young man at weekends. So it’s understandable if Jeremy Hill-Hayer decides to stay on in Palmerston North to go to a disco rather than travel home to see his parents.

Disabled tertiary students now have a voice on campuses around the country with the birth of the National Disabled Students’ Association (NDSA).

Spearheading the move is Victoria University of Wellington law student Alice Mander, who has drawn together a national executive of disabled student leaders from Otago Polytechnic, the University of Auckland, the University of Canterbury and the University of Otago.

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.

Hamish Gilbert completed a gruelling 100km cycle ride through Hawke’s Bay in gale-force winds as part of his mission to earn gold in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award.

The ‘Adventurous Journey’ section was a three-day hard slog and the third and final requirement for his gold award. Hamish had meticulously planned his route and every detail of the journey. “It was headwinds all the way,” he says. “By the time I arrived home I was very tired. I was very pleased with myself.”

Hidden around Virginia Lake in Whanganui are specially decorated stones designed to intrigue and inform people about a rare genetic syndrome known as cri du chat – or cry of the cat.

They have been hidden by Rachel Dempsey, a local woman who wants to help people understand cri du chat, which affects her and around 20 others in New Zealand.

Actor Lily Harper is riding the wave of success in her first leading role and planning to do it all again in a Wellington season of Up Down Girl at Circa Theatre.

Up Down Girl is about a young woman with Down syndrome getting ready to leave home for the first time and her mother’s hilarious perspective on bringing her up.

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.

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.